The Central Bank Center is alive and bustling with close to 1,300 people, many young students donning white lab coats. It's a rare and valuable chance for them to present their work and get real-time feedback from professionals.
One of them is Philip Kern, co-director of the UK Center for Clinical and Translational Science. He says medical discoveries sometimes make headlines but don't show up at the doctor's office.
"Ultimately we have to figure out is this even relevant to humans, and will this actually make it into the marketplace and end up with a drug or treatment of some kind," he says.
It's already complicated business. But now there's a whole new variable — AI.
"AI is, at the same time, both scary and exciting," Kern says. "It's exciting because of all the new things we can do and young people, like these high school students, are using AI all the time. Even if they don't know it, they're doing it."
Cody Bumgardner works with AI at the UK College of Medicine. He says one area where the technology is showing promise in this space is allowing experts in different specialized areas to communicate. He describes it as a "universal translator."
"If I'm speaking to biologist, they have to explain enough of their information to where, as a computer scientist, I can help them solve the problem. I can speak computer science to an (AI) model and have it explain the way a biologist can understand and vice versa," Bumgardner says.
It's a fast-changing landscape, one that's already reshaping aspects of this long-running conference.
For anyone interested in taking part in clinical research, visit ukclinicalresearch.com.