THE EUROPEAN Respiratory Society (ERS) International Congress is the world’s largest gathering of respiratory professionals, with over 300 speakers and more than 500 chairs. This year’s congress was planned to take place in Barcelona, Spain; however, for the second year running, the ERS congress occurred virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With guidelines advising against large gatherings and many respiratory professionals being frontline workers, this was the best option, and the silver lining of the virtual congress is that all sessions can be replayed by attendees until December this year.

Bringing together a collection of the most forward-thinking approaches to lung disease, the European Respiratory Society (ERS) International Congress 2021 hosted a virtual session on imaging biomarkers. Four insightful presentations discussed the shift towards more longitudinal imaging approaches for lung disease and provided an overview of quantitative analyses with computer-trained algorithms. Alongside this was a discussion of the use of novel biomarkers such as pleuroparenchymal fibroelastosis.

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As a medical student in Edinburgh, I was inspired by the opportunities in Edinburgh to combine clinical and basic science research in respiratory medicine.

I have always been incredibly interested in science and in trying to understand how things work. My first degree was in natural sciences at Cambridge, UK, where I specialised in neurobiology, and this exposed me to the beauty and rigor of basic science.