12
EMBL etcetera The Newsletter of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory Issue 53 • October 2009 • www.embl.org/newsletter EMBL sets sail Surprising allies Rather than being public enemy No.1, mosquitoes may yield valuable insight into malaria resistance and help to make eradication programmes more effective. EMBL scientists comparing mosquitoes at the genomic level have found that a single gene, TEP1 – which encodes a protein known to bind to and promote the killing of Plasmodium berghei malaria parasites in the mosquito’s gut – is present in different forms according to the in- sect’s resistance or susceptibility to the disease. An individual mosquito’s re- sistance to malaria depends largely on which allele of this one gene it carries. The work appeared in the 1 October edition of Science and was covered in the BBC’s Science in Action podcast on the following day. More on page 4. The creator and artist of Piled Higher and Deeper, the comic strip about the trials and tribulations of doing a PhD, is something of a folk hero among predocs all over the world. During his 12 October visit to EMBL Heidelberg, when he packed the Operon to the rafters with his Science and Society forum lecture, ‘The Power of Pro- crastination’, Jorge also found time to tell predoc Raeka Aiyar a bit about his own experiences as a ‘grad student’ (as they’re called in America, apparently) and hand over some advice about surviving the process. Find out more on page 5. The ATC: your questions answered pages 2-3 10 A fond farewell: Paul and Manfred 8 Ensembl Plants: new genomics portal from EBI The EMBO Meeting in Amsterdam 4 Jorge Cham knows what you’re going through... The Tara Oceans project page 6

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Page 1: EMBL&cetera 53

EMBLetcetera

The Newsletter of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory

Issue 53 • October 2009 • www.embl.org/newsletter

EMBL sets sailSurprising alliesRather than being public enemy No.1,mosquitoes may yield valuable insightinto malaria resistance and help tomake eradication programmes moreeffective. EMBL scientists comparingmosquitoes at the genomic level havefound that a single gene, TEP1 –which encodes a protein known tobind to and promote the killing ofPlasmodium berghei malaria parasitesin the mosquito’s gut – is present indifferent forms according to the in-sect’s resistance or susceptibility to thedisease. An individual mosquito’s re-sistance to malaria depends largely onwhich allele of this one gene it carries.

The work appeared in the 1 Octoberedition of Science and was covered inthe BBC’s Science in Action podcaston the following day. More on page 4.

The creator and artist of Piled Higher and Deeper, the comicstrip about the trials and tribulations of doing a PhD, issomething of a folk hero among predocs all over the world.

During his 12 October visit to EMBL Heidelberg, when he packed the Operonto the rafters with his Science and Society forum lecture, ‘The Power of Pro-crastination’, Jorge also found time to tell predoc Raeka Aiyar a bit about hisown experiences as a ‘grad student’ (as they’re called in America, apparently)and hand over some advice about surviving the process.Find out more on page 5.

The ATC: yourquestions answered

pages 2-3

10A fondfarewell: Pauland Manfred8

Ensembl Plants:new genomicsportal from EBI

The EMBOMeeting inAmsterdam4

Jorge Cham knows what you’re going through...

The Tara Oceans project page 6

Page 2: EMBL&cetera 53

EMBL&cetera • October 20092

Photos:HugoNeves

It’s finished, it’s fantastic, it’s funny-shaped...

ife at EMBL Heidelberg has been a bitnoisy and dusty during the three years

that it’s taken to build the ATC, but staff ’spatience is paying off as groups start movinginto their shiny new quarters in the brandnew building.

The rumour mill has been going into over-drive lately about who exactly is moving,how we’ll be able to find anyone’s office inthe double helix system, and whetherwomen will be able to wear skirts whencrossing the glass bridges: so here are a fewfrequently asked questions put to rest.Which groups will be moving in?Above right is a list of the groups who’ll begetting lovely new offices. All will behoused in the double helix part except thePhotolab, which has already moved underthe new canteen in the ‘casino’ part of thebuilding – the green bit.What else will be in the ATC?As well as a 450-seat auditorium and teach-

ing labs, there’ll bean e-library, twolarge seminar roomsfor up to 50 people,four meeting roomsand a video confer-encing room. Infront of the officeswill be poster andseating areas, andthe top of the doublehelix will be an in-door and outdoor‘lounge’ with re-freshment machinesand a bar that willbe manned duringconferences andother events.What about confer-

ence lunches, Lab Day and parties?The foyer in the helix, at the entrance tothe auditorium, has space for fairs, events,parties, finger-food lunches and generalmingling. There’s a stage for official an-nouncements and ceremonies, and doorswill open to the outside terraces.How will I find someone in the ATC?Enter the revolving door which is the mainentrance to the ATC – opposite are recep-tion desks which will be manned duringevents – and enter the stairs or lift on theleft or the right. The two helices – A and B– are coloured petrol and yellow respec-tively. On exiting the stairs or lift, pic-tograms clearly show the letter and thecolour of the helix you’re on, as well as the‘segment’ numbers you can reach fromwhere you are, for example B06 to B16 ifyou turn left and B17 to B19 if you turnright.

Alternatively, if you have more time, youcan stroll in a leisurely manner along theinner ramp to your destination, and crossthe glass walkways connecting the A and Bhelices in case you find yourself on thewrong one. “It’s actually very easy to learnhow the system works,” says BuildingMaintenance’s Architectural Engineer,Sabine Oertel. “The informal seating out-side the offices is colour-coded too, so at aglance you can easily see where you are.”Will I be able to regulate the temperaturein my new office?It’s a very green building. The concrete cool-ing system in the ceilings allows cold to bestored during the night and dispersed dur-ing the day. All the offices have windows andsome have doors to the outside, so ventila-tion is possible, but the cooling systemshould keep the building at a comfortabletemperature. The window blinds are cen-

trally regu-lated butcan also beoperated manually.

In the winter, individuals can adjust theirown radiators if they’re too cold.What will happen to the space that is va-cated in the main lab?The old canteen will become a new cafete-ria, with an area for Staff Associationevents and the DVD library. “The officesthat will become free in the existing buildingwill, in part, be used to house the rapidly-in-creasing number of computational biologistsat EMBL Heidelberg, and in part to finallyallow a more logical organisation of theCore Facilities,” says EMBL DG Iain Mattaj.Will conference visitors be able to peerinto my office and watch me working?Although the walls are glass, your privacyis assured by strips of frosting.Is there a rainy day entrance?No. Don’t forget your umbrella.

L

...it’s the Advanced Training Centre!

Moving to the ATC:

EMBL International Centre forAdvanced Training (EICAT)

EMBL International PhDProgramme (EIPP) (dean andadministration)

EMBL Interdisciplinary Post-docs (EIPOD) (administration)

European LearningLaboratory for the LifeSciences (ELLS)

Courses and ConferencesOffice (CCO)

Office of Information andPublic Affairs (OIPA)

Science and Society

Resource Development

Associate Director (MatthiasHentze)

Photolab

Personnel

Finance

Page 3: EMBL&cetera 53

EMBL&cetera • October 2009 3

To get to the new canteen, of course. 31August saw the opening of EMBL Heidel-berg’s brand new ‘casino’ in the ATC. Withits greater capacity, it will cater for the ex-panded courses and conferences pro-gramme and, from November, hungrynuclear physicists from the neighbouringMax Planck Institute.

The move was an incredible feat of organ-isation on the part of the kitchen team.Starting on Friday after close of service,they packed up and shipped their entireoperation, seamlessly opening again forlunch on Monday at the new site.

Reactions varied, but the diners were allsuitably impressed. Anna Maria Suboscofrom Reception was amazed. “It’s very ele-

gant. I’m not used to having somuch space.” Philip Gebhardt andJulia Willingale-Theune of ELLSvery much enjoyed their lunch: “Ihad fish with rice and I think Julia had acurry and some salad,” said Philipp. A pe-culiar combination, Julia? “I couldn’t findwhat I wanted. But I’m sure we’ll get thehang of it in a day or two.”

Things went a little smoother for GeorgeReid, formerly of the Gannon group, whohad no real problems getting his lunch,“...nothing that the welcoming glass of Sektcouldn’t help with, anyway.” IoannisLegouras from the Nédélec group was a lit-tle concerned about the distance to the newcanteen: “When it’s snowing it’ll be hard tocome out in a t-shirt.” But he decided that

the extra few minutes needed to put on ajacket would be worth it.

Of course we hope that the new facilitieswill inspire us in our quest to push back theboundaries of science here at EMBL. “That’sputting a lot of pressure on the canteen,”cautioned predoc Raeka Aiyar. “I’ll let youknow how my work goes this afternoon.”

Why did the chicken cross the road...?

Top: Michael Hansen and Claus Himburg preside overtheir new kitchen. Below: opening day Sekt

Big changes afoot – and scientists to benefitCourses and conferences, 2010 and beyond

While providing a new home for several ofEMBL’s groups (see opposite), the principalfunction of the Advanced Training Centre isto provide a new European hub for confer-ences, courses and workshops in the life sci-ences. Its new facilities will serve one ofEMBL’s core missions: training.

As a result, the Course and ConferenceOffice (CCO) has been busy professionalis-ing its services, both to deal with a substan-tial rise in the numbers of courses,conferences and participants, and also to en-sure that scientists benefit most effectivelyfrom the fantastic new facilities available.

“Ensuring that everything runs smoothlywhen a scientific event goes ‘live’ is only thetip of the iceberg,” explains Sally Davison,head of the CCO team, which also consistsof conference officers Bettina Schäfer, GwenSanderson and Adela Valceanu, marketingofficer Antje Seeck and trainee RosaliaMendez. Two junior conference officers willjoin in November. “There’s a long prepara-tion period, sometimes taking more than ayear, which often goes unnoticed by the par-ticipants.”

The team coordinates budgets, createswebpages and registration sites and handles

payment and abstract submissions. Theypromote the courses and conferences withmarketing campaigns, help find sponsorsand handle funding applications, all beforethe event actually kicks off, when they or-chestrate the on-site logistics together withthe Photolab, the canteen and the EMBLcaretakers.

Major changes in the way scientists can ex-pect to go about organising a conference

will ensure the continuing quality of theevents for the benefit of all participants,both internal and external. “We want thescientific organisers to be able to focus en-tirely on the science and not have to worryabout anything else,” says Sally. “With theopening of the ATC we’re introducing anew, improved model of organisation.Group leaders are no longer responsible forany deficit; this is now the overall responsi-bility of EICAT, and any surplus from biggerconferences can also be used to support

smaller courses and workshops.”The new ATC facilities –

which include the centrepiece480-seat auditorium, four semi-nar rooms, two training labsand a computer lab – will alsobe made available to outside scien-tific organisers. The ‘old’ confer-ence facilities (eg. the Operon androom 202) will be fully availablefor internal events, in particularthe busy seminar programme.“Running the CCO as a fully accountable,non-profit fund centre increases the trans-parency of our operations,” says Sally. “Ex-ternal funding helps keep registration fees aslow as possible, and there’s now a clear sys-tem of fixed fees. Furthermore, we provide anumber of fellowships from funds donatedby the Corporate Partnership Programme.”

More details can be found in the newEMBL Guidelines for Conference Organisa-tion, available for EMBL staff at www.embl.de/events/guidelines.External readers cancheck out the CCOwebpages at www.embl.org/events.

Sally Davison Rosalia Mendez Gwen Sanderson Bettina Schäfer Antje Seeck Adela Valceanu

“We want the scientificorganisers to be able to focus

entirely on the science”

Above: Look outfor the newcourses andconferences

poster for 2010(Design: Petra

Riedinger)

Photos:top,HugoNeves;below,MariettaSchupp

Photos:ChristinePanagiotidis

Page 4: EMBL&cetera 53

EMBL&cetera • October 20094

Surprising allies: malaria mosquitoesKeep your friends close, but your enemiescloser: the old adage may well be good ad-vice in malaria prevention, too, accordingto a discovery by the Steinmetz group andtheir collaborators.

“By learning how mosquitoes themselvesresist malaria, we may find new tools forcontrolling its transmission to humans inendemic areas,” says Stephanie Blandinfrom INSERM, who carried out the re-search at EMBL as a visitor to Lars Stein-metz’s group with Rui Wang-Sattler fromthe Helmholtz Zentrum in Munich. Look-ing at the Anopheles gambiae mosquito, amajor carrier of the malaria parasite thatcauses the most severe form of humanmalaria in Africa, the scientists comparedthe genomes of those that could resist in-fection to those that couldn’t, and discov-ered that the major difference lies in asingle section of one chromosome.

This gene, TEP1, encodes a proteinwhich was known to bind to and promotethe killing of Plasmodium berghei malariaparasites in the mosquito’s gut, and the sci-entists discovered that their strain of re-

sistant mosquitoes had a form, or allele, ofTEP1 that was different from those foundin susceptible strains.

To investigate whether this difference inalleles caused the variation in the mosqui-toes’ resistance to malaria, the researchersdeveloped a new technique, reciprocal al-lele-specific RNA interference, inspired byone the Steinmetz group had previouslycreated to study yeast. “It extends thepower we gained in yeast: we can go froma whole region of DNA to the actualcausative gene, a feat rarely achievable incomplex organisms,” says Lars. They pro-duced individual mosquitoes that had oneTEP1 allele from the resistant strain andanother from a susceptible strain, and thensilenced one or other of these alleles. Theresult: silencing different alleles producedmosquitoes with different degrees of re-sistance to malaria, meaning that an indi-vidual mosquito’s resistance to the malariaparasite depends largely on which form(s)of this one gene it carries.

The findings were published in Scienceon 1 October.

Looking to the past and the future: The EMBO MeetingTake one Nobel prize winner, 140 speakers,1,300 attendees, several journalists and anAstronomer Royal to Amsterdam, and whathave you got? The EMBO Meeting, the firstof which took place in the Dutch capitalfrom 29 August.

The four-day conference – which takesover from former ELSO meetings to bringtogether life scientists from Europe andaround the world – buzzed with talks, de-bates and new ideas. Among the topicsunder discussion was how biomedical re-search could deliver new diagnostics, treat-ments and vaccines for diseases. AxelUllrich talked about cancer drug develop-ment based on oncogenomics, and Nobelprize winner Harald zur Hausen shed lighton the identification of infectious agentscausing human cancers and the medicalconsequences. Svante Pääbo delivered a fas-cinating talk on Neanderthal genetics, andKen Holmes celebrated the 50th anniversaryof the first elucidation of the 3D structure ofa protein, myoglobin, at atomic resolution.

Not surprisingly, the plenary session onstem cells, pluripotency and nuclear repro-gramming attracted a huge audience. Afterthe session, the five scientists involved –

Fiona Watt, Rudolf Jaenisch, Shinya Ya-manaka, Austin Smith and Hans Clevers –gathered for a press conference with Euro-pean and US journalists. In a special lecture,the UK’s Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees,gave a glimpse into the cosmos, explainingwhat happens at the fringes of our galaxyand how likely we are to find other thinkingcreatures like ourselves.

The meeting was well attended by predocsand postdocs making the most of the oppor-tunities to meet senior colleagues and getcareer pointers, as demonstrated by the pop-ularity of the job development workshopson the first day as well as Tuesday’s Expand-ing Career Options lunch. Students andpostdocs also crammed into the Pursuing anAcademic Career mentoring session, whichwas organised by the former ELSO CareerDevelopment Committee.

“The scientific part was definitely good,but what I found really great were the non-scientific sessions,” commented EMBL pre-doc Christian Hoerner from the Hufnagelgroup. “When do you otherwise have theopportunity to meet all the EMBO editorsand pester them with questions?”

– Yvonne Kaul

Above: Astronomer Royal Martin Rees. Below:EMBL alumna Malgosia Duszczyk (front) andfriends ‘network’ between sessions

A boost for ELIXIRThe UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sci-ences Research Council (BBSRC) has madea £10million investment in EMBL-EBI tosupport it as the central hub of the EuropeanLife-Science Infrastructure for Biological In-formation (ELIXIR).

The funding will permit a dramatic in-crease in the institute’s data storage and han-dling capacity, placing the UK at theforefront of this multinational initiative.

ELIXIR involves 32 partners from 13countries and aims to establish a sustainablyfunded infrastructure for biological infor-mation in Europe. It will support life scienceresearch and its applications to medicine,agriculture and food security, the environ-ment, the bio-industries and society. The es-timated total cost of establishing ELIXIR issignificantly more than £200million.

“This is an important milestone,” saysEMBL-EBI Director and ELIXIR coordina-tor Professor Janet Thornton. “In particularit means that we will be able to implementnext-generation data-handling and storagesolutions to fuel future developments inbasic biology, medicine, agriculture and en-vironmental sciences.”

Photos: Christine Panagiotidis

Page 5: EMBL&cetera 53

EMBL&cetera • October 2009 5

The story of Claus Nerlov and his favouritegenes, C/EBPα and C/EBPβ, is of a long,successful relationship spanning more than15 years. This September was an especiallybumper month in Monterotondo with thepublication of two papers in NCB andPNAS, the second arising quite by chancewhen some of Claus’ apparently disappoint-ing results turned out to be crucial for headof outstation Nadia Rosenthal’s team.

C/EBPα and β have risen to fame as keyregulators of the decision between self-repli-cation or differentiation facing stem cells indiverse parts of the body. Both are expressedin skin, but loss of either C/EBPα or β alonehas no real effect on skin development. Claus

and his team went for the double whammy –knocking out both genes at once – produc-ing mice with such poorly developed skinthat they died of dehydration shortly afterbirth, unable to form a proper barrier.Through this they showed that C/EBPα andβ are master controllers of the switch fromthe stem cell to skin programme, sitting to-gether at the top of a hierarchy of genes re-sponsible for skin differentiation.

In the meantime, the group had also beenlooking, based on a rise in C/EBPβ levels inresponse to inflammation, for new roles forC/EBPβ in immune system development.They had engineered a mouse unable to gen-erate this boost in C/EBPβ, but, to their dis-

may, saw almost no immune system defects.The only exception was that macrophagesseemed unable to polarise: whereby, after en-gulfing bacteria and clearing up the debris atan injury or infection site, macrophagesswitch from releasing pro- to anti-inflamma-tory factors, promoting repair.

However, this raised an interesting possi-bility for Nadia’s group’s research into mus-cle regeneration. Her team used the line toshow that macrophage polarisation was es-sential for proper repair of muscle tissueafter injury to avoid scarring. At a stroke,the two teams confirmed the importance ofmacrophages in repairing muscle tissue anddiscovered the genetic basis of polarisation!

Jorge Cham knows whatyou’re going though......and his hugely popular series of comic strips, ‘Piled Higher and

Deeper’ about the trials and tribulations of doing a PhD has aworldwide audience of fans. On a recent visit to EMBL, he told

predoc Raeka Aiyar about his own PhD experience

How stem cells make skin...and how serendipity makes a paper

Photo:HugoNeves

Jorge, what exactly did you study duringyour PhD at Stanford?My thesis was on robotics: making robotsthat could go places that are too dangerousfor human beings, like disaster areas. Wewere trying to design them so that theycould move around like cockroaches, whichis more useful than having wheels in suchsituations. We made pretty ground-breakingrobots, I think; they’re sitting on a shelfsomewhere right now, though.Were you planning to continue with sci-ence and become a group leader?Yeah, that was my life’s goal for maybe 11years. But several things combined tochange that. There were a limited number ofjobs I could apply for, and I could see my ca-reer prospects decreasing while the popular-ity of the comics was increasing. I washaving a lot of fun doing the comics – they

started as a regular contribution to theStanford Daily, and just got bigger and big-ger – so I thought I’d try it full-time. It wassomething I got really passionate about.What inspired you to start drawing thecomics in the first place?I was really busy, so I shouldn’t havestarted them, really. It was procrastination,basically. Also, everyone at Stanford seemsto have something different and cool that

they get into, so it was partly that, and I alsofelt that doing a PhD is a pretty unique ex-perience that hadn’t been documented any-where else.What do you think is so hard about doinga PhD? And what makes it so easy forPhD students to procrastinate?For me I think it was just feeling over-whelmed. Not only on an intellectual level –feeling that you’re not smart enough – butalso because of the huge number of thingsyou could be doing at any given time, so thatat some point you feel like your head’s gonnapop.Yeah, it’s kind of like the ceiling’s gone.Yeah, the floors are gone, the walls aregone... everything’s gone. So you end up as-sociating a lot of guilt and negative feelingswith research, and you forget what was ex-

citing about it, which makes it easy to pro-crastinate. There’s also the ‘imposter’ syn-drome, which is where you feel as if you’refooling people and you don’t really deserveto be here.How did you cope with all that?Part of it is realising that most students feelthe same way; they just don’t let it out be-cause they think they’re not supposed toshow weakness. I had a professor whohelped us figure out that a lot of the pressureyou put on yourself is imaginary. You use alot of language like, “I have to graduate, Ishould know that already, I have to publishmore” – all goals that no-one’s actually mak-ing you strive for. You’re doing everythingbecause you want to do it. Once I realisedthis, it was much easier to say no to things.You have more control than you think.What advice would you offer to EMBL’sPhD students?Read PhD Comics!That’s already number one on my list...Well, I’d say believe in high goals, but lowexpectations – meaning aim high, but don’tbeat yourself up if it doesn’t happen.‘Piled Higher and Deeper’ can be found atwww.phdcomics.com.

Page 6: EMBL&cetera 53

EMBL&cetera • October 20096

n 5 September 2009, after months ofcareful planning and preparation, a

very special ship set sail from Lorient in theBrittany region of France to a riotous send-off by a crowd of more than 5,000 spectatorsand members of the international media.The vessel was Tara, a 36-metre, 120-tonschooner; her voyage will last three yearsand make about sixty different stops acrossthe globe; and the brains behind the enter-prise is EMBL’s very own Eric Karsenti,who’s coordinating a team of scientists from50 laboratories in 15 countries with the helpof the president of the Tara Expeditionsfoundation, Etienne Bourgois.

The Tara Oceans adventure begins as Ericfinishes his 24-year stint at EMBL, 11 ofthose as head of the Cell Biology and Bio-physics Unit, and can at last find the time todevote his efforts to one of the most criticalquestions of our time: will marine life beable to survive major ecological upheavalssuch as global warming and pollution? Arewe heading towards a huge and potentiallydevastating transformation of ocean life aswe know it?

“I felt the need to address disturbing ques-tions concerning the evolution of our planetand its future,” he says. “The ocean concernsus all, because the ocean gave birth to life,and life on earth still depends on it. Our fu-

ture depends on the safeguarding of the sea.”To this end, Eric and Etienne have gath-

ered a first class team of scientists, includingEMBL staff past and present, bringing to-gether a unique international and multidis-ciplinary scientific collaboration ofoceanographers, biologists, geneticists, andphysicists from the best laboratories in theworld. They’ll study biodiversity and cli-mate, the functioning of marine ecosystems

and life’s origin and evolution. “The micro-scopic life in the oceans remains one of theleast explored fields of science, while thewealth of its biodiversity is considerable,”says Eric.

On her three-year, 150,000 km journey,Tara will make stops at some of the most di-verse environments, from the tropical coralreefs to Antarctica and the isthmuses of theMiddle East to the Northwest Passage. Forher crew of 14 people, including five scien-tists at any one time, each day will involveabout 16 hours of sailing and 8 hours of sta-

tionary sampling using some of today’s mostadvanced technologies.

Among the EMBL scientists doing re-search on Tara will be Detlev Arendt, ErnstStelzer and Peer Bork, while alumnus Em-manuel Reynaud, now at University CollegeDublin, will be coordinating the onboardTara Oceans Marine biology Imaging plat-form, which includes EMBL’s SPIM technol-ogy. The EMBL imaging platformsupervised by Rainer Pepperkok and JanEllenberg provides support for the develop-ment of high throughput FISH analysis ofplankton species, while Jeroen Raes is coor-dinator for bioinformatics, Uros Krzic over-sees the onboard database and StephanieKandel-Lewis is in charge of sample logistics– and, of course, Eric himself will be joiningthe voyage at several stages.

“The accomplishment of Tara Expeditionsis a team’s work at the service of the planet,”says Etienne Bourgois, who, as company di-rector of agnès b., founded Tara Expeditionsin 2004 with agnès b. as lead partner andoversaw the successful Tara Arctic expedi-tion of 2006-8. “It’s a collective quest to un-derstand what’s happening climate-wise andto explain it in simple terms. This excep-tional ship must pursue her mission as am-bassador of the world’s citizens.”

O

“The ocean gave birthto life, and life on earthstill depends on it”

– Eric Karsenti

L-r: Eric, Etienneand Tara Oceansproject coordinatorRomain Troublé ata press conferencebefore theexpedition began;the departure atLorient on 5September;Etienne, agnès b.and Eric

Setting sail:EMBL takesto the oceans

For more information about the Tara Oceans expedition and to track the ship’s progress during her voyage, visithttp://oceans.taraexpeditions.org

Page 7: EMBL&cetera 53

EMBL&cetera • October 2009

www.embl.org/alumni

The 5th Iberian chapter meeting – the firstto be held in Portugal – took place on 2October at the Institute for Molecular andCell Biology (IBMC) in Porto. Participantswere largely EMBL Portuguese alumni aswell as IBMC staff, who gathered to listento talks on neurodegeneration, kineto-chore-microtubule interactions and

RNAi-based dissection of innate immuneresponses.

IBMC Director Claudio Sunkel, who isalso the EMBL Council delegate and theEMBC Vice President, opened the meet-ing with an introduction to the IBMC andto EMBL’s role in European science.

Following EMBL group leader Anne-Claude Gavin’s honorary lecture on bio-chemical approaches to biomolecularnetworks, the alumni enjoyed a tour ofPorto and a wine-tasting.

7

“La cuisine, c’est de l’art”A familiar face from the EMBL canteenhas gone on to great things following histraining in Heidelberg’s most infamous in-stitutional kitchen.

Aimé-Jules Fozeu (right) spent 2005 to2008 under the watchful eye of ClausHimburg as part of his studies to become achef. At EMBL he honed his skills insautéing, searing and simmering enoughfor 800 hungry mouths every day – butnow he’s perfecting his art on a slightlysmaller scale as a chef at ‘RestaurantNeckarschänke’ in Wieblingen.

“At EMBL I learned how to work withpeople from different cultures,” says Aimé-Jules, who’s from Cameroon. “The cocktailof nationalities also helped me forget thatI’m a foreigner myself.”

While his former colleagues at EMBL are

getting used to their new surroundings inthe ATC canteen, at Neckarschänke Aimé-Jules’ specialities are German dishes. “I’vealways loved experimenting with spicesand ingredients, and making food intopieces of art,” he says. “The way a dishlooks is just as important as its taste.”

Aimé-Jules feels his training at EMBLmade it possible to get the profession hehas dreamt of. “I’m very thankful for allthe support I got from Claus, and to themany true friends I made.”

Please mark your diaries:• 6 November: Deadline, John Kendrew

Young Scientist Award 2010.• 14-15 December: 14th Alumni Associ-

ation board meeting, EMBL Hamburg.E-mail [email protected] by 26 Novem-ber with issues for consideration.

We want to hear from you! Tell usabout your personal or scientificachievements, an interesting eventin which you are involved or give usfeedback on alumni matters [email protected].

Alumni meet in Portugal

Photo:MariettaSchupp

The Iberian chapter meeting was hostedand organised by Paula Sampaio, Headof IBMC’s Advanced Light MicroscopyFacility, with help from Paula Sebastião,Assistant Professor at the Escola Supe-rior de Tecnologia do Mar de Peniche.

Paula Sampaio, who is often seen walk-ing through the corridors of the IBMCwith a screwdriver, was a visiting scien-tist in the CBB unit’s Gonzalez Groupfrom 1995 to 2001. While responsible formaintaining the first Leica confocal mi-

croscope at EMBL and teaching scien-tists how to use it, Paula was also run-ning the fledgeling IBMC’s server on herlaptop! “EMBL gave me an overview ofhow a big institute works, and this hasbeen very useful to help to improveIBMC organisation,” she says. “Besidesinspiring me to build the microscopyunit at IBMC, it was a great experiencescientifically.”

It was her interest in technical equip-ment – microscopes in particular –

which led her to set up the IBMC’s openaccess Advanced Light Microscopy Fa-cility in 2004, where they now have 100users a year. Paula is also a Senior Scien-tist in the lab of IBMC Director ClaudioSunkel. “It has been very important forme to divide my time between servicesand research”, she says. “I don’t think youcan really understand and appreciate therequirements of the facility users, andpush forward the need for microscopes,if you’re not doing research”.

Can she fix it? Yes, she can!

Clockwise from left: Luis Ferreira Moita,Tiago Outeiro, Mark J. van Raaij, PauloPereira, José Pereira Leal, Anne-ClaudeGavin, Paula Sampaio, Elsa Logarinhoand Paula Sebastião

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EMBL&cetera • August 20098 EMBL&cetera • October 2009

Small to medium-sized enterprises(SMEs) from across Europe benefitedfrom EMBL-EBI’s mission to supportindustry at the 3rd Annual Informa-tion Workshop on European Bioinfor-matics Resources for SMEs in Viennaon 3-4 September. The workshop wasjointly funded by five EU projects co-ordinated by EMBL-EBI – CALBC,ELIXIR, EMBRACE, ENFIN andSLING – and hosted by Austria’sWirtschaftsservice.

Responsible for over two-thirds ofEurope’s employment and GDP, SMEscan get much out of the freely availabledata resources, tools and services pro-vided by the EBI and its collaborators.Several of the institute’s scientists madethe trip to contribute with talks anddemos, and topics this year includedsmall molecule resources (ChEMBLand ChEBI), proteomics, literature andweb services, and patent searchingservices such as SLING, which is pro-vided jointly by EMBL-EBI and theEuropean Patent Office.

A fourth meeting is planned for nextyear, at a venue yet to be identified andwith the support of an appropriate re-gional agency. Expressions of interestare welcome! Please contact EMBL-EBI’s Industry Programme ManagerDominic Clark at [email protected]/page.php?page=sme_meeting_2009

Industrial strength

A new, freely available web resourcelaunched by EMBL-EBI and Cold SpringHarbor Laboratory will make it easier forscientists to improve the productivity andhealth of crops – an important step to-wards meeting growing global food re-quirements in our changing climate.

The launch of Ensembl Plants allows re-searchers worldwide to access and visu-alise the results of genome-scaleexperiments in different plant species, andto pinpoint the genetic basis of beneficialcharacteristics such as drought and pestresistance.

The first release includes genome datafrom research funded by the Biotechnol-ogy and Biological Sciences ResearchCouncil (BBSRC) at the University of Ox-ford’s Wellcome Trust Centre for HumanGenetics and University of Bath. Re-searchers there have sequenced the

genomes of 17 strains of the thale cressArabidopsis thaliana, an important refer-ence point for applied plant research,which will serve as a pilot for the applica-tion of high-throughput sequencing meth-ods to plant genomes.

Paul Kersey, leader of the EnsemblGenomes team at EMBL-EBI, said: “En-sembl Plants makes the results of genome-scale experiments available to the wholescientific community. The interface is fa-miliar to researchers as it is already in usefor the visualisation of information aboutthe genomes of other species, making thisnew resource very accessible.”

The launch of Ensembl Plants completesthe set of new Ensembl-powered portals –for bacteria, protists, fungi, and inverte-brate metazoa – launched by EMBL-EBI during 2009.http://plants.ensembl.org

New plant genomics portal to supportresearch into improved crops

With EMBL-EBI’s acquisition last year ofthe Galapagos NV drug discovery databases– now called the ChEMBL database andmaintained by John Overington’s team –cheminformatics is becoming an increasingpriority for EMBL. Now pharmaceutical gi-ants such as Novartis, who recently releasedthe results of a huge genomic analysis oftype II diabetes, and GlaxoSmithKline, whogifted 300 valuable cancer cell lines to publiccancer research, are joining the trend to-wards making data freely available online.

As part of a growing trend in ‘crowdsourc-ing’, big pharma seems to be realising that byreleasing once top-secret data into the publicdomain they can draw on the talents and in-sight of the global research community to ac-celerating the process of innovation at ‘pre-competitive’ stages of drug development.

“Historically, developments in chemistrywere closed and protected, due to the poten-tial impacts of discovering the next big

drug.” explains EMBL-EBI’s ChristophSteinbeck who, together with John Overing-ton, is currently incorporating this valuablenew information into the EBI resources.“With the development of the open sourcemovement from the late 1990s onwards, thishas changed and the sharing of software andinformation is now perceived as somethingbeneficial rather than dangerous.”

As a knock-on effect, such data will pro-vide a massive boost to public drug-discov-ery projects, for example those tacklingneglected diseases of little commercial inter-est to industry.

An interview with Christoph Steinbeckdetailing their progress, including how theyare designing a unique open source chem-istry search engine, is available on the EMBLchemistry pages at www.embl.de/research/chemistry/index.html.

– Lucy Patterson

Pharma 2.0: open chemistry at the EBI

Prize for PeerPeer Bork has won one of the largest inter-national prizes in science, the Royal Societyand Académie des Sciences MicrosoftAward, for his research on the human mi-crobiome and his work using computationaldata analysis to check drugs for additionaltargets. Peer, “a problem-solver in the noblesense, applying in an extremely productiveand highly rigorous manner state-of-the-artmethods in the computational analyses oflarge-scale biological data”, according toAcadémie des sciences member Jean Weis-senbach, will receive his award at a cere-mony at the Palais de l’Institut de France,Paris, on 17 November.

“The field of bioinformatics is not one thatreceives credit easily, so it’s wonderful tohave this work of many decades acknowl-edged,” says Peer. “Our research holds greatpromise for untangling the molecular basisof a number of diseases.”

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EMBL&cetera • October 2009 9

Istanbul, not Constantinople...

A fertile collaborationEMBL scientists have been getting up closeand personal with a sperm protein to dis-cover a new way to crack the histone code –and in doing so, they might also shed lighton male fertility problems.

In the body, sperm are the only cells thatswim and, as speed is crucial to fertility,have developed their own ways to becomeexceptionally streamlined. Their chromatinis more compact than usual, which reducesthe size of the sperm head and makes itmore hydrodynamic.

Researchers at EMBLs Heidelberg andGrenoble, together with colleagues from theInstitut de Biologie Structurale (IBS) and theInstitut Albert Bonniot (IAB), both also inGrenoble, found the key to this in Brdt, aprotein only found in developing spermcells.

“If Brdt is absent, the extra compactiondoesn’t take place, and the sperm head is lessstreamlined,” explains Saadi Khochbin ofthe IAB, who worked with ChristophMüller’s group at EMBL Heidelberg andEMBL Grenoble alumnus Carlo Petosa, nowat IBS, on the discovery. “Male mice lackingBrdt are infertile.”

Brdt directs tight re-packaging of spermDNA by histone binding. However, the way

it binds – by docking to two acetyl tags si-multaneously via just one protein domain –is an important new discovery for epigenet-ics. “We were very surprised,” saysChristoph. “We saw that the domain forms apocket, binding both tags at once.” It waspreviously assumed that individual tags arebound by individual domains, so this newfinding reveals new complexity in decryp-tion of the histone code.

But why might this be important for hy-percompacting sperm DNA? “One idea isthat histones acquire tags sequentially, andonly compact when fully tagged,” saysChristoph. “Brdt binds to the last two tags inthis sequence, making that the very last stepin the process – the final signal for hyper-compaction to begin.”

“We re-examined the structures of otherchromatin-associate proteins and saw thatthis tag-binding mechanism is likely to beused by them, too, furthering our under-standing of how the histone code is read,”adds Carlo.

As well as furthering scientists’ under-standing of epigenetics, the work, which ap-peared in the 1 October issue of Nature,could help to understand problems ofhuman male infertility.

Above: EMBL-EBI’s James Watson onstand duty. Top: whirling dervishesperformed as part of the socialprogramme

very time I hear or see the word ‘Istanbul’, Iget that song stuck in my head again!”

lamented one conference-goer at 16-21 August’s Eu-ropean Crystallographic Meeting (ECM2009), heldin the continent-spanning former seat of the Ot-toman Empire. But a catchy tune by They Might BeGiants (or The Four Lads, depending on your age)wasn’t enough to detract from the great programmeof talks, workshops and microsymposia taking placeat the city’s Askeri Müzesi (Military Museum).

The six day event was the 25th general meeting ofthe European Crystallographic Association (ECA),and as in previous years it boasted some hugenames as its keynote lecturers and covered the en-tire gamut of topics in the field – macromolecular,physical and chemical crystallography, materialsand minerals and experimental and computationaltechniques. In keeping with the surroundings, there

was also a satellite conference on Symmetryand Crystallography in Turkish Art and Cul-ture, which examined the crystallographic aspectsof such local specialities as carpets, ornaments andkilim frames, and for the first time the ECA alsoheld a dedicated meeting for young crystallogra-phers under 35 years of age.

Scientists and staff from four of the five EMBLsites convened in the city, with many helping to manthe exhibition stand when they weren’t presentingposters or giving talks. A dinner kindly hosted byHamburg’s Thomas Schneider enabled all the

EMBLers to catch up on the news fromtheir colleagues in amore relaxing setting.

“E

Faculty retreatThe annual faculty retreat at theGolfhotel Stromberg on 16-18 Septem-ber focussed on the new EMBL Pro-gramme for 2012-2016, with EMBLDG Iain Mattaj asking group and teamleaders to contribute their ideas for thefuture direction of the institute, in bothresearch and service activities.

EMBL runs on a five-year pro-gramme which is approved by Council,and a corresponding IndicativeScheme outlines the plans for the pe-riod’s budget. The programme is puttogether with extensive input and sup-port from Heads of Units, faculty andcoordinators of services, training, out-reach and technology transfer activi-ties. Evaluations of EMBL units by theScientific Advisory Committee (SAC)also provide crucial input.

A first draft of the new EMBL Pro-gramme 2012-2016 will be reviewed bythe SAC in March 2010. If any facultymember has any ideas, particularlyabout areas you feel are emerging andhow they might fit into the context ofEMBL, contact your Head of Unit.

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EMBL&cetera • October 200910

Berliner Weiss(e)

y the copious eating, drinking, musicand (table)dancing that took place at

EMBL Hamburg at the end of a hard week’swork on Friday 2 October, you might havebeen forgiven for thinking that a celebrationwas underway. Quite the opposite: the out-station was saying goodbye to two of itsmost famous characters, group leaders Man-fred Weiss and Paul Tucker.

Manfred will be the first to go at the end ofOctober, and is embarking on a new episodein his career as beamline scientist and groupleader at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin fürMaterialien und Energie. “I’ll be workingalongside another co-head to build up andexpand the institute’s protein crystallogra-phy facility,” he explains.

Manfred also hopes to have more time topursue other research projects. “I’ve been soinvolved in extra activities, such as sitting onvarious EMBL committees and organising

German Society of Crystallography confer-ences, but I hope that in my new job I’ll havemore time to focus a bit more on my ownresearch.”

It was officially Manfred’s party ratherthan Paul’s, who doesn’t retire until Decem-ber, but such a pillar of the community de-serves to have several leaving dos. After 11years at EMBL Hamburg, Paul is lookingforward to moving permanently to theNetherlands, where he has a home, and tohaving more time to pursue his interest ingraphic design, specifically the representa-tion of science through graphics and anima-tion. “There’s a lot missing in terms of visualimpact when it comes to scientific data,” hesays. “I want to learn how to use the relevanttools and software while I still have the ca-pacity to learn something!”

Paul’s quite an old hand (no offence, Paul)when it comes to EMBL – he was based at the

Joining forcesEMBL predocs got together with PhD stu-dents from DKFZ, MPI, ZMBH, HBIGS andCellNetworks to hold the first HeidelbergForum for Young Life Scientists at DKFZ on10-11 September. The programme con-tained six sessions, with each institute or-ganising one each, and EMBL’s segment,‘Through the looking glass: UnderstandingMolecular Biology through Evolution’, hadNobuhiko Tokuriki from Israel’s WeizmannInstitute of Science as keynote speaker.EMBL group leader Michael Knop gave apresentation, as did students Tugce Aktas,Iben Møller-Hansen and KatarzynaMleczko-Sanecka.

“It was great to get together with stu-dents from the other institutes and hearabout the interesting work they’re doing,”commented Uschi Symmons from theEMBL organising committee. “We hopeto continue this collaboration in the fu-ture by organising some courses andworkshops together.”

B

Paul andManfred

A rising starEMBL Heidelberg welcomed EuropeanContest for Young Scientists (EUCYS) win-ner Cecilia Thomas in August, whose proj-ect, ‘Antimicrobial peptides – the newweapon against multiple drug resistance?’won her a week at the institute.

First, though, Cecilia – who’s Danish –spent the EUCYS final in Copenhagen ex-plaining her project to the judges and toHRHs Prince Joachim and Princess Marieunder the glare of the paparazzi. “When allthat was over I was really excited aboutcoming to EMBL,” she says. “It’s an almostperfect match to my interests.”

What she hadn’t expected was the newperspective meeting real scientists wouldgive her. “I met people from all over theworld who were passionate about science

and eager to pass on this passion. I learnedso many things and got to see stuff that hada biology geek like me practically jumpingup and down with excitement. It gave me aunique insight into how the day-to-day lifeof a scientist really is.”

Cecilia’s now back in Copenhagen study-ing for a degree in human life science engi-neering. “I want to come back at somestage to become part of the special atmos-phere and exciting science at EMBL,” shesays. “I’m now even more convinced thatthis field is where I belong.”

Right: Jan Medenbach shows Cecilia some of his cutting-edge data

main lab in Heidelberg when he started hisgroup leadership in 1985, moving to Ham-burg in 1998. “My experiences at the two siteswere very different,” he says. “In Heidelberg alot of time was spent building up the facility –I was running the X-ray lab there and devel-oping 2D detector software – but Hamburgwas the first time I was able to build a sub-stantial group and really concentrate on thestructural biology research that interestedme. It was a good move, scientifically.”

Paul’s official departure will be heralded bya scientific symposium he’s hosting at thebeginning of December, and beyond thathe’ll still keep a finger in the scientific piewith his involvement in following up on theEU Vizier project. Manfred, though, isnearly out the door. “I’ll miss EMBL for itsstimulating international environment, aswell as the flat hierarchies and the lack ofbureaucracy,” he says. “Little things like thatcertainly make life easier.”

Their colleagues at EMBL’s most northerlyoutstation are keeping a stiff upper lip asthey bid farewell. “It’s not going to be thesame without them,” despaired team leaderJochen Müller-Dieckmann at the party,wringing his hands. “Still,” he added, cheer-ing up as he spotted the champagne headinghis way, “out with the old, in with the new,eh?”

Two pieces of Hamburg furniture fly the nest

WelcoWelcoWelco

Photo:MariettaSchupp

Photo:BerndRobrahn

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EMBL&cetera • October 2009 11

� TheMolecularMedicine PartnershipUnit (MMPU) invites all interestedscientists to its 5th Open ResearchDay, which will take place at EMBLHeidelberg on 27 November. The lat-est research in molecular medicinewill be presented by physicians fromHeidelberg University’s Medical Fac-ulty and scientists from EMBL. Seewww.embl.de/research/partner-ships/mmpu/index.html for details.

� Registration is now open for the fol-lowing EBI hands-on bioinformaticstraining course to help you make themost of your data. ‘Small moleculebioactivity resources at the EBI’ willtake place on 25-29 January; registra-tion deadline is 11 December 2009.See www.ebi.ac.uk/training/handsonto register and for programme detailsof courses to be held in 2010.

� EMBL Heidelberg had a visit from theCaribbean on 7-8 October, whenFrancisA. Fakoya, Associate Professorof Histology and Cell Biology at St.George’s University School of Medicinein Grenada, came to learn about EMBLwith a view to establishing a biomedicalresearch lab in the region.

� This year’s Science & Society Confer-ence, ‘Food, Sustainability and PlantScience: A Global Challenge’ on 6-7November 2009 at EMBL Heidelbergwill examines the future of sustainableagriculture from the perspectives ofplant science, technology and society.How can science contribute to ad-dressing global challenges such as the

requirement to feeding a growingworld population, climate change andbiological threats to crop yields? Howcan the public make informed deci-sions as to the safety and effectivenessof new technologies that hope to over-come the battle against hunger? Fordetails, visit www.embo.org/events.

� EMBL Australia Council met for thefirst time on 6 October under thechairmanship of Richard Larkins, theformer Vice-Chancellor and Presidentof Monash University. The Councilwill meet every other month and hasestablished a Strategy and FinanceCommittee to deal with operational is-sues related to the EMBL–Australiacollaboration.

� The application deadline for the nextround of EIPOD selection is 31 Octo-ber. Selection will be completed in Jan-uary 2010, with projects startingshortly afterwards. Applicationsshould be made online atwww.embl.org/eipod.

� This year’s PhD symposium at EMBLHeidelberg will be preceded by thefirst 1st NIBB-EMBL PhD Mini-Symposium jointly organised by the

EMBL PhD and Visitors Programmesfor ten predocs from Japan’s NationalInstitute of Basic Biology and NagoyaUniversity on 28 October. The Japan-ese students will present their workwith talks on genome dynamics, plantorgan development and germ cell bi-ology, among other things. The 11thEMBL International PhD Sympo-sium, ‘Puzzles in Biology – putting thepieces together’ will start the followingday on 29 October. Visitwww.embl.de/nibb_predocs andwww.phdsymposium.embl.org fordetails.

� On 21-22 September, the first stake-holder meeting of Euro-BioImaging(www.eurobioimaging.eu) took placeat EMBL Heidelberg. Coordinated byEMBL and the European Institute forBiomedical Imaging Research(EIBIR), the project aims to establisha pan-European imaging infrastruc-ture for biological and medical re-search as part of the ESFRI process.The meeting gathered representativesof the scientific community, fundingand governmental organisations andindustry to discuss potential partici-pation and the content and structureof the project.

� On 11-16 September, EMBL was repre-sented on the EIROforum stand at theannual European Union Contest forYoung Scientists (EUCYS) in Paris.While Science in School editor MarleneRau sat on the judging panel for thebest scientific project, EMBL predoc Ja-copo Lucci gave an EIROforum lecture.

Plans for Centre for Structural Systems Biology

newsinbrief

Scientists from the many disciplines ofstructural biology came together for the 1stInternational Symposium on Structural Sys-tems Biology on 24-25 September. About250 participants attended the conference atthe University of Hamburg, which was sup-ported by the European project INSTRUCT,which aims to coordinate infrastructures instructural biology across Europe.

Scientific sessions gave delegates the op-portunity to discuss present and future chal-lenges in systems biology, key technologiesand applications, computational structuralsystems biology, and aspects of biologicalsystems. The conference was also a starting

point for the planned Centre for StructuralSystems Biology (CSSB), whose committeetook the opportunity to discuss the next or-ganisational steps of this new project.

The CSSB will be built on the DESY cam-pus, home to EMBL Hamburg. This collab-orative research facility will involve abouteight research groups focusing on infectionbiology, systems and structural biology, tak-ing advantage of current and planned infra-structures and marking the beginning of annew age of research in the city. Thirteenpartners including several universities,EMBL and the Helmholtz and Leibnitz in-stitutes have expressed an interest in joining.

Photo:C

hristophSchlud

e

me one and all: the first HeidelbergForum for Young Life Scientists

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EMBL&cetera issue 53, October 2009.Published by EMBL’s Office of Informationand Public Affairs, Meyerhofstraße 1, D-69117 Heidelberg. e-mail: [email protected] online: www.embl.org/newsletter.Editor: Vienna Leigh. Editorial support:Lena Raditsch, Silke Schumacher.Contributors: Lucy Patterson, SoniaFurtado, Maria Pia Becker, RosemaryWilson, Matthew Betts.Photographic support: EMBL Photolab.Printed by ColorDruck, Leimen.

Ralph Martens will take over as Administrative Director whenBernd-Uwe Jahn retires in December, and is already enjoyingEMBL’s “special working atmosphere” in the handover period.Previously a director at the International Criminal Court, Ralphhas an MBA from Giessen’s Justus-Liebig University. He has heldtop managerial positions in the food, publishing and conferenceindustries, including heading a company involved in the researchof applied biotechnology in food ingredients in the US, and hasappeared in the ‘Who’s Who of Leading Executives of America’.

Orsolya Barabas joins Heidelberg’s SCB unit as group leaderon 1 November. For the past four years she has been a postdocin the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the National Instituteof Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases, NIH, USA, havinggained her PhD in structural chemistry at the Hungarian Acad-emy of Sciences in Budapest in 2005. During her studies shespent a year at EMBL Hamburg training in X-ray crystallography.Her group will study the mechanism of DNA recombination andits applications for research and therapy.

events@EMBL people@EMBL

awards&honours

28 October EMBL HeidelbergSymposium: 1st NIBB-EMBL PhDMini-Symposium

28 October EMBL HeidelbergScience & Society: Train your mind,change your brain. Matthieu Ricard,Nepal

29-31 October EMBL HeidelbergSymposium: 11th International EMBLPhD Student Symposium

30 October EMBL MonterotondoEMBL Distinguished Visitor Lecture:Chromatin and stem cells. AmandaFisher, Imperial College London

21-28 October EMBL HamburgCourse: M2M-2009 (Methods forMacromolecular Crystallography):From measurement to model

6-7 November EMBL HeidelbergConference: 10th EMBL/EMBO JointConference on Science and Society

8-13 November EMBL HeidelbergCourse: EMBO Practical Course onHT microscopy for systems biology

9-13 November EMBL-EBICourse: An introduction to EBIproteomics tools

14-16 November EMBL HeidelbergConference: EMBL workshop ontranslating behaviour: Bridging clinicaland animal model research

18-19 November EMBL HeidelbergConference: EIROforum TTConference Technology Transfer andthe European Research Area

23-26 November EMBL MonterotondoWinter Council Meeting

25-27 November EMBL HeidelbergCourse: Introductory workshop onbioinformatics for high-throughputsequencing

27 November EMBL HeidelbergMMPU’s 5th Open Research Day

2-3 December EMBL-EBIHeads of Units/Senior Scientists Mtg

For more details about these eventsand more, visit www.embl.org/events

Cell Biology and Biophysics Unit group leader Ernst Stelzer and former group leader JochenWittbrodt have been awarded the Heidelberg Molecular Life Science Investigator Awardfrom Heidelberg University’s Cluster of Excellence for their interdisciplinary work on creat-ing a 3D digital visualisation of a zebrafish embryo. Jochen, now head of the Dept. of Mo-lecular Developmental Biology and Physiology at the Institute of Zoology, also receives theOtto-Mangold-Preis 2009 from the Gesellschaft für Entwicklungsbiologie.Genome Biology Unit group leader Andreas Ladurner has been awarded the 2009 YoungInvestigator Award, financed by the Schering Foundation, by the German Society for Bio-chemistry and Molecular Biology. The prize is awarded every two years and was given to An-dreas for his team’s research on ADP-ribosylation and metabolite-chromatin interactions.He accepted his award with a lecture at the Aachen Meeting of the GBM on 29 September.Head of EMBL Monterotondo Nadia Rosenthal has been made a Doctor honoris causa ofParis’ Université Pierre et Marie Curie. The award ceremony will take place on 26 March.Developmental Biology Unit group leader Francesca Peri has been awarded a Starting In-vestigator Grant by the European Research Council.

EMBL Hamburg’s newest group leader isRobMeijers, an alum-nus who gained his PhD at the outstation from the University ofAmsterdam in 2001. Rob went on to work as a postdoc at theDana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston until 2006 and then as astaff scientist at the Synchrotron Soleil, Saint Aubin, France. Hisgroup will study the structural aspects of the recognition, activa-tion and signalling of cell surface receptors using a range ofmethodologies including cell biology, protein biochemistry, pro-tein engineering, X-ray crystallography and bioinformatics.

Sonia Furtado takes over from Anna-Lynn Wegener as EMBL’s new press officer on 1November. Half Portuguese and half English, Sonia has a degree in biology from LisbonUniversity and a master’s in science communication from Imperial College London. Sheworked in Lisbon Zoo’s education department for seven years.