QMCUR was honoured to attend the celebratory and official launch of The Westminster Centre for Gene Editors of the Future, with a notable delegation of around ten affiliates. The inauguration was a fantastic full-day event featuring insightful talks from the University's leadership team, industry representatives, international collaborators, and students, alongside a celebratory awards ceremony for students receiving their Gene Editors Iteration 5 Basic Certificate Awards.

A heartfelt congratulations to the Gene Editors of the Future on reaching this landmark milestone in democratising cutting-edge science, and a special well done to the incoming students embarking on their exciting journey into gene editing!

During the event, our Partnerships Convenor, Umer Asif, had the privilege of speaking on behalf of QMCUR. He shared our vision of promoting undergraduate research, emphasising our goal to expand our capabilities and enhance opportunities for students.

QMCUR's endorsement continued in the evening with an online talk by Dr Giuseppe Viola, who highlighted the strengths of the Gene Editors Team, the spirit of the initiative, and key milestones in our collaboration. Dr Viola outlined the core values of the Gene Editors initiative, including genuineness, humbleness, grace, inclusivity, and technical competence, among others. He also emphasised the shared principles driving our partnership: early research-based education, a rejection of hierarchical learning in favour of flat structures, and the removal of barriers to student development. The overarching ethos is to consider students as potential peer researchers.

We are immensely proud of our growing partnership with the Gene Editors of the Future. Our collaboration is already thriving; we organise joint events, exchange ideas and experiences, tackle challenges, and offer each other emotional support. Yet, we will strive for our synergy to grow with increasing intensity and interactions.

We thank the Gene Editors of the Future for their kind invitation. We wish them a healthy, happy, and long-lasting success, and we are confident they will make a profound impact in gene editing and healthcare.

We look forward to our continued collaboration and gratefully thank all QMCUR students who attended the event and honoured this inauguration!