International Toxin Talks (ITT) 

is a speaker series dedicated to promoting and sharing the work of early career researchers (ECRs) in toxinology from around the globe. ITT began in the summer of 2020 by volunteer scientists from the Centre for Snakebite Research and Interventions (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine), who saw there was a need for a dedicated platform for toxinology ECRs to share their work and network with other scientists, particularly for those completing research in lower- to middle-income countries (LMICs). Traditional in-person conferences are often prohibitively expensive for researchers from LMICs; therefore, ITT was set up to be a free online platform to enable as many researchers as possible to access it, regardless of their location or finances. The online setting also brings with it a high degree of flexibility so that all time zones can be included.

Instead of one large annual conference, ITT’s approach is to hold a series of hour-long seminars throughout the year comprised of short presentations by toxinology ECRs. While the organisation is still young, we have managed to host talks from presenters from South America to Australia, with talk topics including developing new drugs from spider venoms, developing new treatments for snakebite, or increasing our understanding of how jellyfish venom works. We are also very happy with how readily our small organisation has been accepted into the greater toxinology community, having accrued hundreds of followers on our social media accounts and being asked by the International Society on Toxinology (IST) to help with future IST events for ECRs.

If you are interested in all things toxin and would like to keep up to date on what is happening with ITT or the toxinology community, please follow our Twitter account (@ToxinTalks), and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us (inttoxintalks@gmail.com).