December 2005

It wasn’t all work at “Biology at Work”“Biology at Work”, the seventh International EMBL PhD Student Symposium, was held on 1–3December in Heidelberg. Attending were around 150 participants from 29 countries, representing 34nationalities. An audience of PhD students and other young researchers interested in broadening theirhorizons got a chance to meet experts from a wide range of fields and engage in no-holds-barred dis-cussions on the applications of current research. page 3

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Newsletter of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory

EMBL&ceteraDraft EMBL Programme 2007–2011 presented to CouncilThe shape of things to come was the main topic of the November Council meeting with EMBL DG IainMattaj’s presentation of the first draft of the EMBL Programme 2007-2011 and the accompanyingIndicative Scheme (budgetary plan). The ground was prepared by the Strategic Forward Look 2006-2015, written by Iain and former DG Fotis Kafatos under the guidance of a committee established byEMBL Council. This long-term strategy was approved in 2003 by Council and served as a blueprint todefine the major themes for the Programme. page 2

On 16 November EMBL-Hamburg inaugurated Europe’s largest high-throughput crystallisationfacility, an important addition to the services that the Outstation offers to researchers in the EMBLmember states. In his remarks, DG Iain Mattaj emphasised the importance of combining modernhigh-throughput technologies with continued improvements in synchrotron sources underEMBL’s expanded plan for systems biology in the upcoming years. page 4

Setting standardsfor systems biologyat the EBI5 8 9

New faces onAlumni Associationboard

Grenoble opensdoors to expertsand the public

High-throughput facility inaugurated in Hamburg

Recipe for successat the EBIIs eating 100g of raw turnip fromFinland really twice as healthy as eat-ing 100g from the US or Canada andnearly three times as healthy as thesame amount from Denmark? Youmay soon find out at the EBI website.Researchers from 21 countries and 40organisations, including the EBI, havelaunched a five-year project calledEuropean Food Information ResourceNetwork to build and disseminate acomprehensive database of food com-position data in Europe. page 4

Kafatos named Chairman of ERC CouncilFotis C. Kafatos has been elected Chairman of the future European Research Council(ERC) by its newly nominated Scientific Council. The 22 founding members of theCouncil were appointed last July by European Commissioner for Science Janez Potocnik;Fotis’ election followed a procedure agreed on at their inaugural meeting in October. Ata meeting of the Initiative for Science in Europe (ISE) held at UNESCO in Paris inNovember, Fotis and other members of the Council presented their vision of future activi-ties. The ISE was launched about three years ago by the ELSF (EMBL, EMBO and FEBS)and several other organisations. It has provided a platform for scientists to voice their opin-ions on the establishment of the ERC. Rapid progress is being made towards that goal; theEU hopes to launch the ERC in connection with its next Framework Programme (FP7).

page 3

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Draft EMBL Programme presented to CouncilThe shape of things to come was the main

topic of the November Council meetingwith EMBL DG Iain Mattaj’s presentation ofthe first draft of the EMBL Programme 2007-2011 and the accompanying Indicative Scheme(budgetary plan).

The Programme has been formulated withextensive input and support from internal andexternal sources such as the EMBL heads ofunits, faculty members and coordinators ofservices, training, outreach and technologytransfer activities. Regular evaluations ofEMBL units by SAC also provided crucialinput. The ground was prepared by theStrategic Forward Look 2006-2015, written byIain and former DG Fotis Kafatos under theguidance of a committee established by EMBLCouncil. This long-term strategy was approvedin 2003 by Council and served as a blueprint todefine the major themes for the Programme.

EMBL’s value to the member states. Iain setthe scene by highlighting EMBL’s strengths.The institute is a recognised success in all areasof activity, from basic molecular biologyresearch to the provision of research services tomember states, the development of technolo-gies and instrumentation, technology transfer,and advanced training. EMBL’s participation inmore than 60 EU-funded networks reveals itsimportance as a node for integrating Europeanresearch. Its leading role in European molecularbiology is confirmed by a survey of publicationsfrom 1992-2002 conducted by ISI.

EMBL services in bioinformatics and struc-tural biology are unique in Europe. EMBL hasbeen the leading provider of synchrotron radi-ation to life scientists for three decades. Theintegration of technology platforms within thePartnership for Structural Biology (PSB) inGrenoble and the planned Integrated Centrefor Structural Biology in Hamburg will helpmaintain this leadership. In January EMBLGrenoble will celebrate the opening of a thefirst European centre to integrate the entirespectrum of structural biology technologies, ajoint facility with the ILL, ESRF, IBS and theInstitut de Virologie Moléculaire Structurale.

EMBL Hamburg is also involved in a majorupgrade of its facilities for structural biology;the proposed construction of PETRA-III willprovide a new quality of beamlines for struc-tural biology on the EMBL-Hamburg/DESY

site. PETRA III construction will start in 2007,aiming to begin operations in 2009, hopefullywith the German ministry for education andresearch financing most of EMBL’s share inbeamline design and construction.

The European Bioinformatics Institute(EMBL-EBI) is widely recognized as theEuropean hub for biomolecular databases, asthe European repository for biomolecular dataand the partner for global collaborations withsimilar organisations in the USA and Japan.Data resources served through the EBI’s web-site are accessed more than 2.5 million timesevery day. The amount of biological data willcontinue to grow exponentially; developingand maintaining the most important dataresources will require a growth in the EBI from265 employees today to at least 400 employeesby 2011. The Wellcome Trust, UKMRC andBBSRC have already agreed to help EMBL funda new extension to the EBI building. EMBL-EBI is currently only 50% funded by EMBL; therest comes from the British Research Councils,industry and grants from the EU (22%) and theNIH. More stable funding of EMBL-EBI is nec-essary in the future and Council has been askedto contribute up to 65% to EBI’s budget in thefuture. EMBL is also exploring the possibility ofobtaining more stable funding from the EU.

Cutting edge services can only be provided ifbasic research and technology developmentdrive innovative approaches and new tech-niques. Alongside synchrotron radiation tech-niques, biomolecular databases and software,key developments have been made in areassuch as imaging using light and electronmicroscopy. EMBL’s technology transfer arm,EMBLEM, holds more than 200 patents andpatent applications and has helped to set upeight spin-out companies.

Advanced training has been a core missionsince the beginning and each year EMBL trains170 pre-doctoral students, hosts 2,000 facilityusers and 1,000 visitors, trains 190 postdoctoralfellows and 75 group leaders, most of whom willreturn to a member state upon leaving EMBL.More than 3,000 alumni form a unique networkof researchers in Europe and the world.

Highlights of the Programme. The generalscientific strategy will be to build on EMBL’sstrengths: the collaborative culture and excel-lent basic research, and to integrate existing

disciplines to pursue systems biology.Investments in new technologies such as chem-ical biology and high-throughput instrumenta-tion are required, and the computing infra-structure needs to be improved to support theintegration of computational biology through-out EMBL. The core facilities established underthe last EMBL Programme already supportinterdisciplinarity by supplying equipment andexpertise to individual groups, and this suc-cessful model will be continued. EMBL Centresare proposed as a way to promote ambitiousinterdisciplinary approaches and Iain empha-sised how such critical horizontal activities thatreach all parts of EMBL will be to the future ofsystems biology.

An area in which EMBL has alreadyincreased its efforts is disease-related research.While all the Units of the laboratory areengaged in such efforts, the mouse is growingin importance as a model for research intohuman disease. The Monterotondo Outstationhas steadily established itself as a highly-regarded international centre within themouse biology community. The new Centrefor Disease Mechanisms will draw theOutstation together with other EMBL groups,working both with the mouse and in other sys-tems, to further promote basic research relatedto disease throughout the Laboratory.

The new EMBL International Centre forAdvanced Training (EICAT) will integrate thehighly-successful EMBL International PhDProgramme with the new postdoc programme,vocational training for scientific and non-sci-entific staff, the teacher training facility of theEuropean Learning Laboratory for the LifeSciences (ELLS) and courses, conferences andworkshops. EMBL has hosted more than10,000 participants in the past five years atmeetings that it has helped organise, many ofthem with EMBO support. Currently trainingand conference activities are constrained byspace; thus Council has agreed to the construc-tion of a new multi-purpose building inHeidelberg with considerable financial back-ing from Germany. Alternative scenarios arenow being discussed including a state of the artadvanced training centre, including confer-ence facilities, made possible by a generousoffer of support from a local foundation.

(cont. next page)

EMBL&cetera • December 2005 • page 2

What else was decided at the Council meeting?

• Croatia will become the 19th member state ofEMBL once the formal ratification processhas been completed.

• New SAC appointments are AnnaTramontana (Genomics & Bioinformatics)and Hiroaki Kitano (Systems Biology).

• All chairs and vice-chairs of Council and the

Finance Committee have been re-elected.Eero Vuorio will serve another year as chairof EMBL Council.

• EMBL Allowances are reviewed on a regularbasis by the Working Group on Term andConditions of Employment, which makes rec-ommendations about changes for Councilapproval to ensure alignment of salary condi-tions over different sites of European inter-governmental organisations with respect to

the host country costs. Council supports thispolicy and did not agree to the introductionof a site-specific allowance. In the case ofchildcare at the EBI, EMBL will make allefforts to ensure that sufficient childcare pro-vision continues at a cost comparable to localrates.

• Long term care insurance will begin next year(see page 12).

EMBL&cetera • December 2005 • page 3

It wasn’t all work at “Biology at Work” Virtually all of the new EMBL PhD studentsattended, fulfilling one of the event’s major aims:to stimulate interaction between young andmore experienced researchers. An animated, ifoccasionally “hot-headed”, panel discussion cov-ered topics such as the motivation to alwaysmention the applications of basicresearch with respect to obtaininggrants and the influence of societalviews on scientific progression.

We would like to extend ourappreciation to our understandinggroup leaders, as well as to everyonewho helped make the threedays a success. We sin-cerely hope that nextyear’s sympo-sium will beas success-ful andwill moti-vate even moreof EMBL’sy o u n gresearchers toattend.

– The OrganisingCommittee

Kafatos named Chairman of ERC Council

Fotis C. Kafatos has been elected Chairmanof the future European Research Council

(ERC) by the newly nominated ScientificCouncil. The 22 founding members of theCouncil, were appointed last July by EuropeanCommisioner for Science Janez Potocnik;Fotis’ election followed a procedure agreed attheir inaugural meeting in October. HelgaNowotny and Daniel Estève, were electedVice-Chairs.

Fotis and other members of the Council pre-sented their vision of the future at a meeting ofthe Initiative for Science in Europe (ISE) held atUNESCO in Paris in November. The ISE waslaunched about three years ago by ELSF (EMBL,EMBO and FEBS) and several other organisa-tions. It has provided a platform for Europeanscientists to voice their opinions on the estab-lishment of the ERC. 220 participants attendedthe November meeting.

EU budget negotiations are still underway,but the Council’s goal is to start with a reducedbudget and to increase the annual budget to onebillion euros after the first year. Many questionsremain to be addressed, including whetherfunding will be given mostly to younger scien-tists or established teams. The criterion forfunding will be scientific excellence. An evalua-tion of the ERC is planned after three years. ISEwill maintain its interest in the establishmentand operation of the ERC.

The issue of Research Infrastructures is high-ly important to ensure Europe’s competitive-

ness in science and is one of the main topicsunder discussion. John Wood, chairman ofESFRI (European Strategy Forum on ResearchInfrastructures) explained how the committeeplans to establish a roadmap for futureEuropean research infrastructures. Robert-JanSmits, Head of Directorate B at DG Research,presented plans for funding research infrastruc-tures in FP7. Achilleas Mitsos, Director Generalfor Research, had already provided insights intothe budget negotiations in his welcome addressto the ISE delegates. The UK presidency willmost likely make a proposal that is slightly high-er than an earlier one made by Luxembourg. Ifthis is approved, the EC will be able to fund apreparatory phase for all infrastructures thathave made it onto the opportunities list in theprogramme for FP7. However only a few proj-ects are likely to receive EU funding beyond thatpreparatory phase, including databases.

Another topic concerned the new instru-ments under FP7. Commission representativespresented in some detail how they see theimplementation of the various initiatives andspecific programmes that will be launched withFP7. For more, see www.cordis.lu/fp7

An interview with Fotis Kafatos following hisnomination appears in Nature (www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7069/full/438723a.html). See www.initiative-science-europe.orgfor more about the ISE.

For more information about the ERC, seewww.cordis.lu/fp7/ideas.htm

Admittedly, the grounds at EMBL-Heidelberg have been a bit of a building

site lately. But when red triangle “hazard”signs began to appear indoors, too, theycaused even more confusion.

However, these referred to “Biology atWork”; not just the day-to-day type occurringat EMBL, but the 7th International EMBL PhDStudent Symposium held on 1–3 December.

Though we’re working in a basic researchlaboratory, we are also fascinated by the dailyapplications of biology. The symposiumfocused on the applications of science indiverse areas like food production, pharma-ceuticals, evolutionary studies, environmentalissues, neurobiology and health care.

Thanks to a Marie Curie Actions grantobtained by last year’s organising committeeto support the conference for another threeyears, this year’s symposium was organised bya core group of eleven predoc students, repre-senting all of the EMBL units.

The aim was to bring together participantsfrom diverse areas of biology to promote com-munication between students and established

scientists from around the globe and give themthe opportunity to discuss science in a relaxedatmosphere. Attending the symposium werearound 150 participants from 29 countries,representing 34 nationalities.

The target audience was open-minded PhDstudents and other young researchers interest-ed in broadening their horizons beyond theirown research speciality.

A distinguishing feature of the symposiumwas its broad focus and diverse range of speak-ers. Ingo Potrykus (ETH Zürich) talked about‘Golden Rice’; Bobby Gaspar (UniversityCollege London) discussed gene therapy, andPascal Lee (SETI Institute and NASA AmesResearch Centre) introducing us to extrater-restrial life. The speakers were terrific, givingstimulating talks accessible to everyone; theywere eager to participate in all symposiumactivities and were a dream for the organisingcommittee to work with. We even had thepleasure of an impromptu, entertaining song,composed and sung by one of the speakers,Ron Laskey of the University of Cambridge(pictured).

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continued from page 2External integration with the member states

will be increased through the activities of theAlumni Association, EMBLEM, EMBL part-nerships, the EIROforum and outreach activi-ties. EMBL will continue its very popularscheme that helps share expertise and establishpartner institutes in EMBL member statesalong the EMBL model. Four partnershipshave been established so far and several othersinvolving institutions in Spain, France, the UKand the Nordic countries are being discussed,mostly in scientific areas that are complemen-tary to EMBL and which offer excellent collab-orative opportunities to EMBL scientists.

Over the past five years, outreach and com-munication have become essential compo-nents of EMBL’s activities. Both the highlysuccessful Science and Society Programme andteacher training organised by ELLS will becontinued in close collaboration with EMBO.Public relations will include the publication ofannual reports, newsletters and press releases,participation in conferences and exhibits aswell as visits and open houses. With theEIROforum partners we will continue “Scienceon Stage” and participate jointly in other out-reach events such as ESOF 2006.

In his final remarks on the Programme, Iainemphasised administrative issues including aplan to make voluntary long-term care insur-ance available to staff members (page 12),updates of the human resources personnelsoftware and the continued refurbishment ofthe main lab.

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EMBL&cetera • December 2005 • page 4

On 16 November the Hamburg Outstationtook a major leap with the services it pro-

vides with the opening of Europe’s largesthigh-throughput crystallisation facility.

The resource was officially opened on theDESY/EMBL-Hamburg site in the presence ofJürgen Roemer-Mähler of the German FederalMinistry of Education and Research (BMBF),Josefina Enfedaque of the EuropeanCommission and Roland Salchow, representa-tive of the city council of Freie und HansestadtHamburg.

Iain Mattaj delivered a speech emphasisingthe importance of modern high-throughputtechnologies together with continuedimprovements in synchrotron resources forthe future challenges in the life sciences. High-throughput facilities are a critical area ofEMBL’s expanded plan for systems biology inthe draft EMBL Programme (see page 2).

The official ceremony was followed by aone-day workshop on macromolecular crys-tallisation on 17 November. More than 60 par-ticipants from 16 nations attended the event,which consisted of demonstrations of the latestmethods and techniques and lectures fromworld-leading crystallographers from Europeand the US, including EMBL-Hamburg’s

Josefina Enfedaque, Jürgen Roemer-Mähler, Iain Mattaj and Edgar Weckert (HASYLab) make it official

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Manfred Weiss and José Márquez fromEMBL-Grenoble.

Participants were also offered the chance tobring along protein samples from their ownlaboratories to experience the services offeredby the facility themselves. Many took advan-tage of this opportunity, and following theevent the high-throughput crystallisation facil-ity team was busy setting up the 32 samples.

The automation of each step in the process is

just one of the facility’s innovations. The work-shop proved that the resource is capable of set-ting up 100 plates (10,000 experiments) perday, and it has the capacity to store and image10,000 crystallisation plates. In addition, userswill be able to monitor the progress of theircrystals from their own computers.

From 2006, the high-throughput facility willbecome accessible to the general user commu-nity. – Jochen Müller-Dieckmann

New initative for food composition data is a recipe for success

Aturnip is a turnip is a turnip, right? Youmight think so, but if the figures are to be

believed, eating 100g of raw turnip fromFinland is twice as healthy as eating 100g fromthe US or Canada and nearly three times ashealthy as eating the same amount fromDenmark.

Each of these countries, like about 150 oth-ers, maintains a food information resource toprovide information on the nutritional com-position of foods. These provide values for theamount of energy, protein, fat, vitamins andminerals that a food item contains, based onchemical analyses that are carried out in ana-lytical laboratories or derived, in the case ofcomposite foods, from the nutrient composi-tion of ingredients.

In some circumstances, though, differentnutrient values are given for the same food – inthe turnip’s case, for example, levels of vitaminC are given as 39.7mg, 21mg and 16mg per100g for Finland, the US and Denmark respec-tively.

Such variations can be attributed to manyfactors; the selenium content of cereals varies

depending on the selenium content of the soil,for example, or values for beef might be basedon one particular cut of meat from one partic-ular breed of cow.

Whatever the reason, the variations havebecome a hindrance to effective collaborationbetween national database compilers, end-users of the data and policy makers based indifferent countries. For example, extensivelong-term studies are underway across Europeto look at correlations between diet and differ-ent types of cancer; however, the inconsisten-cy in the data in food composition tables makecomparisons difficult.

Now that’s set to change. On 11 October,researchers from 21 countries and 40 organi-sations, including the EBI, launched a five-year project called EuroFIR (European FoodInformation Resource Network), designed tobuild and disseminate a comprehensive,coherent and validated databank to serve as asingle, authoritative source of food composi-tion data in Europe for nutrients, and fornewly emerging bioactive compounds withpotential health benefits.

The EBI’s involvement in EuroFIR is to col-laborate in the internet development anddeployment of EuroFIR databank systems.Existing datasets are rather separate nationalefforts, with varying levels of funding, techni-cal support and accessibility. As well as work-ing on common XML data specifications, andexploring the role of SOAP-based web servicesto enable distributed access to the nationaldatasets, the EBI will demonstrate a prototypeimplementation using the Sequence RetrievalSystem (SRS) as a way of rapidly deployingdata from different sources in a common web-accessible query environment.

The EBI also hopes to exploit opportunitiesto connect the food composition data to otherbioinformatics resources. The ChemicalEntities of Biological Interest (ChEBI) data-base (www.ebi.ac.uk/chebi) is a dictionary of“small molecular entities”, which includesvitamins and enzymes, and could includemore of the specific food components andbecome a reference for EuroFIR.

Further details about EuroFIR can be foundat www.eurofir.net

A cause forcelebration

EMBL&cetera • December 2005 • page 5

Left to right: Martin Walsh demonstrates the BM14 beamline to Rolando Pérez (CIM), Ariel Felipe,scientific attaché, Carlos Rodriguez (IMRE) and Fidel Castro Díaz-Balart.

Staff at the EBI who want to make themost of working in a pan-European

environment alongside their 23 Germancolleagues can now partake of freeGerman lessons provided by ScientificTraining Officer Lisa Mullan.

Lisa, who taught English in Nurembergfor seven years before joining the EBI,began offering the lunchtime courses inGerman after several staff membersexpressed an interest in better communi-cation with their German colleagues – ortheir German spouses. Beginners as wellas those needing a refresher course are allwelcome.

“For Christmas we’re planning aMurder Mystery evening with Glühweinand Stollen,” says Lisa. “I’ll definitelycarry on the lessons next year.”

You don’t have to be at the EBI to takepart, either. Check out Lisa’s lessonsonline at www.ebi.ac.uk/training/inter-nal/courses, and don’t forget to takeadvantage of EMBL’s language trainingsubsidy at all sites; see www.embl.org/s t a f f o n l y / p e r s o n n e l / f o r m s . h t m l #language for details.

Lisa’s Language Learning Tips:

• Buy a good grammar book and work your way through it.

• Try to learn three new words every day.

• Write the names of householdthings on Post-It notes andstick them to the items theyrefer to.

Ich bin ein Hinxtoner selves. Darren Hart showed how robotics arebeing used for high-throughput protein expres-sion and José Márquez led the guests throughthe protein crystallisation laboratories. Therewas also a visit to the synchrotron beamlineBM14 that EMBL runs together with the UK-MRC Team (headed by Martin Walsh), ademonstration of protein crystal handlingusing the EMBL developed sample changer andmicro-diffractometer devices by FlorentCipriani.

The day ended with a visit to the ILL neutronsource and the dedicated crystal-growingdevice Monika Budayova-Spano is developingwithin the Neutron Group.

From the numerous questions the delegationasked, the visit appeared to be much appreciat-ed, and different opportunities for possiblefuture collaboration are under discussion.

– Hassan Belrhali

Grenoblegoes global...On 13 October EMBL-Grenoble hosted a

scientific delegation from Cuba, led byFidel Castro Díaz-Balart, ScientificConsultant of the Cuban government (andbefore you ask, yes, he is a relation). Thegroup, which comprised directors from lead-ing research institutes and the scientificattaché of the Cuban Embassy in France,toured the ESRF (European SynchrotronRadiation Facility) and the GrenobleOutstation.

First, Stephen Cusack summarised theresearch activities of the Grenoble groups, andthen the guests saw the laboratory for them-

...and opens its doors to those closer to home

On 7–9 October, the Grenoble Outstationtook part in the city’s Fête de la Science

with a joint EMBL/ESRF/ILL stand, whichwas visited by about 16,500 people duringthe sunny three-day weekend devoted topromoting communication between scien-tists and the general public, including a dayspecifically aimed at school pupils.

Part of a wider national programme, whichinvolves other such institutes in other regionswith open days and fairs, the Grenobleweekend offered a good opportunity for thethree research institutes to demonstrate howthey work together – and to show the public

what really goes on at the PolygoneScientifique.

The stand focused on structural biology,explaining that, thanks to the diffractiontechniques used at the ESRF and ILL, scien-tists can look into the core of proteins to dis-cover the secrets of their structure.

Fifty colleagues from the three institutesexplained their work using models. Visitorscould manipulate a laser set-up explainingdiffraction, observe protein crystals throughmicroscopes and explore the inside of a pro-tein wearing stereo-polarised glasses.

– Hassan Belrhali

EMBL is always open to interested visi-tors, and on 8 November, 16 Italian

journalists made their way from Rome,Milan and Bologna to meet the communi-ty at EMBL-Hamburg. The visit was led bythe vice-president of the EuropeanAssociation of Science Journalists(EUSJA), Hans-Joachim Neubert, andstemmed from his interest in the BIOX-HIT project.

Manfred Weiss gave a lecture about theoverall mission of EMBL as a whole, mov-ing on to talk about the world of synchro-tron radiation, 3D structures, diffractionexperiments and structure determinationand their practical applications. As well asBIOXHIT, he introduced other majorEMBL-Hamburg projects including X-MTB and the PETRA-III collaborationwith DESY.

There’s usually a lot of coming and going atEMBL, but November saw the departure

of one of the Lab’s very first founding employ-ees, Gene Expression secretary ChristinaKjaer. Here she shares some of her thirty yearsof memories of EMBL before embarking on anexotic holiday.How long have you been at EMBL?

I started in July 1975, so 30 years and sevenmonths ago, before EMBL was even built. Atfirst we were spread out in different loca-tions – I was down in Heidelberg’s Altstadt,while others were in office space in the MaxPlanck Institute. Before we moved into our new building in1978, we were in a building where theKinderhaus is now, and we stayed there fora year.

What was EMBL like in the early days?It was like a small community – everybodyknew everybody else. There were only a fewscientists and a few people in administrationin 1975. There are only two people still atEMBL who were here before me – AnneWalter, who came in January 1975, andFrieda Glöckner.

How has your job changed over the years?I’ve been moving a lot, from one departmentto another. For 18 and a half years I was inadministration, and then in March 1993 Icame to Gene Expression. Within adminis-tration I had lots of different roles andworked with many different people, but the

most enjoyable part has been the last fewyears I’ve spent in Gene Expression.Of course, another thing is that technologyhas changed so much over the years. Whenwe started we just had a typewriter and hadto make copies of things with carbon paper.I wouldn’t want to go back to that! The language of the lab also changed. In the

first ten years or so, papers were publishedin German and other languages, like French.Now everything is done in English.

What particular memories of EMBL will youtake away with you?

For me the best part was that it was a veryvaried job. It was very exciting because I wasable to work with people from all the differ-ent departments. In the early days therewere not enough people to do everything asthe lab got bigger, so we took on jobs forother departments and got involved in pret-ty much everything – even technical andbuilding maintenance issues. But I’ll alsoremember the parties. There have been lotsof parties!

What will you miss most?The international environment. I lovedbeing able to work with people from all overthe world. And this turnover all the time; it’ssad when nice people leave, but they’realways replaced by new nice people! And Ihold the life scientists in very high esteem.They have such a hard job, yet they’re alwaysvery kind. I’ve had nothing but good experi-ences working with them.

What are your plans for retirement?First I’m going to be touring India for threemonths! Then when I come back I’ll resumemy piano playing, do my gardening andmaybe some voluntary work; and I’ll be backhere often to visit friends. It’s such a greatatmosphere; I’m very sad to leave.

EMBL&cetera • December 2005 • page 6

Christina hands over the reins after three decades at EMBL-Heidelberg

Stem cells go public at Communicating European Research conference

Stem cells offer great promise for the field ofregenerative medicine, as researchers dis-

cover the mechanisms by which the body usesthem to replace damaged or diseased tissue.They have also been the subject of considerablesocial controversy. So when scientists frominstitutes throughout Europe (includingEMBL’s Monterotondo Outstation) drew upplans for an integrated project calledEuroStemCell, they decided to include a majorcommunications and outreach component.This fit perfectly with the EuropeanCommission’s desire to see researchers make agreater effort to present their work to the pub-lic. Journalists, politicians, scientists and manyothers got a look at the first results at the con-ference on “Communicating EuropeanResearch” sponsored by the Commission inBrussels on 14–15 November.

“This communications initiative started withthe scientists, who saw the integrated projectstructure as a unique opportunity to incorpo-rate communications and outreach activities ina scientific project,” says Kate Doherty, the pro-ject’s communications and outreach officer.

“Our goals are to facilitate collaboration andcommunication within a diverse scientificcommunity and also to engage the public in theproject. We’re using several mechanisms toaccomplish this. The project includes trainingactivities for scientists and clinicians, aiming tofamiliarise them with technologies and the var-ious aspects of stem cell research, includingethical issues.”

Other efforts are directed at the general pub-lic. At the CER conference, Kate and her col-leagues presented a rough version of a DVDaimed to give high-school students an intro-duction to stem cell research. “We decided todevelop this project collaboratively, with agroup of independent filmmakers, so that thescientists could tell their own story. The filmwas made to be accessible to a broad generalaudience, people with no prior knowledge ofthe topic, and we think it will also be useful forpatient groups and many others,” she says.“The conference was beneficial because wereceived very useful feedback and some goodideas about how to distribute the DVDthroughout Europe.”

Clips should be available early next year onthe project’s website at www.eurostemcell.org.There you will also be able to order a copy ofthe DVD and find out about other dimensionsof the project, from scientific results to stem cellevents. These include public meetings, work-shops on the ethical dimensions of stem cellresearch and numerous activities for basic andclinical researchers. To find out more you canalso talk to Claus Nerlov and LilianaMinichiello, whose groups in Monterotondoare participating in the scientific and trainingactivities.

“The purpose of the meetings and summerschools is to prepare the ground, to build thefoundations for regenerative medicine,” Katesays. “EuroStemCell researchers are developingnew methods and technologies to understandthe properties of different types of stem cellsand their therapeutic potential, and those haveto be communicated to both the clinical andresearch communities. As that happens, we’lldo everything we can to engage the public inthe process.”

from regular contact with their communitiesthrough many channels including annualmeetings, networking events and professionaldevelopment opportunities.

While EMBO’s commitment to these com-munities remains strong, it also recognises theneed to support these groups in the verticalsense by focusing on specific research areas.Targeted initiatives include EMBO sectoralmeetings, courses and workshops, the EMBOconference series and the new online open-access journal, Molecular Systems Biology(www.molecularsystemsbiology.com).

Since 1999, EMBO sectoral meetings havebrought EMBO members together to discusstrends and perspectives within particularresearch communities. This direct interactionenables detailed discussion on the researchambitions of specific areas and how EMBOcan help to support these goals. Communitiesthat have participated in past meetings cover abroad spectrum – neurobiology, plant biology,microbiology, computational biology,immunology and molecular medicine.

Follow-up meetings help to strengthenthese communities and often identify particu-lar research areas that require more targetedattention. One example is the EMBOMolecular Medicine Series, which concen-trates on specific diseases. The next meeting,in May 2006, will focus on breast cancer(breastcancer.embo.org). The aim is to

encourage practical dialogue betweenresearchers and clinicians and find effectiveways of moving discoveries from the lab to theclinic.

EMBO courses, workshops and conferencesalso provide a forum for sustained dialogue ona wide range of topics. In particular, theEMBO conference series provides a catalystfor long-term collaboration among communi-ties in Europe and the rest of the world(www.embo.org/courses_workshops). Fund-ing is granted for a series of three conferencesover a six-year period, often alternating withrelated meetings held in the USA.

EMBO also serves vertical research commu-nities through its journals. The EMBO Journaland EMBO reports cover all areas whileMolecular Systems Biology specifically address-es the needs of the systems biology communi-ty, helping to set standards in this emergingfield. An online feedback forum also stimu-lates discussion by encouraging readers tocomment on the theoretical and experimentalaspects of published papers.

Supporting strong and effective researchcommunities requires investment and com-mitment. It is only by providing this type ofindividual attention to specific communitiesthat EMBO can continue to identify, predictand react to the needs of European molecularbiology research.

– Anne Seller & Lindsay Johnson

the

cornerStrengthening research communitiesScientists become part of a research communitybased on shared interests, but what makes themremain in that community? What keeps a com-munity resilient, interactive and sustainable?EMBO recognises that a successful researchcommunity needs to do two things – encour-age interactions between its members and pro-mote progress in its research area. The organ-isation therefore supports communities fromtwo angles – both horizontally and vertically.Activities supporting horizontal communitiesencourage scientists to network across differ-ent research areas and career levels, while ini-tiatives targeting vertical communities addressspecific fields.

Those who follow EMBO’s activities closelywill already be aware of its horizontal commu-nities. EMBO members, fellows and younginvestigators represent highly diverse researchareas across all fields of molecular biology.Individuals in each of these groups benefit

EMBL&cetera • December 2005 • page 7

The MRC VIP comes to EMBL-Heidelberg

Chief Executive of the Medical ResearchCouncil (MRC) Colin Blakemore was

EMBL’s VIP on 18 November. He wasaccompanied by Dr. Mike Davies, BoardProgramme Manager of the MRC’sMolecular & Cellular Medicine researchboard and EMBL’s UK Council delegate.

Professor Blakemore was given a presen-tation about EMBL and a tour of the CoreFacilities, and gave a seminar on interactionof genes and environment in the develop-ment and function of the cerebral cortex.

This autumn EMBLEM presented EMBLtechnologies to international audiences at

two major Biotech events: Biotechnica Hann-over in October, Germany’s largest Biotechno-logy fair, and Medica Düsseldorf in November.Products such as the “Mini-Incubator” (anincubator which allows scientists to observecells for several hours under the microscope)as well as other new EMBL technologies werethe focus of intensive networking at the EMBLbooth at Biotechnica; at Medica EMBLEMcontributed to the European Space Agencypavilion. EMBLEM supports ESA technologytransfer in the life sciences. With EMBLEM’sconsortium partners ISS Lab Ruhr (Germany),MEDES (France) and AGT (Italy) theEMBLEM team informed visitors about vari-ous commercial research possibilities in space.

EMBLEM’s prize, the €1,000 “Preis derFachhochschule Mannheim”, was awarded thisyear to Christoph Färber of the Institut fürUnternehmensführung for his thesis on theapplication of Controlling Instruments inBiotechnology Start-ups and the establishmentof a successful business plan. The prize isawarded to outstanding theses in industrialengineering that bridge the gap between theo-ry and practice.

News from EMBLEM

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New faces on EMBL’s Alumni Association board

The Alumni Association board wasdelighted by the number of candidates

who stood for election and the number ofmembers who voted in September. Electionresults were announced at a meeting inRome on 2 November, bringing the board to16 members. The board would like to thankpast members who have stood down fortheir contributions.

Matthias Hentze has replaced Iain Mattajin representing EMBL at the board meet-ings, and Mehrnoosh Rayner will take overthe coordination of alumni activities fromSarah Sherwood.

The newly elected members areOddmund Bakke (University of Oslo),Freddy Frischknecht (University of Heidel-berg), Bernard Hoflack (Technical Univer-sity of Dresden), Tony Hyman (Max PlanckInstitute of Molecular Cell Biology andGenetics, Dresden), Claudia Koch-Brandt(Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz),Richard Morris (John Innes Centre,Norwich, UK), Giovanni Paolella (Univer-sity of Molise-CEINGE Napoli, Naples) andNiovi Santama (University of Cyprus,Cyprus). Names of existing and past mem-bers can be viewed on the alumni website,www.embl.org/aboutus/alumni/board

Sarah Sherwood moves onSarah (left) is handing over her

Alumni Associationresponsibilities to Mehrnoosh

Rayner

Looking for a predoc?

The details of predoc applicants notshortlisted during the PhD selection

process will be made available to alumni,Council, the SAC, partners and supporters.

Each year EMBL’s International PhDProgramme has to turn down many goodcandidates due to various constraints. Withthe introduction of online applications, thenumber of applicants has risen to its high-est point ever, meaning more than 100 verygood candidates could not be invited forinterview.

The predoc information sharing initia-tive will allow eligible external parties toaccess the pool of applicants online follow-ing a registration process. Data willbecome available to principal investigatorsafter the PhD candidate invitation processcloses in December; others will gain accessafter the predoc selection in January. Onlydata from applicants who explicitly agreewill be shared.

More information can be found atwww.embl.org/training/phdprogramme/applicantpool. Queries should beaddressed to predocs@embl.de.

ments; she has been a main contributor to theAnnual Report, doing its complete layout for acouple of years; she helped put together thegrant that established the ELLS, etc., etc. TheDG Office quickly discovered her talents, sowhen the Lab decided to hold an Open Housein 2003, for the first time in 15 years, it wasobvious she’d be involved.

Sarah really found her pace withEMBL&cetera. “EMBL was lacking a centralmeans of communication for the five sites ofthe Lab and the extended community,” shesays. “In setting up the newsletter, we weregiven a great deal of freedom to think outsidethe box. We could carefully reflect on its func-tions, were encouraged to be very creative, andreceived a great amount of support from theDG Office, EMBL’s scientists, the Photolab, ITServices and many, many others.

“Creating a newsletter aimed at the internaland external communities, alumni and ourmember states gave us a very interesting per-spective: it was clear that good external rela-tions depended on good internal communica-tions. Sites and programmes needed effectivechannels to speak to each other. This wasworking well scientifically, but the Lab is a lotmore complex, and the whole communityneeded to become involved.”

Still, she says, the newsletter has limits oftime and space: EMBL has much greater needs

in terms of internal communication. Severalyears ago she made a sketch for a web-basedinformation service called “Today at EMBL”.The project has been taken over by Sarah’ssuccessor, Vienna Leigh, and the web team.“Vienna is also doing the newsletter now andI’m very pleased to be leaving these projects insuch competent hands,” Sarah says.

She’ll be sorely missed by practically every-body – EMBL staff and a lot of visitors, includ-ing external participants in several volunteerprojects that she organised. One of thoseinvolved cleaning up the nearby“Waldpiraten” camp, where the GermanChildren’s Cancer Foundation runs summercamps and other activities. “These eventsshowed that EMBL’s staff has a lot of energyand enthusiasm for meaningful “extracurricu-lar” projects, even when they involve hardwork,” Sarah says. “Events like this attracteverybody, and are enormously important indrawing the community together: scientists,the many non-scientists who work here, andtheir families.”

We’ll miss her tireless energy and doggedattention to detail, to which much of OIPA’ssuccess can be attributed. Those qualities willserve her well as she joins a new scientific insti-tute in Barcelona to head communications andoutreach activities. We wish her all the best.

– Russ Hodge

EMBL&cetera • December 2005 • page 8

Her face has never appeared in thisnewsletter, as far as we can tell after rum-

maging through the archives, but her presencehas been felt on every page for many years.Usually the staff of the Office of Informationand Public Affairs (OIPA) remains behind thescenes as it manages EMBL’s internal andexternal information. In this case we have tomake an exception: Sarah Sherwood, formereditor of EMBL&cetera, left the Lab at thebeginning of December to start a family andtake up a new position in Spain. We thoughtwe’d better tell you where to find her when allof your e-mails bounce.

Sarah joined OIPA in March 1999 to helpout with all of the office’s tasks and assistHalldór Stefánsson with the new Science andSociety programme. On her first day she wasplunged into the process of the annual reportand given responsibility for planning a majorEMBL alumni meeting, which saw the launchof the Alumni Assocation.

That went so well, she was given most of theassociation’s administrative tasks. As well assetting up the alumni network, she coordinatedthe tracking down of over 3,700 alumni whohave dispersed throughout Europe and the restof the world. The task honed her detectiveskills, so if you leave EMBL for a sheep farm inthe Outback and think you’re safe, think again.

She quickly took on the production of theResearch Reports and most other OIPA docu-

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The “right” research in the “wrong” hands?

Is there a kind of research that simplyshouldn’t be done? Speaker Jan van Aken, head of Hamburg

University’s Study Group on Biological ArmsControl, thinks so. His example was the artifi-cial reconstruction of the genome belonging tothe 1918 influenza virus, which killed around50 million people in the one short year of itsexistence. The following year not a singleexample of the virus remained on the planet –until October 2005, when researchers from theUS Armed Forces Institute of Pathology pub-lished their work.

This was just one of the themes of the 6thEMBO/EMBL Conference on Science &Society, on the theme of Science and Security,held on 28–29 October at EMBL-Heidelberg.

It is easy to see how society might regardsuch research as a threat, but what of its scien-tific merit? Here, too, van Aken was unforgiv-ing: “I see no scientific reason why theresearchers did it, given the multitude of cur-rent, equally deadly viruses to research.”

Eckard Wimmer, Department of MolecularGenetics and Microbiology, Stony Brook,USA, disagreed. “I think you’re dead wrong onthat one. It’s suspected that the 1918 virus wasoriginally an avian ’flu, so it’s very importantto find out the source of its pathogenicity.”Indeed, the 1918 monster had an RNA poly-merase that was hyperactive compared to nor-mal influenza, leading to an elevated rate ofreplication. Researchers fear thatthe current H5N1 avian’flu virus will have sim-ilar properties.

Such a livelyexchange of viewsset the tone fortwo days of pre-

sentations and discussions on types of scienceand technology that regularly hit the headlinesbecause of their controversial nature, frombio-weapons and restrictions on research tobiometrics and security databases.

For more information or to view the presentations, visit www.embo.org/scisoc/conferences.html – Andrew Moore

Other ethical questions were raised inan animated session following the

related Science and Society Forum semi-nar on 29 November, “Forensic geneticsand the UK’s National DNA Database” byPeter Gill from the UK Forensic ScienceService. Under the law of that country, allindividuals must give a DNA sample ifsuspected of an offence, adding to the 3.4million-and-growing samples in theNational DNA Database (NDNAD).

Mr Gill talked about the kind of DNAtesting that is done – the “workhorse” ofthe database is STR (Short TandemRepeat) profiling, but less conclusivemitochondrial DNA tests are also done –and the ways with which samples can betaken from crime scenes, including lasermicrodissection. The audience was inter-ested to hear how the use of such person-al data is controlled.

ELSO: promoting gender equality in the life sciences

The European Life Scientist Organization(ELSO) hopes to help address the issue of

gender equality with a new Database of ExpertWomen in Molecular Life Sciences. Several ofEMBL’s senior women and many more femalealumni are already included in the database.

Its aim is to provide a resource that will pro-mote gender equality in Europe by improvingthe visibility of accomplished women fromsenior postdocs to senior independent scien-tists. The database will help scientists, univer-sities, research institutions, political institu-tions, conference organisers and journal edi-

tors to identify appropriately qualified womenscientists as candidates for professorships andother positions, to speak at conferences and inseminar programmes, to participate in adviso-ry groups, on monitoring panels, committeesand commissions and to review manuscripts,to write commissioned reviews and to serve onthe editorial boards of journals.

Users can search the database using key-words, cities, institutions, research area orcountry, or by the general career stage of theexpert.

If you are an expert in the molecular life sci-ences, you can apply to be included by regis-tering on the ELSO website, www.elso-cdc.org. To qualify you should be female, and:

• have European nationality and/or be work-ing in Europe;

• have published (as first or last author) abasic research article in an internationallyrecognised journal within the past threeyears (senior postdocs should have pub-lished at least one paper from their postdoc-toral work).

Setting standards for systems biology

An international team of systems biol-ogists led by the EBI’s Nicolas Le

Novère has developed a new quality stan-dard for biochemical models. MIRIAM(Minimum Information Requested in theAnnotation of Biochemical Models) com-prises a set of rules to help researchers toreuse, modify and combine models thatare available in public databases such asthe EBI’s BioModels database.

MIRIAM’s creators also include repre-sentatives from three other major data-bases (CellML Model Repository,DOQCS and SigPath). “With MIRIAMwe will be able to provide users with alevel of quality assurance, so they’ll beable to get on with the business of gener-ating and testing new hypotheses insteadof recoding someone else’s old hypothe-sis,” says Nicolas. Work on MIRIAM andthe BioModels database benefitted fromseed funding from the US NationalInstitutes of Health (NIH).

Nicolas will also be opening other doorsin systems biology with a collaborativegrant from the New Energy and IndustrialTechnology Development Organization(NEDO) in Japan to develop and spreadthe use of the Systems Biology GraphicalNotation, a controlled way of graphicallyrepresenting reactions and pathways. TheEBI’s partners in the project are theHiroaki Kitano Systems Biology Institutein Japan and the SBML team at theCalifornia Institute of Technology(Caltech). – Cath BrooksbankSource Article: N. Le Novère et al. (2005)Minimum information requested in theannotation of biochemical models (MIRI-AM). Nat. Biotechnol. 23, 1509-1515.

EMBL&cetera • December 2005 • page 9

science&society

The Science and Society panel contemplate questions from the audience:from left to right, Ross Anderson, Andrew Marshall, Dragan Primorac,

Simone Scholze and Terence Taylor. Photo: Marietta Schupp.

EMBL&cetera • December 2005 • page 10

DIY Tips #2: How tomake a group at EMBL

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Step 1: Poor Nick“ N o - M a t e s ”Luscombe has beenfeeling pretty lone-ly since coming tothe EBI earlier in2005...

EU funding: learning by doing

When it comes to EU funding, learning byother people’s experiences is even better

than learning by your own – and that was theidea behind a day-long event of talks and aposter session organised by the Grants Officeentitled “Exchange of Experiences on FP6-funded Projects” on 29 November.

Evidence straight from the horse’s mouthhelped equip current and future grant appli-cants with insider information about what cango wrong and how to have the best chances ofsuccess when putting your project intomotion. This was welcome information for theaudience of Marie Curie fellows, participatingscientists, co-ordinators, project managers,administrators of FP6-funded projects andother interested parties from all EMBL sites.

In her opening speech, Grants Office man-ager Genèvieve Reinke underlined the impor-tance of EU funding for EMBL, gave anoverview of its development during the lastseven years and described how the GrantsOffice works with scientists, funding officersand adminstrators from all EMBL sites in the

successful implementation of EU-fundedprojects. Scientists and administrators thencontributed their experiences and gave tips onwhat makes good grant management.

“This kind of event really helps people learnthe ins and outs of grant management, andthis is something that all EMBL scientists willbenefit from at some point in their careers,”says Phil Irving from the Structural andComputational Biology Unit, who talkedabout her experience managing a grant andthe interface between administrators and sci-entists. “Some very interesting pointsemerged; for example, the changes in the grantprocedure that will be happening in FP7, espe-cially with the Marie Curie Programme.”

The event finished with a fruitful panel dis-cussion. You can find the list of speakers andthe talks, as well as the winners of the postersession, on the Grants Office website(www.embl.de/LocalInfo/GrantsOffice),which is also a useful resource for deadlines,application templates and overviews of thefunding process.

Step 2: ...but life took a turn for the betterjust a few weeks ago, when Paul Bertonejoined him as staff member.

Step 3: Two’s company, but three waseven better when Juanma Vaquerizasjoined the pair as an Exchange Fellow.

Step 4: Group members are like buses;you wait ages, then they all come along atonce. Research fellow Aswin Seshasayeewas the fourth addition...

Steps 5 and 6: ...et voilà. The arrival ofpostdoc Annabel Todd (above) and pre-doc Jeremy Darot (below, left) means theRegulation Group is all ready to researchthe genomic analysis of regulatory sys-tems. Hurrah!

EMBL scientists were just some of the 500contributors taking the floor at the recent

EIROforum Science on Stage Festival.This year’s fair, funded by the EU and

EIROforum, was held on 21–25 November atCERN in Geneva. It brought together scienceeducators from 29 European countries whoshowed how exciting science can be and howto bring it into the classroom in an engagingway with inspiring projects presented atstands, talks and workshops.

A German class had constructed a workingmodel of an ancient Chinese seismograph; aFrench group had taken pictures from aweather balloon showing the curvature of theearth; and a Romanian teacher had made aneffective demonstration of the way the eyeworks using a shampoo bottle.

Eleanor Hayes, who recently joined EMBLas the editor of a new European journal for sci-ence teachers hosted a workshop to gatherfeedback from teachers, and other partici-pants. Science in School will be launched by theEIROforum in Spring 2006 and will highlightbest teaching materials and practices, as well ascutting-edge science.

“I asked the participants, who were mostlyscience teachers, journalists and museumcurators from all over Europe, what would

make them want to read such a journal andwhat topics they would like to see covered,”said Eleanor. “They were incredibly enthusias-tic. It was encouraging to learn how interestedthe teachers were in finding out about compar-ative teaching practises in other parts ofEurope.”

In addition, ELLS (the European LearningLaboratory for the Life Sciences) presented theVirtual DNA Microarray game developed byEMBL alumnus Anastasios Koutsos to famil-iarise teachers with fundamental concepts ofmolecular biology and large-scale gene expres-sion analysis. The game uses “hardware” (acustom-made mat, Velcro and torches) and“software” (metaphors) to familiarise partici-pants with the applications of DNA-microar-ray technology. This and other practicals andworkshops, which ELLS develop and test intheir LearningLABs, will be turned into class-room activities for teachers all over Europe.

As part of the EIROforum jury, ELLS wereinvolved in selecting those events which wenton to feature at the festival. These were gath-ered from a pool of best projects in scienceteaching from each country, which had pre-sented throughout the year at national events.Science on Stage was the highpoint ofEIROforum’s two-year-long programme ofcompetitions, workshops and events in 29 par-ticipating European countries. The next festi-val is planned for April 2007, hosted by ESRFin Grenoble after another round of nationalcompetitions.

For more information, visit science-on-stage.web.cern.ch/science-on-stage and www.scienceonstage.net

Tricks of theteaching trade

EMBL&cetera • December 2005 • page 11

news&eventsThe Branco Weiss Fellowship “Society in

Science” at the Swiss Federal Institute ofTechnology (ETH) has put out its Call forProposals 2006. The fellowship is dedicated toexploring the relationship between science andsociety. It is aimed primarily at life scienceresearchers who want to challenge the bound-aries between the disciplines and incorporatesocial and cultural aspects into their scientificresearch.

Two EMBL alumni have won the award inprevious years. Giuseppe Testa, awarded theBranco Weiss Fellowship in 2003, is grateful forthe possibilities it has given him to explore thesocial and political implications of his researchin embryonic stem cell biology and genomeengineering. “When I heard about it, I was real-ly pleased that ETH had this vision to combinesociety issues with scientific practice,” he says.“The work I’m doing raises very important eth-ical and legal questions, and I was especiallyinterested to explore how such questions aredealt with in different countries. Even the coun-tries within Europe, which you might thinkwould have a similar take on these issues, can

have very differing attitudes.”Giovanni Frazzetto’s fellowship, received in

2004, has allowed him to explore the geneticand molecular basis of emotions and behav-iour, such as anxiety and attachment, in theGross lab at EMBL-Monterotondo. He’s also amember of EMBL’s Science and Society com-mittee. “It’s a very important initiative to givethe chance bring different disciplines together,”he comments. “You have to be a bit of a rebel tolook beyond the research and explore the dif-ferent dimensions and applications in society.”

Both agree that the fellowship has allowedthem to go down avenues with their researchthey might not have been able to pursue other-wise. “It gives you the freedom to go whereveryou need to go for expertise or guidance,” saysGiuseppe. Giovanni adds: “They really take careof you. It’s really great to be in this small groupof fellows with similar aims.”

For more details on applying for a BrancoWeiss Fellowship, go to www.society-in-science.ethz.ch. The next deadline for proposalsis 15 February 2006.

Branco Weiss: bringing the outside in

As anyone at the Lab can tell you, it’s all tooeasy to become totally EMBL-ised within

mere weeks of arriving. Despite all good inten-tions to make non-EMBL, Heidelberg friendsand do non-EMBL, Heidelberg things, yousoon find yourself hanging out with your labmates 24 hours a day and spending everyweekend at Operon parties.

What’s EMBL doing to ensure researchprojects don’t fall into a similar trap? For awhile the main Lab has been strengthening itslinks with other Heidelberg-based instituteswith initiatives aimed to bring the basicresearch that is being done here into the fieldof clinical development, in particular withthose at the university and the German CancerResearch Center (DKFZ).

The opportunity for collaborations withDKFZ played an important role whenHeidelberg was chosen as the site for EMBLmore than 30 years ago. Since then many col-laborations have been established successfully,but it was not until recently that the first for-mal meeting of both organisations took place,initiated by both newly appointed heads of theinstitutes, Otmar Wiestler from DKFZ andIain Mattaj.

The two-day retreat on 26 and 27 Octoberwas attended by 40 people and took placeabout one hour away from Heidelberg in thePalatine. The purpose of the meeting was toexchange information on scientific and organ-isational issues and to identify new areas forcollaborations, and the scientific topics dis-

cussed included genomics, molecular medi-cine, imaging and systems biology.

Lectures in tumour immunology and struc-tural biology complemented the programme,and the organisation of core facilities andtraining were discussed in separate sessions,with people leaving the retreat with ideas forcollaborations.

Task forces were established in the followingareas: chemical biology (Joe Lewis, DietrichKeppler), systems biology (Jan Ellenberg,Roland Eils), core facilities (Christoph Niehrs,Christian Boulin), training of PhD studentsand vocational training (Matthias Hentze,Thomas Efferth). Overall, the event was verysuccessful and will be repeated regularly in thefuture.

Things’ll be great when you go downtown

Mirco Castoldi and DanielCastaño rehearsing EMBL-Heidelberg’s theatre group’sperformance of “Hard Candy”by Jonathan Rand. The play, acomedy about job interviews,is the first performance fromthe new line-up of memberssince the group restarted thisautumn, and will take place inthe Small Operon on 15December at 18.30. It will befollowed by tunes frommusic@embl in the LargeOperon. The group will bestarting rehearsals for theirnext play in January. ContactJorma at tapola@embl.de ifyou’re interested in gettinginvolved.

This year the EMBL International PhDProgramme received the highest ever num-ber of applications – 692 in total.

The ISG Hotel is closed for refurbishmentuntil 21 January, 2006.

EMBL-Grenoble will be celebrating thecompletion of the Carl-Ivar BrändénBuilding on 13 January, 2006. The building,on the EMBL-Grenoble, ILL and ESRF cam-pus on rue Jules Horowitz, will be the homeof those three institutes’ Partnership forStructural Biology (PSB) and the Institut deVirologie Moleculaire et Structurale (IVMS),a partnership involving CNRS and theUniversité Joseph Fourier.

A postdoctoral programme established bythe Ministry of Education and Science(MEC) in Spain will allow EMBL facultymembers at all sites to select and host fund-ed Spanish postdocs. It is projected that from2006, around 5-7 fellowships will becomeavailable for EMBL each year. Trainees nor-mally spend 24 months at the Lab, and theMEC finances the training with a grant(€2,400 per month). If you are interested tohost a fellow (or to participate in the selectionprocess) send an e-mail to the GraduateOffice at eicat@embl.de. If you’re a Spanishscientist or engineering graduate wanting fur-ther training in a wide area of scientific topics,see the jobs link on the EMBL homepage.

The University of Geneva is the newestaddition to the list of International PhDProgramme partner universities, and thefirst in Switzerland.

Did you know that you can order a JamesWatson action figure at www.scivon.com/jdw.html? An optional fishing cap is avail-able at the CSHL bookstore. Who will benext in the action figure line-up? Iain with anoptional kilt?

EMBL&cetera is published by EMBL’s Office of Information and Public Affairs, Meyerhofstrasse 1, D-69117 Heidelberg, e-mail: info@embl.de. Online versionavailable at http://www.embl.org/aboutus/news/publications/newsletter.html. Editor: Vienna Leigh. Editorial Advisors: Sarah Sherwood and Russ Hodge. Copyediting: Caroline Hadley. Contributors: Cath Brooksbank, Lisa Mullan, Jochen Müller-Dieckmann, Hassan Belrhali, Daniela Jänicke, Mehrnoosh Rayner.Photographic support: EMBL Photolab. Printed by ColorDruckLeimen.

Who’s new?Maud Achard-Joris (Meyer-Klaucke), Ashraf Al-Amoudi (Frangakis), Anne Hamm (Treier), MonikaBinkeler (Social Services), Ana Sofia Bregieiro Eulalio(Izaurralde), Gulcin Cakan (Rørth), Irina Charapitsa(Akhtar), Claudia Chica (Gibson), Foteini Christo-doulou (Izaurralde), Andrea Christofori (Lamzin),Christopher Creevey (Bork), Sabrina Diagui (Cusack),Helene Doerksen (Lamzin), Elisa Dultz (Ellenberg),Tobias Eisenberger (Treier), Laurence Ettwiller(Wittbrodt), Shih-Jung Fan (Ephrussi), Lionel Fraile(Grenoble Building Service), Phil Gardner(Thornton), Xouri Georgia (Akhtar), AlexandreGobbo (Cipriani), Alexandre Gobbo (Ravelli), LuisGutierrez (J. Müller), Florian Hahne (Huber), FabianHärle (Stelzer), Christian Hentrich (Surrey), GemmaHolliday (Thornton), Jon Ison (Rice), Philipp Keller(Stelzer), Hilmar Kopf (Finance), Gautier Koscielny(EBI Database Applications), Duncan James Legge(Sequence Database), Esther Lenherr (Scheffzek),Chen Li (EBI Computational Neurobiology), CornelisJacobus Lieftink (EBI Proteomics Services), DariuszLorenc (EBI Database Applications), Elena Mancini(Nerlov), Raquel Matos (J. Müller), Andre Mourao(Sattler), Giuseppe Nicastro (Gibson), AgnieszkaNowak (C. Müller), Peggy Lucille Nunn (EBIAdministration), Georgios Pavlopoulos (Schneider),Nicola Porter (Hamburg Administration), SergeyPrykhozhij (Neumann), Fabiana Renzi (Conti),Marco Rust (Witke), Radoslaw Ryckowski (EBISystems), Sylvia Schattschneider (Izaurralde), AndreySitnov (EBI Database Applications), Brenda Stride(Gannon), Joe Vaughan (EBI Systems), Holger VonMöller (Conti), Hayretin Yumerefendi (Hart), TinaZavasnik (Griffiths).

people@EMBLAnne-Claude Gavin is the newest Team Leader in the Structural andComputational Biology Unit at EMBL-Heidelberg. She’s a familiar faceto some, having completed her postdoctoral research here beforespending five years as Director of Molecular and Cell Biology atCellzome. Her team will be looking at Biomolecular Networks, in par-ticular the charting of protein-protein interaction networks, the studyof protein complexes, order of assembly and dynamics and the exten-sion of interaction networks from proteins to other cell building blocks.

Other faculty appointments: José Márquez has been appointed Team Leader of the high-throughput crystallisation laboratory at EMBL-Grenoble.

Santosh Panjikar became Staff Scientist in Paul Tucker’s group at EMBL-Hamburg in October.

awards&honoursEMBO has announced this year’s new EMBO members, of whom eight are current or past EMBLresearchers or have links with the institute: Christoph Müller (Grenoble), Andreas Kulozik(MMPU), Pierre Gönczy (ISREC), Achim Leutz (Max Delbrück Center for MolecularMedicine), Ulf Nehrbrass (Institut Pasteur, Korea), Giulio Superti-Furga (CeMM, ResearchCenter for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences), Alfonso Valencia(National Centre for Biotechnology, Madrid) and Isabelle Vernos (CRG, Barcelona). Each hasbeen elected on the basis of excellence in research and joins the ranks of over 1,200 of Europe’sforemost researchers. The new members will be welcomed into the organisation and give presen-tations on their research at the EMBO Frontiers of Molecular Biology meeting on 13-17 October2006 in Sheffield, UK. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has awarded the distinctionof Fellow to Fotis C. Kafatos for outstanding contributions to the understanding of molecularand cellular aspects of insect development and the interaction between malaria parasites andtheir mosquito vectors. 376 AAAS members have been elevated to this rank because of theirefforts toward advancing science applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distin-guished. Fotis will be presented with an official certificate and a gold rosette pin on 18 Februaryat the Fellows Forum during the 2006 AAAS Annual Meeting in St. Louis, USA.EMBL alumna Julie Thompson was awarded the Cristal du CNRS (National Centre ForScientific Research) in Strasbourg on 24 November. The Cristal is awarded each year to engi-neers, technicians or administrators who, by their expertise and sense of innovation, contributeto the advancement of knowledge and research. Julie’s award recognises research activities whichbegan at EMBL-Heidelberg, where she helped Desmond Higgins and Toby Gibson develop thesequence alignment program CLUSTALW. This work put her in the top ten of the most cited sci-entific authors in biological disciplines for more than 10 years. On the day she received theaward, the trio’s CLUSTALW paper from 1994 hit the 17,004 citations mark.

The UK National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Informatics Initiative, which works inpartnership with the EBI and the US National Cancer Institute, has triumphed as the TimesHigher Research Project of the Year 2005. Its goal is to develop infrastructure to bring togeth-er data gained in every area of cancer science and medicine, from the molecule through to thelargest population studies. By pulling these sources of data together, patients will benefit fromresearch more quickly, and new avenues of study will be opened to cancer researchers.

New long-term care insurance to start in 2006

If all goes according to plan, EMBL’s longterm care insurance will begin early next

year. This type of insurance supplementscurrent health care when a person requiressubstantial help with day-to-day activities ona long-term basis. Most commonly, it isneeded for health problems related toadvanced age.

The insurance is planned to includeworld-wide and family coverage. EMBL’scontributions will be 50% for staff and 25%for family members.

Signing up to the scheme will be entirelyvoluntary for all EMBL staff. Seewww.embl.org/staffonly/personnel/longtermcare.html for more information.

events@EMBL15 December, 2005EMBL-HeidelbergCourse: Introduction into Biostatistics13 January, 2006EMBL-GrenobleOpening celebration for Carl-Ivar BrändénBuilding17–18 January, 2006EMBL-Grenoble1st 3D Repertoire annual meeting 18–19 January, 2006EMBL-Grenoble2nd BIOXHIT annual meeting20 January, 2006EMBL-GrenobleBM14 Science Day8–9 February, 2006EMBL-GrenobleHeads of Units/Senior scientists meetingFor more events, see www.db.embl.de/jss/EmblGroupsOrg/t_1

EMBLEM would like to thank all inven-tors for contributing to a successful busi-ness year and wish EMBL staff a prosper-ous, healthy, creative New Year.