8 EMBL August 2001 &cetera Newsletter of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory published by the Office of Information and Public Affairs EMBL appoints heads for Hinxton and Monterotondo MBLhas appointed new heads of the EBI in Hinxton and the A priority for both scientists will be to boost research activities at EMouse Biology Programme in Monterotondo. Nadia their units. Past funding limitations have prevented the EBI from Rosenthal, Associate Professor at Harvard and consulting editor developing a full research programme, although there have been at the New England Journal of Medicine, has taken charge of the a few very active groups since the site was opened. New funds Mouse Biology Programme, assuming the post vacated by Klaus from the EMBL member states will permit the addition of a full Rajewsky in June. Janet Thornton, Professor at the University complement of research teams, just as Cameron and his col- College of London and Fellow of the Royal Society, will direct leagues have been extremely successful in obtaining major fund- activities at the EBI, especially research. She succeeds Michael ing from the EC and the Wellcome Trust to bolster the EBI data- Ashburner, who has served as Co-Head of the Institute alongside bases and related services. Graham Cameron since the EBI was launched five years ago. Monterotondo, which opened in 1999, has been waiting for the "The new five-year scientific plan at EMBL stresses functional g reen light from EMBL's Council to reach critical mass. genomics and foresees substantial expansion of the EBI and the Rosenthal’s appointment comes at a time when a partner on the Mouse Biology Programme at Monterotondo," says Director Monterotondo campus, the European Mutant Mouse Archive General Fotis C. Kafatos. "We are delighted to have attracted out- (EMMA), has also been buttressed by funds from the EC. standing women scientists to lead both units in this new, dynam- ic era that EMBL has entered." page 2 Funding boost for EBI Annual report The EC will award the EBI and 25 collaborators nearly 20 million You can get a look into the major Euro over the next three years. The funds support four proposals events and science at the Laboratory including the Macromolecular Str u c t u res Database, the over the past year in EMBL’s 2000- M i c roarray Database, pro t e i n - p rotein interaction data, and 2001 Annual Report. Write to Integr8, an integrated platform for these and other EBI databases. i n f o @ e m b l - h e i d e l b e rg . d e for a hard page 8 copy, or download a pdf version from www.embl-heidelberg.de/info Science and Society goes to town EMBL, the DKFZ, the ZMBH and the Medical Faculty of the University of Heidelberg have combined forces in a new science communication initiative, the Heidelberg Forum on the Biosciences Contents and Society. The first event, a talk on prions, BSE and transgenic mice, was given by Professor Charles Weissmann on June 15 in the Print Media Academy in Heidelberg. EMBL appoints new heads 2 page 10 From the Director General 4 New administrative German Science Minister director for EMBL to visit EMBL Science & Society 6, 10 The EMBO Corner 9 Bernd-Uwe Jahn will take over fro m The German Minister for Science, Edelgard Bulmahn, will be at EMBLon September 6, Barton Dodd as Administrative Director EMBL’s core facilities 11 of the EMBL in August. Jahn is the 2001. As part of her visit she will inaugu- former Director of the Office of rate the newly completed first phase of the Summerfest at EMBL 12 European Research Organisations under International Technology Transfer Center the German BMBF. He has also served as and get a first-hand look at EMBL’s new News & events 13 German delegate to the EMBLCouncil. core facilities. People @ EMBL 14 page 8 EMBL &cetera Issue 8 - March 2001 Linking mice and medicine in Monterotondo aging and disease. Her backgro u n d wealth of local re s o u rces can make includes studies on transcriptional regu- EMBL, EMMA and CNR centers at lation, vertebrate development, mouse Monterotondo a paradigm for interac- genetics and gene therapy. She received tive science in Italy." her PhD in Biochemistry from Harvard Medical School in 1981, and for the past The EMBL Mouse Biology Programme eight years has headed a basic research is part of a pan-European initiative to laboratory in the Card i o v a s c u l a r c o o rdinate screens for developmental R e s e a rch Center at Massachusetts and physiological perturbations related General Hospital. After a decade of edi- to gene mutations in mice. Rosenthal torial experience at the New England plans to involve the international mouse Journal of Medicine, she also brings to the post a deep appreciation of clinical research community in this effort. research. "Researchers all over the world are pro- "Studies of human variation are teach- ducing new strains of mice at a very ing geneticists where we should be high rate, and these animals are a poten- looking at in the mouse," she says. tial gold mine of information about the "Working with clinicians, we can identi- influence of genes on mammalian fy particular genes whose function we development and genetic disease," Nadia Rosenthal think we understand in mice and then investigate them in humans. When sev- Rosenthal says. "We routinely analyze photo by Nubar Alexanian eral different genes are involved in a mutant mice that reportedly have no disease, the mouse can be enormously phenotype, but when we take a closer adia Rosenthal, newly-appointed helpful. You recreate the disease, try to look at them, we often discover an NCoordinator of the EMBL Research cure it in the mouse in a number of dif- unexpected array of defects in heart, P rogramme on Mouse Biology has ferent ways, and then develop strategies nerve and muscle. What you see in these to apply what you have learned to a l ready expanded the number of animals depends upon your focus. We humans." research groups in Monterotondo – the need to draw upon the collective expert- unit will see an immediate jump from The consolidation and systemization of ise of the community." three to six groups, with more projected mouse resources in Monterotondo, she to join soon. "A specific focus for the says, will make the center a valuable R e s e a rch at Monterotondo will also E M B L - M o n t e rotondo programme will resource to academic and biomedical exploit and improve existing methods be regenerative biology and biomedical researchers alike. She has concrete plans and techniques for manipulating the applications," she says. "The integration to build stronger ties with the other mouse genome. "Young scientists start- of mouse developmental genetics, func- partners on the campus, such as the ing their laboratories now are not afraid tional genomics, high-thro u g h p u t Italian National Research Council of applying every possible technology s c reening and molecular physiology (CNR) and the European Mutant Mouse to answer a question," she says. "You no promises to uncover new principles of A rchive (EMMA), which has also healing and rejuvenation in the adult. received significant new funding from longer ask, 'What can I do with the tech- The mouse offers the best current model the EC. niques I already have under my belt?' for effective application of basic re- Rosenthal already has established links Instead, you ask, 'do techniques exist search discoveries to clinical strategies." to basic scientists and clinicians work- that will allow me to answer a particular Rosenthal’s own research has focused ing in Rome. "Combining our close con- question, and if not, how do I get them?' on heart and muscle development, tacts in other EMBL units with the It is a wonderful time to be a scientist." New heads for Structural and Computational Biology Programme Luis Serrano and Peer Bork have been appointed Programme Coordinator and Associate Coordinator of EMBL’s Structural and Computational Biology Programme. Both are Senior Scientists and have been actively working to bridge the gap between experimental and com- putational approaches to biology. Luis’ re s e a rch has focused on structural biology with an intensive biocomputing approach, including designing artificial molecules, creating programs to predict protein folding patterns, and finding new mathematical ways to describe gene networks. Peer has closely linked computational predictions about molecu- lar functions to structural and experimental data, and has had numerous close collaborations with many experimentally-oriented EMBLgroups. Peer Bork Luis Serrano 3 ...and expanding research at the EBI ioinformatics re s e a rch is about "Banswering biological questions," says Janet Thornton, newly-appointed Head of the EBI. "It is about discovering new biological information – not just providing new tools for people. The EBI has got the major critical re s o u rc e s together; the new funding is already allowing us to develop our five major databases and make them truly interac- tive. I envisage a circle of re s e a rc h g roups around them – each linking rather closely to one or more of the core resources. It should be a very symbiotic relationship that will allow us to push farther forward than anyone else can." Expansion will begin with the recruit- ment of new research group leaders in the fall. "I am looking for world-class, ambitious young bioinformaticists who want to establish their own groups to take forward computational biology in novel areas, in a superb environment with all the best links into new biologi- Janet Thornton cal data." For the last eleven years, Thornton has been Professor of Biomolecular es, a set of activities which Graham processes.