February 2006

Potocnik pays a visit “A model institution for science in Europe,” was Commissioner Janez Potocnik’s conclusion when hevisited EMBL Heidelberg in January. Two projects that the EU Commissioner showed particular inter-est in were the EMBL International Centre for Advanced Training (EICAT) and the bioinformaticsservices and databases of the EBI. He called the extensive DNA and protein databases in Hinxton ahighlight of molecular biology in Europe and crucial scientific infrastructures that should be promot-ed in the future. page 3

31Newsletter of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory

EMBL&cetera

The CIBB opens its doors in GrenobleOn January 13 the new Carl-Ivar-Brändén Building (CIBB), adjacent to the EMBL Grenoble Outstation,opened its doors as a new centre of excellence for European structural biology. The building will houseresearch groups from the Partnership for Structural Biology, including the ESRF, ILL and EMBL, as wellas the Institut de Virologie Moléculaire et Structurale, associated with the Université Joseph Fourier. Thefacilities will include a complete pipeline for carrying out high-throughput structural investigations ofproteins and other molecules. page 2

No, most people in the room didn’t understand a word of it either, but a good time was had anywayat the 2006 Burns night celebration on February 4. Traditional Scottish neeps, tatties and haggiswere served up, with George Reid performing the “address to the Haggis” and fellow Scot IainMattaj donning his nightshirt for a rendition of “Holy Wullie’s Prayer”, before the assembled throngwas treated to some rousing numbers by the Heidelberg & District Pipes and Drums bagpipe band.After dinner everyone got up for a spin around the canteen in the ceilidh.

A message ofthanks fromSlovenia3 4 7

BIOXHIT: Makinglife easier for crystallographers

Three new groups join the MMPU

Weel are ye wordy o’ a grace as lang’s my arm

Monte’s in on the actThe Monterotondo Outstation hosted amajor Science and Society event for thefirst time last year with the EMBL/EMBO/IBC-CNR mini-symposium onGenes and Behaviour on December 9.The programme covered the relation-ship between genes and behaviour andnew analytical methods for assessingdisease-risk factors. “It’s very importantto be able to bring Science and Societyevents to the outstations, and we had afull house,” says local organiser GiovanniFrazzetto. “It was a good chance to pres-ent EMBL’s Science and Society activitiesnot only to staff from the Outstation butalso to a much wider group of partici-pants from the Monterotondo campus.”

Do you enjoy communicating science to the public? The end of March will see the publi-cation of Science in School, a new European journal presenting the best in current researchand teaching, produced by EMBL and other members of the EIROforum. Scientists areinvited to contribute; the aim is to help teachers give inspiring lessons and communicatewith each other across Europe. Alongside stories about interesting research, projects andinterdisciplinary work, the journal will include teaching materials that can be adapted tofit different classroom environments and curricula, news on training opportunities forteachers, and articles about interesting young scientists.

You might like to write about your own research or another scientific field, about howyou decided to become a scientist, or about scientists or teachers who particularly influ-enced you. E-mail the editor (scienceinschool@embl.de) with your ideas.

Science in School is a non-profit activity, part of the NUCLEUS project supported bythe European Commission. More information is available at www.scienceinschool.org

Want to write for a new science teaching journal?

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The CIBB opens itsdoors in GrenobleIn 2002, EMBL, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, the

Institut Laue-Langevin and the Institut de Biologie Structurale com-bined their expertise to form the Partnership for Structural Biology(PSB). The project involved building a joint laboratory complex adja-cent to the EMBL Grenoble Outstation, the Carl-Ivar-Brändén Building

(CIBB), which opened on January 13. The building will also house groupsfrom the Institut de Virologie Moléculaire et Structurale, associated withthe Université Joseph Fourier and the CNRS.

Attending the ceremony were the Director of Higher Education at theFrench Ministry for Research, the Mayor of Grenoble, representatives ofthe Région Rhône-Alpes, the president of the Université Joseph Fourier,and high-ranking representatives of all PSB partners. Directors GeneralWilliam Stirling (ESRF), Colin Carlile (ILL) and Iain Mattaj presentedthe new building as a crucial further step in the development of theGrenoble site as a European centre of excellence for structural biology.

“It was natural for the major structural biology institutes in Grenobleto come together in this way to mutually benefit from each other’s tech-nical and scientific expertise,” says Stephen Cusack, Head of EMBLGrenoble. “Between us we have most of the technical platforms requiredfor interdisciplinary structural biology, including some of the world’smost important and unique large-scale facilities.”

The CIBB houses research groups and a complete pipeline for carry-ing out high-throughput structural investigations of proteins and othermolecules. The new laboratories contain robotics for high-throughputprotein purification, expression and crystallisation, facilities for isotopelabelling, especially deuteration, and instrumentation for nuclear mag-netic resonance, mass-spectrometry and cryo-electron microscopy.Assembling all the components of this pipeline in a unique platformunder one roof will make the passage from gene to atomic structuremore efficient and will greatly speed up the process of investigatingimportant molecules. A particular focus of the scientific work will beunderstanding the molecular and cellular basis of human diseases.

EMBL&cetera • February 2006 • page 2

News from EMBL Centres: CMCI plans take shape with specialist appointment

As recently as ten years ago, the process ofusing images to visualise biological systems

was an entirely different kettle of fish. It involvedtaking pictures the old-fashioned way with anormal 35mm camera (remember those?) andheading to the darkroom to develop the film,with the results usually only available as staticimages.

Now, though, advances in several types oftechnology have taken imaging into a wholenew realm. Digital CCD cameras, cheapercomputers, better lens architecture and devel-opments in labelling techniques have improvedthe process, while improvements in computersimulation allow more effective evaluation ofresults.

These advances have happened so quicklythat there’s no protocol or best working prac-tice for using the information that they pro-vide, and no archive set up for the storage anddissemination of what is achieved.

This is where the Centre for Molecular andCellular Imaging (CMCI) comes in, embarking

on a three-year plan from the beginning of2006 to promote projects at EMBL on biologi-cal imaging at all levels of biological organisa-tion, from the molecule to the organism.

Coordinated by Jan Ellenberg and EMBL-Hamburg’s Matthias Wilmanns, the CMCI hasappointed its first full-time staff, postdoc KotaMiura, who has specialised skills inmicroscopy and image analysis.

Kota will be associated with the AdvancedLight Microscopy Facility (ALMF), headed byRainer Pepperkok, where most of EMBL’s digi-tal microscopy images are generated. He plansto drive activities within the CMCI in severalareas of image analysis of light microscopydata:• training and consulting on image processing

and analysis, including basic tutorials forbeginners and seminars for advanced users.Seminars are intended to serve as a scientificexchange forum to bring together EMBL sci-entists with shared interests at different levelsand to promote collaborations that aim to

bridge resolution gaps, either by systemati-cally combining different imaging approach-es or by developing novel methods;

• research collaborations with groups inEMBL to develop new image processingtools;

• software integration and development,including assembling and disseminatingstate-of-the-art image processing software,making image analysis tools developed inindividual groups accessible to all EMBL sci-entists and establishing a web-based infor-mation resource on imaging at EMBL.EMBL Centres are formed according to the

changing needs of the EMBL research commu-nity as cross-departmental structures to pro-mote innovative research projects across disci-plines.

For more information about image process-ing within the CMCI, e-mail Kota atmiura@embl.de. Further details will soon beavailable on the website, which is currentlyunder construction.

The Carl-Ivar-Brändén Building, home toa new European centre of excellence for

structural biology, opened in January. Inset: Head of Outstation Stephen

Cusack starts the proceedings

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EMBL&cetera • February 2006 • page 3

Three new groups strengthen research/medicine links

Admittedly, Janez Potocnik’s visit to EMBLdidn’t exactly get off to the smoothest

start. After his driver almost missed the EUCommissioner for Research at FrankfurtAirport, he made it to the main Lab only justin time for the beginning of the day’s scheduleof events. Luckily, what he heard and saw atEMBL during his stay on January 16 made upfor the bumpy start.

To set the scene, Iain Mattaj introducedEMBL and its latest research and develop-ments. Two projects in which the EUCommissioner showed particular interest werethe EMBL International Centre for AdvancedTraining (EICAT) and the bioinformatics serv-ices and databases of the EBI. Following a pres-entation by Janet Thornton, the Director of theEBI, he called the extensive databases inHinxton a highlight of molecular biology inEurope and a piece of crucial scientific infra-structure that should be promoted in thefuture.

Later, the EU Commissioner got a first-handimpression of research in molecular biologyduring a tour of some of EMBL’s core facilities.After Rainer Pepperkok explained the cutting-edge technology and the services offered by the

Rainer Pepperkok explains the ALMF to Janez Potocnik (left) while Christian Boulin looks on

Advanced Light Microscopy Facility, VladimirBenes introduced the subtleties of DNAsequencing and analysis in the Genomics corefacility.

EMBL left a very favourable impression. It is

“a model institution for science in Europe,”Commissioner Potocnik summarised, addingthat he hoped EMBL’s exceptionally high par-ticipation in EU research projects would con-tinue in the future.

The beginning of 2006 saw the official addi-tion of three new groups to the Molecular

Medicine Partnership Unit (MMPU). They are: • Carsten Schultz and Marcus Mall studying

cystic fibrosis; • Peer Bork and Magnus von Knebel-

Doeberitz looking at the identification ofcancer markers;

• Matthias Hentze and Martina Muckenthalerstudying mammalian degenerative diseasesdue to defects in iron metabolism.The “pilot” phase of the project tested the

feasibility of such a novel partnership, in whichgroups are jointly led by two principal investi-gators – a basic researcher from EMBL and amedical researcher from the Medical Faculty ofthe University of Heidelberg – with the aim topursue basic research projects that are relatedto medicine. The first group was that ofMMPU founders Andreas Kulozik from theMedical Faculty and EMBL Heidelberg’sMatthias Hentze, who established thePartnership in 2002 and work together on dis-eases of RNA metabolism.

Their success, producing valuable newinsights into the mechanisms underlying someof the most common human genetic diseases,has opened the way to the second phase of theproject. This will serve as a springboard forseveral new research areas with the appoint-ment of the three additional groups, all of

which fit the model of joint leadership fromboth institutions.

“The new groups have been chosen as aresult of their interest in the ongoing conver-gence of biology and medicine – the types ofresearch carried out at EMBL and in the clini-cal setting at the Medical Faculty,” saysMatthias. “They also fit the criteria establishedwhen the MMPU was created: they have jointleadership from EMBL and the university, withthe two leaders having a collaborative history,complementary expertise and a project that issustainable.”

Carsten Schultz’s background in medicinalchemistry and his interest in cystic fibrosis hadalready led to an involvement with theUniversity of Heidelberg’s Cystic FibrosisCentre. The arrival there of Marcus Mall, aphysician scientist with a longstanding interestin cystic fibrosis pathogenesis, offered an obvi-ous opportunity for collaboration.

“Until then, the Cystic Fibrosis Centrefocused predominantly on clinical issues, butthen Marcus arrived with the first well-func-tioning mouse model for the disease,” Carstensays. “This provided a new opportunity: mygroup had already synthesised several com-pounds that looked promising in cell experi-ments, and now they could be examined invivo. As well as this, we aim to define and vali-date future cystic fibrosis drug targets. If suc-cessful, we will be able to significantly

strengthen research on the disease inHeidelberg.”

Carsten and Marcus have just hired the firstdedicated MMPU PhD student to work on theproject. “Joining the MMPU offers a greatopportunity to follow a line of research that wemight not otherwise be able to,” Carsten says.“It’s an excellent initiative enabling a fusion ofchemical biology, cell biology and physiology, arare opportunity. In the future, it would also bebeneficial to add a focus on microbiology.”

As well as working on their individual proj-ects, the new groups will be involved in theMMPU as a whole, getting together to organiseseminars, mini-symposia and teaching activi-ties. In the longer term, it is hoped that thegroups will move in together on theNeuenheimer Feld campus in Heidelberg,rather than remaining split between differentlocations. As well as the expansion, the secondphase also aims to increase postgraduate train-ing.

As for the future of the MMPU, Matthias ispositive that the partnership will continue toexpand and provide some sterling insights intoboth basic research and the clinical field.“Membership of the MMPU has many bene-fits, both for the basic and medical researchersinvolved and for the project as a whole. I see noreason why it could not expand to the size ofone of EMBL’s other Units if the MMPU suc-cess story continues.”

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EU Commissioner for Research visits EMBL

EMBL&cetera • February 2006 • page 4

PRIDE, the PRoteomics IDEntifi-cations database, has extended its

service by releasing a multilingual userinterface.

A standards-compliant public datarepository for proteomics data, PRIDEwas developed to provide the proteomicscommunity with a repository for proteinand peptide identifications, together withthe evidence supporting these identifica-tions.

The multilingual user interface usesthe local settings on users’ web browsersto automatically select the correct lan-guage, and is currently available inEnglish, Korean, French and German. AChinese translation is being developedand will be available later in 2006.

It’s all thanks to volunteer translatorsincluding Sang Yun Cho, a visitor to theEBI from the Yonsei Proteome ResearchCenter (YPRC) in Seoul, Korea, whooriginally suggested the idea of the mul-tilingual interface. PRIDE is primarily asubmission-based database, allowingproteomics laboratories to publish thedetails of their data alongside their jour-nal submissions, and there’s increasinginterest from the global proteomics com-munity, with ever more labs wishing tosubmit and retrieve data.

Learn more about PRIDE, includinghow to prepare submissions and searchthe database at www.ebi.ac.uk/pride (inthe language of your choice, of course!).

Speaking in tongues

Technology transfer talks on the agenda

L-r (after Iain): Bruno Jarry, Florence Lazard, Pierre Bey, President of the Board Claude Huriet, DanielLouvard, Jean-Paul Thiery and Anne Bellod of the Institut Curie on their visit to EMBL on February 2.They came to discuss a Technology Transfer partnership with EMBLEM and were given a tour of thecore facilities and introduced to some EMBL projects. Photo: Maj Britt Hansen

Get your diaries out: this year’s not-to-be-missed event, the Staff Association SummerParty 2006, will take place on Saturday, July22. So now you can plan your summer holi-days.

from the Staff Association

Making life easier for crystallographersIt's mid-term for the BIOXHIT project, and

crystallographers from Hamburg, Grenobleand synchrotrons across Europe have plenty toshow for it. The project has moved fast in thepast two years, since the EU gave €10 millionto a consortium headed by Victor Lamzin ofthe Hamburg Outstation; the goal was todevelop a state-of-the-art technology platformfor the high-throughput handling and analysisof protein crystals at synchrotron beamlines.

On January 18 and 19, over 90 BIOXHITersmet at the ESRF in Grenoble to discussprogress and upcoming milestones. The meet-ing started with a microsymposium onStructural Genomics highlighting a great dealof effort from the JCSG, SPINE and 3D-Repertoire consortia. This followed a series ofBIOXHIT highlight presentations introducedby Manfred Weiss, who’s heading the researchwithin the project. Alongside speakers fromEMBL’s two structural biology outstations,Kim Henrick from the EBI was on hand to talkabout advances in automating the tracking ofsamples and experimental data.

Precisely how is BIOXHIT making life easi-er for crystallographers? Until recently, everysynchrotron facility around the world wasdeveloping custom solutions for handling andcarrying out experiments on fragile macromol-ecular crystals. This means that a user is facedwith a different environment at every beamlinehe or she visits. The situation is completelychanging now. Joint efforts are underway inGrenoble, Hamburg and many other locationsto design and build robotic devices for auto-mated sample handling that mount crystals inthe beam. Users would love to see those stan-dard user front-ends installed at all theEuropean sites. These are just a few examples.Within BIOXHIT, for the first time in their his-

tory, all European synchrotrons, as well asleading software and hardware developers inthe field, are working together to achieve com-mon goals.

One of the challenges in structural biology,especially for young researchers, has beendeciding whether a particular experiment issuccessful and whether the measured data aregood enough to lead to a structure. “Usuallythis involves quite a bit of human expertise,and that means a considerable expense oftime,” Victor says. “In some cases users havegone home, struggled with the data, and weekslater discovered that they couldn't be used.Within the frame of BIOXHIT, SantoshPanjikar, Paul Tucker and some of the rest of ushave developed Auto-Rickshaw. This softwareplatform emulates what an experienced struc-tural biologist would do when inspecting thedata. Auto-Rickshaw provides an alert calling‘Ready! Next sample please!’ or allows one tomake any changes to the experiments that arenecessary to get usable data while the crystalsare still on the beamline.”

Other projects include the analysis of howX-rays damage the samples, the use of intelli-gent software to scan samples for useful crys-tals and the continuing development ofARP/wARP, the extremely successful struc-ture-building software from Victor’s team. Theultimate goal, he says, is to make crystallogra-phy as easy, quick and efficient as possible forall users across Europe. Eventually it will bestandard practice for scientists to mail in crys-tals and carry out the work from the comfort oftheir own labs, which is the motivation behindanother effort to simplify and standardiseinternet interfaces to structural biology tools. Office training days

Want to brush up your Office skills? ITServices has organised some training daysfor Microsoft programs starting at themain Lab in March, which are open toeveryone from all EMBL sites. The priceper day is €90, plus €20 for training mate-rials (e.g. two days’ training is €200). Signup with Jorma at tapola@embl.de at leastthree weeks before the start of the courseyou wish to join. Courses in English:Outlook (March 29), Excel (April 10–11),Access (April 24–25), PowerPoint (May 26).Courses in German: Word (April 20),PowerPoint (April 21), Excel (April 27–28),Access (May 15–16), Outlook (May 22).

EMBL&cetera • February 2006 • page 5

the

cornerDeveloping professional skillsEducating the next generation of scientists is theresponsibility of group leaders, research labs,universities and research organisations. For themost part, the approach used until now has beenrestricted to teaching science often to the exclu-sion of the “parallel or professional skills” whichare equally important in the pursuit of a success-ful scientific career.

The modern-day scientist has a multitude ofcareer options to choose from. Academiccareers, jobs in industrial research and produc-tion as well as science writing and administra-tion all require skills in addition to the basicscientific knowledge taught within the usualcurricula.

That there is something amiss in the currentapproach has been pointed out in meetingsorganised by the HFSP in conjunction with theESF (“Towards a new paradigm for education,training and career paths in the natural sci-ences”, 2001, www.hfsp.org) and EMBO

Yeast proteins yield their secrets as 3D Repertoire participants gather

If we knew the makeup, locations and func-tions of every protein complex in a model

organism such as yeast, we’d be well on our wayto understanding how the relatives of thesemolecules function in our own cells. Thatwould be crucial information in making head-way on both basic biological questions and theprocesses that lead to disease. It’s the subject ofa major integrated project called 3DRepertoire, coordinated by Luis Serrano atEMBL Heidelberg, which aims to determinethe structures of key molecular machines inyeast.

The project had its first annual meeting onJanuary 17–18 at the ESRF in Grenoble.Representatives of the 14 institutes and privatecompanies involved in 3D Repertoire met todiscuss their progress.

“The consensus of the meeting was that thisis absolutely the right time to be taking on sucha project,” Luis says. “Imaging technologiessuch as cryo-electron microscopy and EMtomography are starting to reveal new detailsof molecular machines.”

Those methods can now be supplementedwith information such as the whole yeast pro-teome survey, completed by Cellzome andEMBL groups. The participants are also draw-

ing on new biocomputing methods to figureout how to place high-resolution structures ofmolecules into the complexes visualised by EMand other methods, which is the aim of RobRussell and Bettina Böttcher’s work. A lot ofthis has been made possible by the TAP-tagmethod developed by Bertrand Séraphin andhis group while at EMBL, which has permittedthe isolation of many of the complexes in thefirst place.

3D Repertoire is funded by the EuropeanCommission under Framework Programme 6,and is Europe’s first large-scale projectanalysing multiple protein complex structuresin yeast.

Participants from EMBL at the ESRF meet-ing included most of the groups in EMBL’sStructural and Compu tational Biology Unit, aswell as teams from the Hamburg and GrenobleOutstations.

Principal Investigators involved in the proj-ect gave overviews of the sub-projects andwork packages within which their groups areworking. Demonstrations of the work flow reg-istration database and its user interface werealso provided by members of AnastassisPerrakis’s group at the NKI. “Significant to theproject will be the marriage between the work

database and the complexes website,” saysScience Coordinator Phil Irving. “Figuring outthe structure of complexes requires an elabo-rate workflow in which many groups may par-ticipate; setting targets and checking theprogress of the other groups will depend onthese types of tools, particularly because thework is being done across our very broad con-sortium.”

“These reports were particularly interestingbecause the project is highly interdisciplinaryand people are bringing together methods innew ways to tackle a common problem,” Luissays. “It’s a very creative approach.”

On the second day of the meeting, represen-tatives from the EU reviewed the project whileScientific Advisory Board members providedinput into future directions the work shouldtake, based around the implementation planpresented by Luis. The project continues toevolve: for example, EMBL’s newest GroupLeader, Anne-Claude Gavin, an expert in yeastproteomics, will be joining the project.

“We hope the remaining 3.5 years of the pro-ject’s life will provide the basis to go for some-thing even more challenging,” Luis says.“Ultimately we would like to obtain the struc-ture of an entire cell at atomic resolution.”

Lack of support for developing managementskills means that most scientists in academiaare forced to learn on the job. Young groupleaders, who are starting their projects, writinggrants and recruiting personnel, also have tolearn how to manage their labs. The monetarycosts associated with bad management mostlikely outweigh by far any investment in train-ing, not to mention any personnel costs. This

(“Careers in the life sciences”, 2001,www.embo.org).

Perhaps the most important parallel skill isthe ability to lead and inspire a group of co-workers. It is vital that group leaders are able toprovide a supportive environment that allowstheir students and postdocs to perform to thebest of their abilities. To a certain extent thiscan be learned, and many organisations traintheir employees to become better leaders andmanagers. Although the term “management”may not be very popular with scientists, thelack of good management skills can often havenegative implications.

realisation has led a small number of organisa-tions (e.g. HHMI, MRC and EMBO) to offermanagement courses to young group leaders.

Mastering the skill of presenting results bothorally and in written form is another require-ment for any successful group leader. Again, stu-dents are left mostly alone to learn how to dothis. Many institutes and universities are nowrecognising that formal and organised supportdoes not have to be costly. EMBO, for example,offers annual training to PhD students throughits Young Investigator Programme (YIP).

Finally, scientists are realising that beingskilled in the ability to communicate researchwell to the public and the media can also haveimplications on their continued funding. Thedays of the ivory towers are past. Scientistshave to learn to communicate with the publicin a way that the public understands. EMBO’sMedia Workshops (organised through itsScience and Society programme for EMBO fel-lows, members, YIPs and EMBL staff) offerscientists practical ways of doing this.

In our changing world, research organisa-tions like EMBO and EMBL have the obliga-tion to provide the best training to young sci-entists. This often involves looking beyond thescientist to find ways of nurturing and sup-porting the skilled individual.

– Gerlind Wallonwww.embo.org/yipwww.embo.org/scisoc

“Perhaps the mostimportant parallel skillis the ability to lead and

inspire a group of co-workers”

EMBL&cetera • February 2006 • page 6

Of mice and maths: Olivier makes the leap What has Mus musculus got to do with

mathematics? More than you wouldthink, as PhD student Olivier Mirabeau had tofind out fast when he embarked on his projectthree years ago.

Originally an engineer, Olivier is one of anincreasing number of students and researcherswho are finding that the demand for interdis-ciplinarity in biology is allowing them tobranch out into other areas while maintaininga connection with previously studied fields.

Olivier originally joined Nadia Rosenthal’sgroup in Monterotondo in 2002 and found hisniche in the Gross lab, which is concerned withregulation of anxiety behaviour using themouse model. He brought along a backgroundin applied mathematics, but soon found him-self at the bench doing wet chemistry in hispursuit of new peptide hormones and neu-ropeptides in human genomic sequences. Analgorithm identifying uncharacterised proteinsallowed him to generate a shortlist of candi-dates from public database sequences and thento study the putative secretion and processingof those candidate peptides in vitro. The pre-liminary data he got is very promising, and he’sdue to finish his PhD in the spring.

“It was pretty difficult at first to go from onefield to the other; it’s easy to keep repeating thesame mistakes,” Olivier observes. “I was luckyto get helpful people interested in what I wasdoing, particularly Ewan Birney from the EBI.To go from maths and physics, and more

specifically bioinformatics, to what is essential-ly a mouse lab was a big jump.”

Such unusual profiles of incomingresearchers are becoming ever more common,with systems biology in particular needinginput from maths and chemistry. In the nextfew years EMBL is planning to concentrate onexpanding in such crossover disciplines toenhance basic research. Collaborations such asthe Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit andthe aim towards increased investment inchemical biology have already started to makea difference to the methods used at EMBL.

Additionally, being based in Monterotondomeans that Olivier is far from the main Lab,where he would have found himself amongmany other bioinformaticians. “There aresome others here at the Outstation followingmultidisciplinary projects, but they’re mostlymedical doctors or chemists,” he says. “Thoughthere’s a greater concentration of scientistsfrom other fields at EMBL Heidelberg thanhere, I haven’t had a problem learning what Ineed to know and finding possibilities for col-laboration.”

Has his experience in Monterotondo con-verted Olivier to biology? “I’m fundamentallystill interested in problem solving – a mathe-matician and physicist at heart,” he says. Onthe brink of his next career move, he’s not surewhat the future holds, but the immersion in adifferent field has been enlightening on bothsides.

Forum looks forwardFunding for the Heidelberg Forum –

Biosciences and Society is assured foranother four years with the generous spon-sorship of MLP founder ManfredLautenschläger. The Forum is an initiativelaunched in 2001 by four leading researchinstitutions in Heidelberg: EMBL, theGerman Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ),the Centre for Molecular Biology (ZMBH)and the Medical Faculty of the University ofHeidelberg. It consists of a series of lecturesto promote public understanding of sci-ence; past speakers have included NobelPrize winner Christiane Nüsslein-Volhardand former Max Planck Society PresidentHubert Markl.

Thanks to financial support from theLautenschläger Foundation, a well-knownphilanthropic institution in the region, theForum’s programme of events for the nextfew months is already underway. The nexttalk will be on March 7 at 18.00 at the PrintMedia Academy, when Jürgen Mittelstrassfrom the University of Constance will talkabout “Bioethics and Human Dignity”. SirAlec Jeffreys from the University ofLeicester will then be the guest lecturer onMay 12, with a talk about “GeneticFingerprinting and Beyond”, this time at theKirchhoff Institute in Neuenheimer Feld.For more information, visit www.embl-hei-d e l b e r g . d e / a b o u t u s /sciencesociety/hdforum.html

Forget-me-not!For all of us here at EMBL, the day will

come when we have to leave. No matterwhere we choose to go and what we decide todo, however, we will all become EMBL alum-ni. This column is designed to inform you –both current EMBL staff and EMBL alumni– of the services the Alumni Associationoffers and plans to offer during and afteryour stay at EMBL. It will also tell you whyEMBL needs an Alumni Association, andlook at the challenges facing those of us whoare about to leave as well as those long gone.

So watch this space, and please contact usif you’re about to leave, or register online ifyou have left already. We look forward tohearing from you.

– Mehrnoosh Rayner (alumni@embl.de)

Register with the Alumni Association todayat www.embl.org/aboutus/alumni/register.html“Good luck, and keep in touch!”

Illustration by Anée Sobhani

EMBL&cetera • February 2006 • page 7

news&eventsEMBL’s Swiss contingent joined forces towelcome some of their countrymen on a visitto the main Lab on January 11. Cesar Dubler,Pierre Berlincourt and Christian Engler ofthe Swiss Embassy and Generalkonsul JosefRenggli heard talks about EMBL as a whole,the core facilities and the PhD Programme;Damian Brunner, Elisa Izzauralde, AndyHoenger and Michael Knop then introducedEMBL’s science.

When worlds collide: 60 participants of theInternational Chemical and PhysicalOlympiad visited EMBL on December 16.The Olympiad competitions cover all fieldsof science and aim to develop the interest ofyoungsters and promote international rela-tions. The students visited EMBL labs thathave strong links to chemistry and physics.

An “Alternative transcript diversity sympo-sium II – Biology and Therapeutics” will beheld at EMBL Heidelberg on March 21–23.The realisation that alternative splicing is animportant way of controlling gene expres-sion has spawned several large-scale effortsto create bioinformatics resources on alter-nate transcripts and protein isoforms. Theseefforts require community-based collabora-tions involving bioinformaticians, computa-tional and experimental biologists, and phar-maceutical researchers. This symposiumaims to bring together this community todiscuss these resources. The event registra-tion and abstract submission deadline isMarch 1. See www.ebi.ac.uk/information/events/atd-sympo for details.

Registration for the 7th EMBL/EMBO JointConference, “Genes, brain/mind and behav-iour”, to be held on November 3–4 at EMBLHeidelberg, is open now. Go tohttp://www.embl-heidelberg.de/aboutus/sciencesociety/conferences/2006/scope06.html

The Center for Modelling and Simulation inthe Biosciences (BIOMS) in Heidelberg isoffering positions for postgraduate scientistsworking in cell biology. The focus of researchprojects should be quantitative aspects ofmolecular biology, for example modellingfunctional modules in hierarchically organ-ised biological systems. Positions will begranted for at least one year, at most threeyears. The current application deadline isJune 30. For more information seehttp://www.bioms.de/postdoc.shtml

Many thanks to Mustafa and his team forsprucing up the Operon; it has a new colourscheme, a new floor and has been given athorough clean. Mustafa would also like toremind drivers to use the parking garages(don’t forget the new one, too) and to leavethe roadways around EMBL free for thesnow ploughs.

Ihave spent three very intense but beauti-ful months at EMBL: rainy August,

warm, sunny October and cold January.Like Janez Potocnik, EuropeanCommissioner for Science and Research, Icome from Slovenia, a small EU countrymaybe not so well known to you, and fromthe biggest Slovene research institute – theJozef Stefan Institute – named after the dis-tinguished 19th century physicist. I amsure you still remember learning theStefan-Boltzmann law in thermodynamicsclasses.

My field of research is cell biology andbiochemistry of immune cells. I was senthere not to do a PhD or to be a postdoc,but by my institute and with the support ofan EMBO short-term fellowship to cutsugar cryo-sections of cells. To be exact, tobring back a method which would allow usto see very precisely within the cells whilebeing able to preserve cell proteins in a waythat they would remain recognisable tospecific antibodies that we produce in thebiochemistry department. Not an easy taskat all, because preserving “nice” cell mor-phology means using some very nastychemicals which change cell proteins in away that they often lose their characteris-tics for probes like antibodies to find them.

I studied dendritic cells, which circulatethrough our tissues like veiled scavengerssearching for “dangerous” foreign proteins.To be able to see within the inner space ofa dendritic cell I first fixed them – freezingthem in one exact moment of their lifes-

pan. Then I fed them with sugar to protectthem from osmotic stress, and finally I spiltliquid nitrogen on them and cut them atminus 120 degrees Celsius. All that madetiny silver sugar sections of their bodies. Icoloured them with dangerous uranylacetate for contrast and decorated themwith specific antibodies and gold particlesto see where important proteins (cellenzymes and their endogenous inhibitors)resided.

Every time I looked at them under theelectron microscope I was amazed that,even after all this rough treatment, they arefilled with organelles and membranes,meaning the biochemical processes withinthem are really intense. How could theynot be, since every potentially dangerousmolecule taken up by a dendritic cell isdegraded into small pieces, upon which adecision is made in a body whether animmune response should happen or not.

Many thanks to the people of theGriffiths and Antony Groups, the EM CoreFacility and to the NMR members of theSattler Group, who shared their labs withme and from whom I have learned all thesethings. Let me finish with an idea very wellknown to everyone involved in researchand science:

There always something will remain, that we shall not know, why? (JozefStefan, The Science of Nature Trials,1859)

Victor Lamzin, Alexander Popov, Andrea Schmidt, Paul Tucker and Manfred Weiss headed the latest ina series of macromolecular crystallography practical courses, ‘Training in methods for macromolecularcrystallography: “M2M: From Measurement to Model”’ at the Hamburg Unit in November 2005. Out of140 applications, the top 20 were selected to receive advanced training in the essential steps in deter-mining biological structures. The course included beamline practicals and lectures, sample handlingand experimentation, computational tutorials and in-depth discussions. The M2M course was firstestablished at Hamburg in 1993, and since then many of the leading figures in macromolecular crystal-lography have participated, and many more researchers have benefitted from the state-of-the-art train-ing. The next course will be held in 2007; check the EMBL web pages.

Tina Zavasnik-Bergant

Dear EMBL,

Crystallography course draws the bestCrystallography course draws the best

Š

EMBL&cetera # 31, February 2006. EMBL&cetera is published by EMBL’s Office of Information and Public Affairs, Meyerhofstrasse 1, D-69117 Heidelberg, e-mail:info@embl.de. Online version available at http://www.embl.org/aboutus/news/publications/newsletter.html. Editor: Vienna Leigh. Editorial advisor: Russ Hodge. Copyediting: Caroline Hadley. Contributors: Anna-Lynn Wegener, Lena Reunis, Gerlind Wallon, Philip Jones, Tina Zavasnik, Mehrnoosh Rayner.Photographic support:EMBL Photolab. Printed by ColorDruckLeimen.

Who’s new?Kathryn Frances Beal (ENSEMBL), Hugo Berube(Arendt), Sascha Blättel (Mechanical Engineering),Miriam Bortfeld (Ladurner), Lifu Gao (Hermes/Tucker), Renato Golin (Sequence Database), ErhardHaas (Security Service), Rachel Huntley (SequenceDatabase), Pascal Kahlem (ENSEMBL), Stefan Leicht(Proteomic Core Facility), David Liebl Griffiths),Melissa Little (Rosenthal), Adrian Neal (Schultz),Nikolay Nikolov (EBI Proteomics Services), BrianPetersen (LAR), Gianpietro Previtali (Hamburg IT),Rajesh Radhakrishnan (EBI Database Applications),Miriam Reiß (Griffiths), Judith Risse (EBI ProteomicsServices), Annette Schmidt (Neumann), DanielSchober (Microarray), Anne-Katrin Schuh (SocialServices), Antje Seeck (Courses and Conferences),Kerry Smith (Sequence Database), Damiano Somenzi(Rebholz), Annabel Todd (Regulation), VirginieVaultier (Grenoble Lab Service), Anna-Lynn Wegener(Office of Information and Public Affairs), GerdWellenreuther (Meyer-Klaucke)

people@EMBLThe new Coordinating Manager for the EMBL International Centre forAdvanced Training (EICAT), Matthias Haury, studied biology inFreiburg, the University of Alabama and the Pasteur Institute in Paris,completing a postdoc in San Francisco. For the past four years he hasbeen in the Directorate of the Gulbenkian Institute of Science inOeiras, Portugal, while leading a research group on the interface ofimmunology and neurobiology and participating as invited Professorin the teaching activities at the University of Lisbon Medical School.

The Office of Information and Public Affairs (OIPA) in Heidelberg has anew group leader, Lena Raditsch. Originally from Bonn, Lena studiedphysiology and molecular genetics at Heidelberg University before com-pleting her postgraduate studies in public relations. During the past tenyears she has had various communications positions in the life sciencesector, and as a PR officer she has covered a broad range of activitiesincluding media relations, journalism and editing scientific publications.Most recently she has been working as a self-employed PR consultant.

The new person to contact about press issues is Anna-Lynn Wegener,who has come to EMBL straight from a three-month internship in thePublic Affairs department of the European Southern Observatory(ESO) in Garching. Anna-Lynn is also from Bonn and studied naturalsciences and science communication at the universities of Cambridgeand Bath. She has also worked at BBC Wildlife Magazine, the Society ofEndocrinology in Bristol and the Max Planck Institute for Neurologyand Neuropsychology in Leipzig.

events@EMBL20–23 February, 2006EMBL HeidelbergJoint EMBL/Agilent Technologies PracticalCourse: Array-based Comparative GenomicHybridisation (aCGH)27 February–4 March, 2006EMBL HeidelbergEMBO Practical Course: Chromatin Immuno-precipitation9 March, 2006EMBL Heidelberg, Distinguished Visitor DEP domains in signalling proteinsJeremy Thorner, UC Berkeley, CA, USA22 March, 2006EMBL HeidelbergExtraordinary Council Meeting23 March, 2006EMBL HeidelbergScience and Society: Socially responsible invest-ments – minds that care, money that mattersSusanne Stormer, Novo Nordisk, Denmark27–28 March, 2006 EMBL HeidelbergEuropean Schools Science Symposium (ESSS)28 March, 2006 EMBL HeidelbergWelcome reception for new postdocs4–5 April, 2006 EBI, Hinxton Heads of Units/Senior Scientists Meetings5–8 AprilEMBL HeidelbergSecond Annual BioMalPar Conference 11 April, 2006EMBL Heidelberg, Distinguished VisitorBeyond the Double Helix: Reading and Writingthe Histone CodeDavid Allis, Rockefeller University, NY, USA

Musicianswanted...If you play an instrument andwould like to round off yourworking week making kidshappy, get in touch with EvaPuhm at the Kinderhaus.Every Friday all the childrenand teachers get together for abit of a sing-song, and Eva’skeen to get more instrumentsinvolved. “Even the babies joinin and enjoy the songs, andthe older ones have a dance,”she says. E-mail Eva ormusic@embl.de.

Voluntary long-term care insurance now available

You can now sign up for EMBL’s new long-term care insurance. You do not need toundergo a medical examination if a minimum of 100 members of staff and their

dependents sign up before August 31, 2006. Premium rates are age and gender dependent,so signing up now may be to your advantage to avoid a higher premium rate if your birth-day is coming up. Other points to note:• You will obtain a 50% subsidy from EMBL (25% for your dependent spouse and chil-

dren) towards your premium (subject to final approval from EMBL Council in March orJuly this year);

• there is no waiting period, and coverage is worldwide;• the insurance can be continued after leaving EMBL.Registration forms, a copy of the contract with Insurance company Gothaer and the pre-mium rates are available at www.embl.org/staffonly/personnel/longtermcare.html