Welcoming 62 New EMBO Members Marek Basler & Melina Schuh

SUMMER 2018

ISSUE 39

Scientists from 24 countries elected Welcoming 62 new EMBO Members PAGES 4 – 5

Research assessment EMBO Gold Medal 2018 Kicking the impact Marek Basler & Melina Schuh honoured factor habit PAGE 3 PAGE 11

Creative collaborations Learning to lead Fellowship application EMBO Young Investigators EMBO Lab Leadership courses Tips and tricks on structuring share their stories in the spotlight a project proposal

PAGES 6 – 7 PAGES 8 – 9 PAGE 12

www.embo.org TABLE OF CONTENTS © Marietta Schupp, EMBL Photolab Marietta Schupp, © Meet the 62 new EMBO Members Editorial PagesEMBO NEWS4-5 he first EMBO Gold Medal was presented to John Tooze in 1986. Since then, it Thas been awarded annually to celebrate EMBO news EMBO community the scientific achievements of young scientists. The work of this year’s recipients, Marek Two EMBO Gold Medals awarded Page 3 Updates from across Europe Basler and Melina Schuh (see p 3), continues Pages 14 – 16 in the same vein, exemplifying the exciting research that takes place across Europe. Each year, we ask our Members and Young Awards and publications Investigators to nominate candidates for the Gold Medal. Selecting one, or sometimes two, Achievements and papers by members of recipients from the many deserving nominees the EMBO community Page 17 is not an easy task. To make the selection process as fair as possible, we have changed the way EMBO Council assesses and discusses Crossing EMBO events each candidate. continents As one of the original signatories of the San Upcoming courses, workshops and Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment conferences Page 18 (DORA), we believe that the way researchers and their work are assessed must change. Young Investigator collaborations Using the journal impact factor to evaluate Pages 6 – 7 Fresh from EMBO Press someone’s work might be easy, but it is also inaccurate and unfair. DORA aims to change Learning to lead in science Pages 8 – 9 that, and on p 11 we explore examples from institutes and funders on how different ways How to apply for a fellowship Page 12 of assessing researchers could look. The change we made to the Gold Medal selection process is in line with these princi- EMBO Fellows meet in Heidelberg ples. EMBO Council no longer considers the Page 13 publication lists of the shortlisted nominees. Instead, it begins its deliberations with short Montenegro joins the EMBC Page 13 presentations on each nominee’s contribution to their field and the originality of their work. From not promoting our own journal’s Science Policy Five of EMBO’s latest publications at a impact factors to asking applicants to describe glance Page 19 their most important research outcomes, EMBO applies DORA principles in many different ways. However, to make a real difference in how researchers are assessed, it is important to involve everyone in the system, including scientists and institutes as well as publishers and funders. As the European DORA hub, we are inter- ested in highlighting examples of good practice and sharing people's experience to show that selection criteria don’t have to be based on the journal impact factor. So let us know Research integrity: funders on the case about initiatives that you are aware of. Page 10 Maria Leptin Director, EMBO Kicking the impact factor habit Page 11

Marek Basler Melina Schuh © Biozentrum, University of Basel University Biozentrum, © Irene Böttcher-Gajewski ©

Gold Medal honour for Interviews with the recipients are available online: embo.org/news/articles/2018/probing- Marek Basler and Melina Schuh bacterial-injection-needles-at-nanoscale EMBO award celebrates achievements of Czech microbiologist and embo.org/news/articles/2018/ German biochemist illuminating-the-beginning-of-life

oung independent group leaders are postdocs in my lab, without whom the work we URING O NO UT important for a strong research environ- do would not be possible.” O ST H A 6 N ment. To recognize some of the remarka- Melina Schuh from the Max Planck Institute 8 D Y 9 I 1 N ble achievements of scientists under the age of 40 for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany, in Europe, EMBO annually awards its Gold Medal, is awarded the medal in recognition of her work E G C C

which is endowed with an award of 10,000 euros. on meiosis in mammalian oocytes. I N

Marek Basler, who is based at the Biozentrum As a PhD student the University of Heidelberg

EMBO R

at the University of Basel, Switzerland, receives and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory I

C B R

the award for his work on bacterial type VI secre- (EMBL), Schuh developed a way to use live cell GOLD U A

E I

tion systems (T6SS). imaging microscopy to study meiosis in mouse S MEDAL E

Following his PhD research on bacterial toxins oocytes. She later extended this technique to T

L E

I I F C E S at the Institute of Microbiology of the Czech observing the processes that result in aneuploidy Academy of Sciences in Prague, Czech Republic, in human eggs. In addition to identifying molec- Basler began working on T6SS in John Mekalanos' ular processes during meiosis, Schuh has also lab at Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. established new tools to study gene and protein Combining cryo-electron microscopy with live- function in the female germ cell. About the cell imaging approaches, he determined the EMBO Member Sean Munro, MRC Laboratory system’s structure and functional dynamics in of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK, describes EMBO Gold great detail. In addition to showing how T6SS Schuh as “a truly remarkable young scientist. functions as a molecular speargun, Basler also She is utterly committed, a broad thinker, experi- demonstrated that these nanomachines are mentally fearless, and always looking for new Medal involved in interbacterial signal transduction. questions and approaches. She has pioneered EMBO Member Erich Nigg, University of Basel, methods to image mammalian meiosis and used The EMBO Gold Medal is awarded annually says about Basler: “He has shown originality and them to identify new players in this fundamen- to life science researchers under the age of productivity throughout his career, and has made tal process. In a particularly important move she 40, who are currently working in one of the many groundbreaking contributions. His work also performed the first live imaging of meiosis in EMBC Member States. has revolutionized research on bacterial secretion human oocytes.” EMBO Members and EMBO Young systems and clearly established him as a leader “It is an absolute honour to be amongst so Investigators are invited to nominate in this field.” many excellent colleagues who received the candidates for the medal. To be considered, Basler himself says about receiving the award: EMBO Gold Medal in previous years,” says a nomination must be supported by one “It's an incredible honour, and a great motiva- Schuh. “But the award should really go to the proposer and two sponsors. tion. It is fantastic to know that there are people many outstanding postdocs and students I have The nominations deadline for the 2019 outside my research field who think that the had the pleasure to work with. None of our work award is 1 February 2019. work we do is exciting and important. I’m also would have been possible without their enthusi- happy about the recognition for the students and asm and dedication.” embo.org/funding-awards/gold-medal

©2018 EMBO EMBOencounters | Summer 2018 | [email protected] 3 EMBO NEWS 62 life scientists elected as EMBO Members 2018 In May this year, EMBO welcomed 53 Members residing in 17 EMBC Member States and nine Associate Members currently working in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Japan and the USA. They join a group of more than 1800 of the best researchers in Europe and around the world, and will be formally welcomed at the Members’ Meeting in Heidelberg between 24 and 26 October 2018.

Judith E. Allen Maria Ina Arnone Salvador Aznar Benitah Marc Bühler Janusz M. Bujnicki Sarah J. Butcher Type 2 immunity, helminths Developmental gene regula- Stem cells in homeostasis, Epigenetic regulation of Computational and experi- Macromolecular structure and macrophage biology tory network evolution aging and cancer gene expression mental structural biology and assembly Manchester, United Kingdom Naples, Italy Barcelona, Spain Basel, Switzerland Warsaw, Poland Helsinki, Finland

Alfredo Oscar Cáceres* Peter J. Campbell A. Bernardo Carvalho* Michele De Luca George Diallinas Nicole Dubilier Cytoskeletal signaling and Somatic mutations in Evolutionary genomics of Epithelial stem cells in cell Transporter structure- Symbioses between marine neuronal polarity cancer and normal cells Drosophila Y chromosomes and gene therapy function and cell biology invertebrates and bacteria Córdoba, Argentina Cambridge, United Kingdom Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Modena, Italy Athens, Greece Bremen, Germany

Michael B. Elowitz* Michaela Frye Sonia Garel Petra Hajkova Gregory J. Hannon Axel Imhof Synthetic and RNA modifications in Forebrain wiring Molecular mechanisms of Small RNA, the piRNA Chromatin proteomics systems biology stem cells and plasticity epigenetic reprogramming pathway, cancer biology Planegg-Martinsried, Pasadena, United States Cambridge, United Kingdom Paris, France London, United Kingdom Cambridge, United Kingdom Germany

Artur Jarmolowski Luca Jovine Frank Jülicher Jim Kaufman Colin Kleanthous Stefan Knapp RNA metabolism in plants Molecular basis of egg- Physics of living matter Structure, function and Bacterial protein-protein Rational design of Poznań, Poland sperm recognition Dresden, Germany evolution of immunity interactions chemical probes Huddinge, Sweden Cambridge, United Kingdom Oxford, United Kingdom Frankfurt a. Main, Germany

Ana-Maria Lennon- Karolin Luger* Matthias P. Lutolf Alexander Meissner Guillermo Montoya Eduardo Moreno Duménil Chromatin structure Engineering stem cell DNA methylation in Structural molecular Fitness fingerprints and Immune cell migration and function self-organization development and disease biology of nanomachines mechanical cell competition Paris, France Boulder, United States Lausanne, Switzerland Berlin, Germany Copenhagen, Denmark Lisbon, Portugal

François Nédélec Salvatore Oliviero Ewa K. Paluch Lori A. Passmore Duanqing Pei* Ana Pombo Cellular architecture Epigenetic modifications to Biophysics of cell shape Protein complexes that Stem cell pluripotency and Gene regulation and Heidelberg, Germany regulate cell fate London, United Kingdom regulate mRNA polyA tails reprogramming genome architecture Turin, Italy Cambridge, United Kingdom Guangzhou, China Berlin, Germany

Felix Randow Stefan Raunser Janet Rossant* Eugenia Russinova Leonid A. Sazanov Alexander F. Schier Cell-autonomous and Structural studies of Early mammalian develop- Receptor-mediated Structure and function of Vertebrate embryogenesis innate immunity macromolecular complexes ment and stem cell origins signaling in plants membrane proteins and behavior Cambridge, United Kingdom Dortmund, Germany Toronto, Canada Ghent, Belgium Klosterneuburg, Austria Basel, Switzerland

Christa Schleper Brenda A. Schulman Blanche Schwappach LS Shashidhara* Benjamin D. Simons Mikiko C. Siomi* Ecology, physiology and Mechanisms and functions Membrane protein Hox gene function and Mechanisms of stem and RNA silencing: small RNA evolution of Archaea of ubiquitylation biogenesis and sorting epithelial morphogenesis progenitor cell fate biogenesis & functions Vienna, Austria Martinsried, Germany Göttingen, Germany Pune, India Cambridge, United Kingdom Tokyo, Japan

Lea Sistonen Thierry Soldati Rotem Sorek Petr Svoboda Kikuë Tachibana Tadatsugu Taniguchi* Transcriptional regulation in Cell-autonomous defence The immune system of Small and long non-coding Mechanisms of zygotic repro- Regulation of immunity, cell stress against bacterial infection bacteria: CRISPR and beyond RNAs in mammalian oocytes gramming to totipotency inflammation and cancer Turku, Finland Geneva, Switzerland Rehovot, Israel Prague, Czech Republic Vienna, Austria Tokyo, Japan

Nicolas Tapon Marja C.P. Timmermans Iva Tolić Xavier Trepat Marie-Hélène Verlhac Patrik Verstreken Control of tissue growth and Pattern formation during Biophysics of the Integrative cell and tissue Oocyte mechanics and Synaptic and mitochondrial architecture plant organogenesis mitotic spindle mechanobiology morphogenesis dysfunction in PD London, United Kingdom Tübingen, Germany Zagreb, Croatia Barcelona, Spain Paris, France Leuven, Belgium

Manuel Zimmer Cyril Zipfel *EMBO Associate Member Neural network dynamics Plant immunity and and behavior receptor kinase signalling Vienna, Austria Zurich, Switzerland

©2018 EMBO EMBOencounters | Summer 2018 | [email protected] 5 EMBO NEWS Creative collaborations The EMBO Young Investigator Programme supports and encourages Three days of science networking and collaborative working. Here, six current and former and networking for members of the programme describe the lasting scientific and Young Investigators personal connections they have formed. The annual Young Investigator Meeting is a By Kathy Weston key component of the practical and networking support that young group leaders receive as part of the programme. Participants, who are former or current EMBO Young Investigators and Installation Grantees, present their research, meet each other and learn more about EMBO.

This year, the meeting took place from 16 to 18 May at the Vienna BioCenter in Austria. 65 researchers from Europe, Taiwan and Singapore came together for three days of scientific discussions and informal networking. Each attendee presented their work in a Rink short talk. In addition, Programme Manager Gerlind Wallon gave an overview of the programme and EMBO Head of Scientific Publications Bernd Pulverer introduced Berezikov EMBO Press. Two additional sessions focused on the importance and relevance of responsi- Hunting ble conduct of research.

the wild Structured and informal networking sessions rounded off the programme and included a speed networking session and a tour of the worm Natural History Museum in Vienna.

any free-living flatworms have a super- might be the key to unlocking the puzzle of driving through Northern Siberia together and power – the ability to regenerate. Due why regenerative abilities vary so much among camping out by the streams,” he says. “We were Mto large numbers of pluripotent adult animals. sampling planarians in abandoned sites from the stem cells, flatworms continuously rebuild them- Soviet era in the middle of nowhere – there were selves in a food-supply dependent manner. This Adventurous journeys still buildings but everything was overgrown. makes them an ideal model to study not only the Their first field trip together, to the Caribbean There was a real ‘Mad Max’ feeling to it!” mechanisms of regeneration, but also stem cell island of Curaçao in 2015, was driven solely by biology, ageing, and how body size, shape and logic insists Berezikov: “The impetus was that Mission complete? proportions are laid down and maintained. the water temperature is much higher, and there- The expeditions are also paying off in terms of Flatworm aficionados Eugene Berezikov, fore worms are likely to develop faster, which is a scientific benefit. Berezikov has achieved his University Medical Center Groningen, The desirable trait in a potential model species.” The aim of finding a better lab model, which he has Netherlands and Jochen Rink, Max Planck two researchers poked around on the seashore for already sequenced in collaboration with Rink. Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, macrostomids with great success, but their search And with over 70 planaria species in the bag, Dresden, Germany, first bonded over drinks at for planarians was more of a challenge. “I had to Rink’s lab has begun to unravel the mechanism a conference in 2012, when they discovered a climb down a well to find them,” says Rink. “It’s behind the differences in regeneration ability: it shared fascination with the idea that besides the basically a desert island and looking for freshwa- hangs on the balance between sexual and asexual small number of haphazardously chosen model ter planarians was not exactly straightforward.” reproduction, and there are strong hints as to the species currently in use, there were likely to be Since then, the two have refined their search signalling pathways involved. many more interesting flatworm species waiting criteria. “We’ve learned that macrostomids like Both researchers emphasise that being EMBO to be found. Since then, wild worm hunting has protected beaches on little river estuaries,” Rink Young Investigators has enhanced their collabora- taken them to exotic locations all over the world. says. “Google Earth is a very important tool.” tion. Subsidised access to the genomics facilities Berezikov and Rink had different reasons They have since been to India, Japan and Siberia, at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in for their wish to find new worms. Berezikov are keen to sample the East African lakes, and Heidelberg has been invaluable, but the intellec- studies macrostomids, and was unhappy with will shortly be returning to Curaçao and Aruba. tual stimulus of the Young Investigator Meetings the current lab species, Macrostomum lignano, Siberia offered a particularly adventurous trip. also stands out: “The annual meetings are my out- whose genome is too complex for straightfor- “We wanted to find a species that could survive of-the-box-thinking week,” says Rink. Berezikov ward genetic manipulation. Rink studies planar- freezing,” says Berezikov, “so Siberia seemed to agrees: “You go there to meet great colleagues ians, which come with a spectrum of regenera- be a good place.” Rink relished the chance to visit and hear great science from all the different fields tive abilities. Comparing the different species Berezikov’s homeland: “We spent about a week of biology – I really cherish it.”

world into the brain, and contribute at different stages of development to cerebral maintenance and functioning,” says Garel. “We decided to focus on one important external modulator – Garel the gut microbiome – and we showed that the presence or absence of gut microbiota could change the microglia, and that this has a different impact in different stages of life, and in the different sexes.” Although the study was done in mice, there is significant overlap in the transcrip- Crossing tional profile of murine and human fetal micro- Ginhoux glia, suggesting that microbiota may also affect continents human brain function.

ingapore-based French immu- Exploring new questions nologist Florent Ginhoux’s The two researchers agree that being EMBO Scollaboration with neurobiol- Young Investigators has been immensely useful ogist Sonia Garel is the result of a coincidence: to fetal and adult brain development, which is to their collaboration. “It enabled us to do two Garel’s lab at the Institute of Biology of the Ecole the primary focus of Garel’s research. things that were absolutely fabulous,” Ginhoux Normale Superieure in Paris, France, is just round says. “The first was a joint lab meeting in Paris, the corner from Ginhoux’s parents’ home. While Microbiome and microglia which created a strong bond between the two on a filial visit, Ginhoux, who had heard that Immunology and developmental neurobiology teams, and the second was a two-day creative- Garel’s scientific interests were close to his own, are perfect partners in the study of microglia, problem-solving workshop.” Garel adds: “the dropped in to introduce himself. They hit it off which have been linked to diseases with neuro- workshop freed us up to think about novel ques- immediately, and since then, as Ginhoux says, logical and inflammatory components, such as tions and solutions, and one of the results was “Sonia and I are besties!” Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, this last paper, which we’re both really proud of.” Ginhoux‘s lab at the Agency for Science, autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia. The distance between the two labs has some- Technology and Research studies the development The collaboration has resulted in three papers so times made exchanging materials and expertise and function of macrophages and dendritic cells. far, culminating in the most recent publication this tricky, but they are committed to continuing to His interest in Garel’s work came about through year (doi 10.1016/j.cell.2017.11.042) that is likely work together. “We have a great time together, her work on microglia, the resident macrophages to have important implications for human health. but also, if we really want to understand what of the central nervous system. Microglia are the “We knew that microglia could be an entry immune cells do in the brain, we need to work at system’s first line of defense, but also contribute point for all sorts of signals from the outside the interface between our two fields,” says Garel.

bserving what goes on in a single cell at bump into each other on a a defined location within the body is a regular basis. In the interven- Oproblem that has occupied biologists for ing years, Amit had become many years. Immunology has been particularly an expert in immunogenom- vexed by this issue. So it’s not by chance that two ics, and Iannacone in intravi- immunologists, Matteo Iannacone from the San tal imaging, and they quickly Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, Italy and realized that combining their Ido Amit from the Weizmann Institute of Science knowledge might be synergis- in Rehovot, Israel, together with the Weizmann tic. “We shared a passion and Institute’s Ziv Shulman, have finally cracked the interest in this problem, but problem, in a collaboration that’s produced a separately, we didn’t have the Iannacone technical tour-de-force called NICHE-seq. technological understanding Their recent paper (doi: 10.1126/science. to actually solve it,” says Amit. aao4277) describes using two-photon microscopy “We were both pushing the to switch on a ubiquitously-expressed photo-acti- limits of the technology, one related vatable fluorescent reporter protein in a specific to looking in real time at immune Location, cell niche, either in a transgenic animal, or ex cells within living organisms, and the Amit vivo. Once marked in this way, the cells are puri- other in doing large scale single cell location, fied by flow-sorting, and individually subjected RNA sequencing analysis on organs,” to massively parallel single-cell RNA sequenc- Iannacone says. “We came up with ing, giving a genome-wide transcriptional read- the idea to see if Ido’s lab could read location out that can be linked to a precise location. This genome wide expression patterns breakthrough has opened up a whole new vista in cells that my lab could label and of research and biomedical possibilities. purify.” important bridge that allows people to meet and Marietta Schupp / EMBL Photolab © Both researchers are enthusiastic supporters discuss their work.” Chance encounter of the EMBO Young Investigator Programme: Iannacone agrees: “EMBO funded some Amit and Iannacone first met as postdocs over “You need a spark to start a big fire and I think exchange visits between our two labs, which ten years ago, when they were on the same that’s what being an EMBO Young Investigator really drove the project forward,” he says, “but plane to a meeting in Japan. They kept in touch allows you to do,” Amit says. “Having this abil- the most critical aspect for me is the possibility sporadically, but it wasn’t until they both became ity to go to Young Investigator meetings and of networking and meeting people like Ido in the EMBO Young Investigators that they started to think together in a different atmosphere is a very crucial early years of building my group.”

dealing with people and it is the job of the leader manager, but I have learned that you just need Learning to lead to get the best out of them,” she says of her role. to be yourself.” “The important things that I learned on the lab His group studies chromatin and the mecha- Alumni of the EMBO Lab Leadership leadership course are the importance of giving nisms that help to govern the function and adapt- course on getting the best out of good feedback, to communicate clear expecta- ability of our genome to new environments. “I their teams and research tions, how to react to potential conflicts in the have learned that you also need to show and workplace, and to be assertive.” communicate that you care,” he says of leading a team. “This could be by prioritising opportunities tarting out as a new group leader provides to help team members excel in their careers, but researchers with an opportunity to develop is also important at the emotional level – casual Stheir research vision and shape their own conversations can help you to learn about your questions, putting their scientific training to use team members and their distinct needs and on a topic that interests them. But new principal abilities.” investigators must also get to grips with respon- sibilities for which they have often received little “Rather than trying to get everyone training: recruitment and management of staff, to fit into your formula, it is leadership, budgeting, dealing with conflicts, mentoring and many more; tasks that are also important to recognise and relevant to the quality of the research done in support their differences.” their laboratories and, ultimately, their success as leaders. One of the key things about understanding Ladurner and working with your team is accepting that they are not all the same and that you will need to be flexible to get the best from them. “Science is a people business: everyone comes with differ- Recognising ent ideas, skill sets, backgrounds, and needs,” Ladurner says. personalities “Rather than trying to get everyone to fit into your formula, it is important to recognise and MBO Member Andreas Ladurner, who support their differences. I believe everyone has first took the EMBO leadership course in an intrinsic drive and ambition: you need to Eearly 2005 as a group leader, and who is manage that, meet regularly, find out who they now head of the Department of Physiological are and what motivates them. In my group, I real- Chemistry at the Ludwig Maximilian University ly want people to invent – that requires a struc- in Munich, Germany, says that there is always tured freedom or an intentional defocus. There Ishtiaq more to learn as a leader. “It’s important to are great opportunities for new areas by trying to seek advice; this is a strength, not a weakness. find new connections between established fields.” I used to think that there was a recipe to be a Team building as priority

arah Ishtiaq’s group at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore studies how malar- Words from the trainers Fia is introduced and spreads in bird species. Her team members spend their days monitoring The value of good leadership to high quality, repro- EMBO’s reputation for excellence, which promises seven field sites at different altitudes – from the ducible research cannot be overstated. The princi- high quality training tailored directly to the experi- jungle up into the Himalayan mountains. The ple that good leadership can and should be taught ence of research scientists. job can involve long hours, difficult conditions, to improve the conduct and outcomes of research As a result, and as the research environment intense periods together, and long times apart. was the original impetus for creating the EMBO and the challenges facing those navigating it “When people are spread across different sites Laboratory Leadership course. evolve, we continue to refine the course. We are it can be very isolating, even if they are work- Over the three or four days of the course, we also launching new courses this year to address ing towards a common goal. It is important to work to equip our participants with models, tools some of the additional needs of our commu- prioritise team building and clear and inclu- and concepts about the work environment, people nity. These include Project Management, Project sive communication to overcome this,” Ishtiaq and their behaviour, so that when they return to Portfolio Management, Advanced Leadership, and explains. “In the field, sometimes we set out at their labs, they can lead thoughtfully, skillfully and Creative Problem Solving that we will pilot this 4:30 am and trek to an observation site – it might responsibly. The leaders in this article illustrate this year and that will be added to our regular schedule start out sunny, but two hours later we could in action and the success to which it can lead. in 2019. be in the middle of a hail storm. Not everyone Since its launch in 2005, the course has been copes in the same way and some aspects can be field tested in the most challenging of environ- Samuel Krahl and CJ Fitzsimons stressful, especially if they did not go to plan. As ments: research laboratories. What we have come a leader, it is important for me to keep a high to, through adaptation to that environment, is To stay up to date with our work and our course energy and create a good atmosphere. You need a suite of tools and models that the scientists we schedule, join our mailing list to be mindful about how you are feeling as it can train find readily useful. lab-management.embo.org/newsletter impact your entire team.” EMBO brings two advantages to ‘soft skills’ Ishtiaq leads a team of seven and was a partic- training in the sciences. Members of EMBO's ipant on one of the first EMBO Lab Leadership community keep us updated on their needs, and courses run in India in March this year. “You are

What you can do, as a leader, is to ensure that Motivation your people have the appropriate environment in which they can themselves feel motivated. When we ask participants how motivation The American psychologist Frederik Herzberg feels, they usually come up with things like: provides a useful model (shown below) for high energy, happy, satisfied, in control, sense of ensuring that such an environment is in place, achievement. In short: motivation feels great! and for trouble-shooting with a team member The bad news is that you cannot motivate other what is missing for them if they are currently people – they can only motivate themselves. struggling with their levels of motivation.

Shelest Meaning/Context Feedback We need to understand why our work is We need to see that both we and our work meaningful and the context in which we are successful: Experiments are going well, are doing it. How are we advancing we publish in a good journal, we present Consider individual knowledge? How are we contributing to the work at a conference. It also means the research vision of the lab? that we need to receive detailed, positive strengths TIP: It’s easy to lose sight of these things, feedback from our boss or peers. so it’s sometimes enough simply to remind TIP: If a team member’s experiments are katerina Shelest, Head of the Bioinformatics a team member of the bigger picture. failing, try giving them extra technical Unit at the German Centre for Integrative support and/or praise their perseverance EBiodiversity Research (iDiv) in Leipzig, and dedication. Germany, has found that it can be challenging to help very creative people focus enough to finish projects. “One of my students was very MOTIVATION talented and was always coming up with a lot of great new ideas, but I needed him to focus,” FACTORS she recalls. “On the EMBO Lab Leadership course, we learned coaching techniques – breaking down Happy In Control tasks into manageable pieces, setting intermedi- ate goals, monitoring progress, meeting regu- FEELING larly and giving feedback and guidance. I have High Energy Achievement seen a different world of leadership and this has HIGHLY been especially important for work with my PhD MOTIVATED students: the outcome is remarkable.” Shelest took the course in February of this year Satisfied Focused to support her leadership of multidisciplinary work that combines areas such as sequence anal- HYGIENE ysis, 'omics' data integration, and the functional analysis of genomes. She says it is important for FACTORS a leader not to get buried in the detail. “Our field develops very fast, and a Master’s student may be more advanced than a group leader in terms of Situational Belonging/ ‘narrow’ technical aspects of the work,” she says. Control Recognition “This is great: it’s the leader’s role to focus on We need to have sufcient resources to We need to belong to a group and have our the broader scientific view, delegate tasks, help undertake our work: The appropriate skills, contributions recognized. Regular people to excel and to set ambitious, but realistic knowledge and experience, the right meetings are important to acknowledge goals. My job is to provide the overarching vision equipment and materials, enough time, hard work. Social events are also and a balance between freedom and important (e.g. celebrating birthdays or that touches the interests of everyone and lay out supervision (the right balance will be published papers). the goals that can help our team to achieve its different for each person). TIP: A lack of belonging outside the lab can best work.” TIP: If a team member is reluctant to also impact work. Give the person time to One of the ways to do that, she says, is to undertake work, nd out what’s holding process what is going on; they will be consider the strengths and preferences of each them back and address what they need to appreciative and motivated when they team member. “Personal interests and inclina- restore situational control. have resolved their personal issues. tions are very important: select the tasks and challenges that people like to do, set them ambitious targets, and above all, be yourself and do what you are good at.” The experiences of researchers who have Frederick Herzberg’s Hygiene-Motivation Theory attended an EMBO Lab Leadership course show that there is no rule book for becoming a great Herzberg worked with 200 employees in are missing, we experience dissatisfaction and leader. Rather, by applying models, tools and Pittsburgh in the 1950s to discover their atti- struggle to feel motivated. When Motivation concepts to the huge range of challenges that tudes to their jobs, what led to these attitudes, Factors are present, we experience satisfaction science leaders face, it can bring out the best and how this affected their motivation. He and are capable of even higher levels of motiva- qualities of a team. And that, in turn, benefits identified two main areas: Hygiene Factors tion. All of these factors together contribute to science. and Motivation Factors. When Hygiene Factors motivation and the feelings that accompany it.

rivate and public funders are powerful a lack of attention for how data are stored and Policy Officer Sandra Bendiscioli, the panel players in science, enabling a wide range managed. This in turn encourages violations of presented and discussed existing and potential Pof research worldwide. Their goals, condi- procedures, norms and values. new initiatives. tions and evaluation procedures influence the Maria Leptin presented an overview of EMBO’s types of research carried out and shape research- Funders on the case initiatives, including its research integrity trainers’ careers. Funders have already begun to use their influ- ing mandate, its work on research assessment ence to address some of these problems. Several and accepting preprints as part of an applicant’s are putting mechanisms in place to ensure the publication list (also see above). “Funders have an important research they fund can be readily accessed and Jim Smith talked about initiatives at Wellcome: role in shaping the research reused, so that research results can be verified To support reproducibility and transparency, and built upon more easily. Cancer Research UK the Wellcome Trust encourages open sharing system, through their inter- and the Wellcome Trust in the UK require project of research data and publications. Through the nal policies and the condi- proposals to have data management and sharing Wellcome Open Research platform it allows grant plans. And the European Commission is running holders to rapidly publish all research outputs, tions they attach to grants.” an Open Research Data Pilot, which gives appli- including datasets, case reports, protocols, and cants the option to submit data management null or negative results. Wellcome has also plans for some Horizon 2020 funding calls. released a policy on bullying and harassment to At the same time, funders have an important In an effort to move the focus away from the ensure a fair and open research environment. role in shaping the research system, through their quantity of research outputs, some funders are Bringing up the duty of institutions to audit internal policies and the conditions they attach changing how they assess researchers. EMBO, their employees’ compliance with research to grants. The Open Access mandates implement- for example, has signed up to the San Francisco integrity guidelines, Mark Ferguson reported on ed by funders including the two experiments at Science European Commission and Foundation Ireland (SFI). SFI the UK’s Wellcome Trust are now encourages the scien- prime examples of this, and tists that make up the site are changing how researchers Research integrity: visit teams that review indi- publish their results. vidual laboratories’ progress funders on the case to discuss with the research- A problem for the whole ers their use of integrity system EMBO-led panel inspects role of funding bodies procedures. This removes the Funders, however, could bureaucratic element, and at the EuroScience Open Forum go further in exerting influ- turns the matter into a peer- ence on research practices. to-peer interaction, which is There is growing awareness expected to be more produc- of problems with the reli- tive. In addition, SFI is explor- ability of research results and breaches of scientific norms and values. A Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), review of surveys on scientists’ behaviour has which advises against using journal impact “Funders should develop found that a third of respondents admitted to factors to assess the scientific performance of problematic research practices such as omitting researchers and institutions, and has adopted its clear and accessible outliers, adding data points, beautifying images, principles in its Fellowship Programme (also see procedures for promoting distorting statistics, ignoring negative results or p 11). plagiarism (doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005738). Other initiatives aim to get a broader view research integrity.” The result is an atmosphere of mistrust, with of a researchers’ work. Cancer Research UK, for researchers expressing concerns about the quality example, has started evaluating other research ing alternative means to assess scientists’ track of research practices; the review found that 72% outputs in addition to journal papers, such as records. Instead of looking at metrics, it now reported having observed questionable practices datasets, patents and training. seeks answers to the questions: What have you by colleagues. In a bid to address research misconduct more discovered? Why is it important? What have you directly, some funders, such as the Wellcome done about it? Trust and Health Research Board Ireland, require Maura Hiney presented the recommendations “There is growing awareness or encourage grantees’ institutions to develop developed by the Science Europe Working Group of problems with the reliabil- policies to handle allegations of misconduct. on Research Integrity, which she chaired. For EMBO requires its Long-Term Fellows and Young example, funders should develop clear and easily ity of research results and Investigators to take training in responsible accessible procedures for promoting research breaches of scientific norms research conduct, and provides an online course integrity and dealing with misconduct. The that allows them to meet this requirement. outcomes of investigations in misconduct should and values.” be transparent and collected centrally; and train- Panel discussion at ESOF 2018 ing in research integrity should be supported as Ultimately, individual researchers are respon- To explore how funders in Europe might go part of or as a condition for the funding. She sible for their own conduct. But the research further, EMBO organised a session titled ended by saying that funding agencies have a lot system must try to create an environment in “Research Integrity: Funders on the case” at the of power to drive change, but that this requires which scientists can carry out work to the high- EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) in Toulouse on the will to change their own practices and est ethical and integrity standards. This is not 10 July. EMBO Director Maria Leptin was joined behaviour. entirely the case at present. The extreme competi- by Jim Smith from the Wellcome Trust, Maura This is an adapted version of an article published in tiveness of research leads to an overemphasis of Hiney from Health Research Board Ireland and Research Professional (www.researchresearch.com/ the journal impact factor, the devaluation of work Science Europe, and Mark Ferguson from Science news/article/?articleId=1376027) focused on negative or confirmatory results, and Foundation Ireland. Chaired by EMBO Science embo.org/science-policy/research-integrity

“DORA has provided the contribution. And both Cancer Research UK and with industry, were not always appreciated for Wellcome now ask applicants to select their top their ‘non-scientific’ activities and were failing to impetus for the research research outputs and highlight why they are win the promotions they deserved. community, together with interesting, rather than list all their papers. These Candidate (associate) professors at UMC can include datasets, patents and contributions to Utrecht are now assessed using a portfolio that its institutions and funders, changing medical practice or health policy. better reflects the multifaceted nature of a scien- to begin to break the Fiona Reddington, Head of Population tific career. Research programmes are also evalu- Research Funding at Cancer Research UK, says ated based on their wider clinical and social addiction to JIFs.” that, so far, researchers have been enthusiastic, impact, rather than a simplistic bibliometric but that culture change will take some time – approach. committee members still fall into old habits, and Rinze Benedictus, staff advisor at UMC Utrecht, ust over five years ago, EMBO was one of applicants “aren’t yet quite sure what good looks says that there has been an overall increase in the original signatories of the San Francisco like when filling out the new-style application the number of professors appointed, with more JDeclaration on Research Assessment forms.” coming from otherwise meritorious fields that do (DORA). Conceived by a group of journal editors Jim Smith, Director of Science at Wellcome, not traditionally publish in high impact journals. and academic publishers, and since signed by agrees: “We’ve been doing it the old way for He hopes that this will lead to increased diversity around 500 institutions and 12,000 individuals, decades, and it’s hard for people to change, even in senior positions, completing the virtuous circle. the declaration calls for the reform of research when they want to, which I think they do.” Smith However, he says, “you have to be aware of what assessment practices, particularly the use of jour- and his team have also been thinking how they is going on in the rest of the system – you can nal impact factors (JIFs) and similar metrics to can influence others to adopt DORA’s principles. be a front runner but you can’t be too far ahead.” judge an individual’s research output. Following “Wellcome does have the ability to make grand Researchers’ careers are inherently mobile, on from DORA, the bibliomet- so a new post-JIF CV has to ric community itself warned be flexible enough to work in the 2015 Leiden Manifesto in less progressive places. of the dangers of using biblio- And Benedictus echoes the metrics as a sole arbiter of Kicking the impact concerns of many when he quality. In the words of the points out that faculty are still economist Charles Goodhart: factor habit faced with the conundrum “when a measure becomes a of whether to boost their lab target, it ceases to be a good How institutes and funders are turning the members’ careers by publish- measure.” ing in high impact publica- DORA theory into practice Bernd Pulverer, EMBO tions, thereby reinforcing the Head of Scientific Publications By Kathy Weston existing system. says: “To put it bluntly: by making the decision to accept Making change happen or reject a paper, we as editors, Stephen Curry of Imperial are playing a sometimes decisive but unwanted gestures,” he says, “so we could, for example, College, who chairs the DORA steering committee, role in the judgment of people’s careers. This is stipulate that the host institutions of our grant- is mindful that signing DORA is not enough [doi: problematic as we select for editorial not hiring holders are DORA signatories.” 10.1038/d41586-018-01642-w]. “Some people criteria.” Pulverer thinks that DORA has provided have criticized DORA as being ‘clicktivism’,” he the impetus for the research community, together Hiring practices revisited says, “so we need to walk the walk as well as with its institutions and funders, to begin to break Universities are also starting to rethink how they talk the talk.” The DORA website will become a the addiction to JIFs. Power lies where the money hire and reward their researchers. In the USA, forum highlighting good practice, and hubs will is, and so he is particularly happy that research the Department of Cell Biology at University of be established around the world to start to reach funders are taking steps to kick the JIF habit. Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas has into countries, such as India and China, that are At EMBO, applicants for Long-Term Fellow- revamped its recruitment procedures for junior still heavily reliant on bibliometrics. ships or the Young Investigator Programme are faculty. asked to provide summaries of their most impor- Candidates write a brief cover letter outlining tant research outcomes without reference to the their past contributions and future vision, which “We’re sending a terrible impact factor of their publications. And EMBO can be viewed by all the faculty. They have a message to the next Council’s deliberation of the Gold Medal recipi- short video call interview if even just one member ent now begins with four-minute summaries of of the faculty expresses interest, and shortlisted generation about what we each of the nominee’s scientific merits in terms candidates then proceed to a full interview. Doing reward in research... and of the originality of their work and the impact it away with a standard publication-based CV as a has had on their fields, explicitely and deliberate- triage method has led to a better, more diverse that needs to change.” ly banning any discussions on where they have field of candidates being interviewed, and the published; a practice that has wholly changed the hiring of motivated, enthusiastic scientists [doi: What of the next five years? “I would hope subsequent discussions. 10.1091/mbc.E17-08-0534]. many more institutions will change how they go In the Netherlands, University Medical Center about research assessment,” Curry suggests, but Focusing on content and overall output (UMC) Utrecht is leading the way in redesigning he also has a more immediate wish: “At present, In the UK, the Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research its internal assessment and promotion methods we’re sending a terrible message to the next UK, and all seven of the UK research councils [doi: 10.1038/538453a]. Biomedical research in generation about what we reward in research,” have signed up to DORA, instructing review- the Netherlands was particularly in thrall to JIFs, he says, “and that needs to change as fast as ers, recruitment and promotion panels that which was hampering the careers of some excel- possible.” they should be assessing the content of specific lent researchers. Those who spent time on work papers, rather than where they’re published, such as making health policy, writing official www.sfdora.org when considering the impact of an individual’s reports rather than papers, or establishing links

The initial work will pay off when preparing Stand out the application. At this stage it is important to follow instructions and to only provide the infor- from the mation asked for. Generic applications are usually What’s in a fellowship not very successful. “Make sure your application fits the requirements of the funder,” explains crowd application? Scorrano. “The scopes may be different, and the How to prepare an same project needs to be described differently if Introduction: you apply to a medically-focused organization, or EMBO Long-Term Fellowship The introduction should answer the following to one supporting fundamental research.” application three questions. The final bit of research should include find- ➔➔ What is the research topic? ing out who will be evaluating the proposal. ➔➔ What is already known about it and why The project description needs to be adapted for it is important to know more? whether it is assessed by a single expert in the nternational mobility is a key characteristic of field, or by a panel of scientists who are expert in ➔➔ What is the research question, and in EMBO Long-Term Fellowships, which require related but different fields. which direction will it extend knowledge? Iresearchers to move to a different country from the one where they carried out their PhD. When EMBO introduced the fellowships in the 1960s Project proposal: they were the first of their kind. Today, several The project proposal is the core of an applica- similar funding options exist. Nonetheless, the tion. The easiest way to write it is to follow a success rate of anywhere between 11 and 16% hypothesis-driven structure. The research Step 3 shows that EMBO Fellowships remain sought question is defined in the introduction, so the after and highly competitive. Here, the Chair of hypothesis should be the start of the project the EMBO Fellowship Committee, Luca Scorrano proposal. Once the hypothesis is defined, from the Venetian Institute of Molecular Medicine the experimental plan to test it should be and the University in Padua, Italy, and the Head provided. of the Fellowship Programme, David del Alamo, ➔➔ Research question: how are proteins A Clear and concise writing give tips on how to put together the best possible and B involved in cancer development? application. ➔➔ Hypothesis: proteins A and B form a Before applicants put pen to paper, it is valuable complex that activates an oncogene. to read a successful proposal from someone they know. Seeing how someone else structured their ➔➔ Experimental plan: use technique 1 to writing might provide additional insight. test complex formation, technique 2 to The most important thing is to write clearly, test complex formation in vivo, technique concisely and to avoid jargon. Most likely, the 3 to test oncogene activation, etc. project proposal will also be read by people Step 1 who are not experts in that field. Scorrano says: “Never take knowledge for granted, particularly when you explain the background and importance of your research. If an evaluator does not understand why you want to do something, then Careful planning it does not matter how much detail you add about experiments.” It is important to emphasize novel One of the most important things to do is planning. Step 2 ideas, including how they compare with previous “If you are applying for a postdoctoral fellowship work, but lengthy descriptions should be avoided. such as an EMBO Long-Term Fellowship, you will Generally, a proposal contains two parts: the probably be doing so at the end of your PhD,” introduction and the core project proposal (see says del Alamo, “and that is an extraordinarily box). It is important to define, whenever possi- busy time.” Thorough preparation ble, ‘plan B’ scenarios in case the hypothesis or With finishing off research for and writing the the experimental plan do not deliver results as PhD thesis, trying to publish the results, look- Just like a scientific investigation, a strong appli- intended. Scorrano also highlights that “when it ing for career options, and visiting potential host cation begins with some desk research. A variety comes to techniques, consider the suitability to laboratories, time to spend on writing an applica- of different funding options are available, but not the experiments proposed instead of listing the tion can be scarce. Yet, a good project propos- all of them may be suitable. Del Alamo explains: newest available technologies.” al requires careful consideration and a strong “Look at funders’ scopes and their eligibility and The final tip del Alamo offers is to “read application needs time to write. So careful time selection criteria. Read guidelines, frequently through your application, and then read it again management can make all the difference. asked questions and anything else you can find. and again. Make sure it is complete and clear. To “The first thing you need to do is to develop You need to determine not only whether you are test whether it will be understood by the asses- an idea into a project,” adds Scorrano, who has eligible, but also whether your application will sors, ask two colleagues to read it: one topic served on the EMBO selection committee for five be competitive.” expert and one non-expert scientist. The first may years and chaired it for the last year. “This should At this stage being honest with oneself is correct mistakes in your hypothesis or experi- be done together with the host laboratory. But do crucial: it is important not to waste time applying mental approach, the second will be able to indi- not reuse a host lab grant proposal: the fellow- for fellowships for which one is not eligible or cate whether the proposal is interesting to and ship funds your project, not the work of a team, has very a low chance for success. “This will only can be understood by non-experts.” and it should be tailored to the amount of time take away time from preparing the applications the funding is available for and the resource of for programmes for which you are truly competi- embo.org/funding-awards/fellowships one fellow.” tive,” says del Alamo.

12 EMBOencounters | Summer 2018 | [email protected] ©2018 EMBO EMBO NEWS EMBO Fellows meet in Heidelberg Postdoctoral researchers come together for four days of discussing science and building networks

award selection mechanisms at the limits of peer review. And Thomas Schwarz-Romond, former editor at The EMBO Journal and now Director of Operations at the Helmholtz Pioneer Campus in Neuherberg, Germany, and former EMBO Fellow Silvia Portugal, University Clinic Heidelberg, Germany talked about their career decisions. Sam Krahl, Project Coordinator of the EMBO Lab Leadership Courses, provided insights into science communication in a half-day workshop, whereas Bernd Klaus from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, talked the participants through essential statistics for modern biology.

Making connections

© EMBL Photolab © A central aspect of the meeting is to enable the participants to develop their personal networks in addition to talking about science. Kathrin etween 14 and 17 June 2018, 103 EMBO keynote lecture by EMBO Member Laurent Keller, Leppek from Stanford University, USA‏, described Long-Term Fellows attended the annual University of Lausanne, Switzerland, on “Sex, the meeting as “four days of great people [and] BFellows’ Meeting in Heidelberg, Germany. sociality and supergenes”. science. It’s been … an amazing opportunity to The event brings together the postdoctoral connect.” researchers to talk about science and their Communication, careers and more research experiences, and to hear from external In addition to the scientific talks, the fellows embo.org/funding-awards/fellowships/ speakers about topics relevant to working in the heard from a range of invited speakers. Celine fellows-meeting life sciences. Carret, Senior Editor at EMBO Molecular During the meeting each of the EMBO Fellows Medicine talked about scientific publishing and presented their work in a short talk or a post- research integrity. Head of the EMBO Science er. The scientific programme also included a Policy Programme, Michele Garfinkel, discussed

Welcome, Montenegro The country becomes the 30th EMBC Member State

n May 2018, Montenegro joined EMBO’s inter- Associate Professor at the Faculty of Science at governmental funding body, the European the University of Montenegro. IMolecular Biology Conference (EMBC). It is “It is our goal to strengthen science in the 30th country to become part of the EMBC, Montenegro,” says Damjanović. “One of the ways and will now be able to benefit from the support in which we are looking to do this is through EMBO offers to talented life science researchers creating international connections. Being part of at all career stages. EMBO will help us to intensify the ties with the “Montenegro is making a strong effort to rest of Europe and to provide financial and profes- improve life science research in their own coun- sional support to researchers in our country.” try and through cross-border initiatives,” says Following the completion of the parliamentary EMBO Director Maria Leptin. “We are pleased to ratification procedure, life scientists working in welcome Montenegro as part of the European life Montenegro are now eligible to apply to EMBO science community that EMBO represents. And for Long-Term and Short-Term Fellowships, we look forward to offering the country’s scien- Courses & Workshops funding and the EMBO tists the opportunities and support available in Young Investigator Programme. Access to support our member states.” in these areas helps some of Europe’s best scien- Montenegro’s accession as EMBC Member tists to excel in their research and to engage in State was agreed by EMBC Council following professional networking with an international a presentation from Montenegrin Minister of community of peers. Science Sanja Damjanovic´, and Danilo Mrdak,

n 31 May, 23 ERC grantees, including speaker in the session titled “Digital revolution OEMBO Member Panayiota Poirazi from the - Potential and challenges of the Information Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, Society”, which focused on Artificial Intelligence Greece, joined MEPs at a meeting at the European and its impact on jobs, society, democracy and Parliament in Strasbourg. The event was a joint the future of humanity. initiative of the European Parliament's Science She says: “It was very useful to see how poli- and Technology Options Assessment (STOA) ticians think when it comes to important scien- panel and the European Research Council tific and societal issues. We, as scientists, need (ERC) and included speakers from the European to do more about communicating the importance Parliament, the Commission and the ERC. of science for addressing many of the public ERC grantees and MEPs addressed current concerns by providing simple examples and science policy issues and shaped the future explanations of how science can benefit society.” directions of European Research. Poirazi was a Poirazi Panayiota ©

Exploiting lipid rafts for industrial applications

afts4Biotech is a Horizon-2020-funded by Daniel López from The National Centre for Rafts4Biotech also organizes training activi- Rresearch project that exploits bacterial lipid Biotechnology in Madrid, Spain. EMBO Member ties such as a symposium for PhD students and rafts as a biotechnological tool to spatially confine Jiri Damborsky represents one of the leading part- postdoctoral researchers in the field of membrane reactions of industrial interest. The project objec- ners, the International Clinical Research Center of lipids. The first symposium will take place on 18 tive is to engineer synthetic bacterial lipid rafts to St. Anne's University Hospital, Czech Republic. and 19 September 2018 in Madrid. EMBO Member foster the industrial application of bacteria and Damborsky and his team at the Loschmidt Anne-Claude Gavin from the European Molecular allow the production of a broad range of novel Laboratories are developing a lab-on-chip tech- Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany is compounds for pharmaceutical, cosmetic and nology and smart algorithms for automated among the speakers discussing lipid membrane food industries. optimization of complex metabolic pathways to biology in eukaryotes and prokaryotes. The project is based on the cooperation of enable project partners to quickly optimize stoi- an international team of partners, coordinated chiometric ratios of valuable enzymes. rafts4biotech.eu/r4b-symposium/ © Institut Pasteur – Jean-François Charles Institut Pasteur ©

Stem cell biology learning at the stem cell biology, their properties and potential click of a button in directing organogenesis and regeneration in different organisms, and how they can be exploit- ed for therapeutic purposes. Renowned international experts in stem cell he Revive Consortium for Stem Cells in With this goal in mind, the consortium has biology, including EMBO Members Alfonso TRegenerative Biology and Medicine is a created a summer course “Advances in Stem Martinez-Arias, Matthias Lutolf, Benjamin French initiative coordinated at the Institut Cell Biology course (ASCBC)” for students at the Simons and Ana Cumano, participated in the Pasteur in Paris by EMBO Members Shahragim Institut Pasteur. To reach an even greater audi- MOOC. It will be launched in autumn through Tajbakhsh and François Schweisguth. A major ence, Revive has now produced a Massive Open the COURSERA platform. focus of Revive is to train the next generation of Online Course (MOOC) based on the ASCBC scientists in stem cell biology. programme. The course provides an overview on www.revive.fr/en

t has been an eventful year for EMBO Members Managing Director Chris Doherty Richard Marais, Nic Jones, Iain Hagan and their I welcomes Richard Marais to colleagues at the Cancer Research UK Manchester temporary lab space at Alderley Park

Institute, UK. On 26 April 2017 the Paterson CRUK Manchester Institute © Building, which housed the institute alongside other University of Manchester cancer researchers, caught fire and suffered significant damage. Richard Marais worked together with former translational and clinical sciences within the The remainder of 2017 was dominated by director Nic Jones, operational staff and senior context of Europe’s biggest dedicated cancer efforts to clear the building, temporarily rehouse members of The University of Manchester to lead hospital, the Christie NHS Foundation Trust. scientists and staff, and rescuing experiments the institute through the transition phase. During and stocks. Iain Hagan, for example, lost stocks this time, business as usual continued, including www.cruk.manchester.ac.uk of 52 bespoke antibodies, but was able to save a the recruitment of new staff. 25-year collection of 15,000 yeast strains. Future plans include building an integrat- Twelve months after the fire, the institute has ed cancer research centre in Manchester that relocated to a temporary site. Institute Director supports seamless transitions between basic,

Super- resolution imaging in Edinburgh

he Edinburgh Super-Resolution Imaging TConsortium (ESRIC), is a multidisciplinary collaboration between the Institute of Biological Chemistry, Biophysics and Bioengineering at Heriot-Watt University and the MRC Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine (IGMM) at the University of

© Idan Segev © Edinburgh. The facility provides a platform Research for researchers from anywhere in the world to access state-of-the-art super-resolution center for microscope systems and expertise to push the boundaries of light microscopy and its appli- molecular approaches to understand the mech- cation to biomedical research. Brain Sciences anisms by which neurons and neural networks EMBO Member Wendy Bickmore from the form and underlie brain function in the adult IGMM says about the consortium: “Myself opens in organism. and other EMBO Members at the University The scientific inauguration of the new ELSC of Edinburgh such as Andrew Jackson, Javier Jerusalem building took place between 4 and 6 June 2018 Caceres and Margaret Frame have hugely with the symposium “What Makes Us Human: benefited from ESRIC, its training and facili- From Genes to Machines”. The meeting covered ties. We all now incorporate super-resolution topics ranging from molecular biology to philos- and advanced imaging approaches in our work.” he Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel ophy and featured talks by ELSC scientists, One aspect she specifically highlights is the Thas established the Edmond and Lily Safra including EMBO Members Hermona Soreq and annual ESRIC summer school, which teaches Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC), directed by Idan Segev. participants theory and applications of super- Israel Nelken and Adi Mizrahi, to establish an resolution techniques through informal semi- interdisciplinary team of scientific experts to nars and practical workshops. www.elsc.huji.ac.il explore the relationships between gene function, Recorded lectures from the event are available neuronal circuits and behaviour. A particular via www.what-mu-human-elsc.com www.esric.org focus will lie on bridging theoretical and experimental neuroscience using computational and

cutting-edge technologies. CERM has been active CORBEL: for decades in providing international researchers with access to magnetic resonance and structural shared life biology techniques. Our participation in CORBEL as a service provider within Instruct-ERIC will be beneficial for a much broader scientific commu- science services nity working on interdisciplinary biomedical projects.” iomedical and translational research often 21 different projects are currently benefit- Binvolves interdisciplinary projects that rely ing from the technologies and services offered on a variety of different technologies and services. via CORBEL. A second call for research projects For scientists this means engaging with multiple EMBO Member Lucia Banci has been involved opened in March 2018. Proposals can now be project partners and the challenge of resources since the start of the project. She is Head of submitted to gain access to cutting-edge tech- not always being easily available. the Italian Core Center of Instruct-ERIC, the nologies and services available at more than 20 The cluster project CORBEL aims to facilitate European research infrastructure for structural service providers across Europe. researchers’ access to resources offered by 13 biology, and one of the founders and former European biological and medical research infra- Director of the Magnetic Resonance Center www.corbel-project.eu structures in order to support complex research (CERM). She describes CORBEL as “a strategic CORBEL receives funding from the European Union’s projects, provide innovation pipelines in the life project for the European life science research Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme sciences and offer expertise in managing sensi- community as it coordinates the infrastructure’s under grant agreement No 654248. tive data. activities so that users can access a wide range of

Poster Prizes Pisa university Through our journals, we sponsor a number of poster prizes at various conferences. The recipients include:

Sebastian Bänfer hires first Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany Recruitment of galectin-3 into multivesicular bodies for polarized exosomal secretion female Presented at the EMBO Workshop “Transducing glycan information into function: Lessons from galectins” Mandelieu-la-Napoule, France, professor 27 November – 1 December 2016 Olga Tsoref Tel Aviv University, Israel he Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa is a Society Royal © Novel E-selectin Binding Polymers Reduce prestigious university in Italy. Established Atherosclerotic Lesions and Improve Cardiac T Remodeling in ApoE KO Mice by Napoleon as an engineering school, it Presented at the 8th ILANIT/FISEB Conference continues to select students exclusively on VijayRaghavan Eilat, Israel, 20 – 23 February 2017 merit. While many of the university’s tradi- Takahide Matsui tions contribute to its unique character, one The University of Tokyo, Japan becomes A novel autophagosomal SNARE protein YKT6 regulates such custom meant that there were no female autophagosome-lysosome fusion independently of professors in the school of science. This has STX17 now changed. scientific advisor Presented at The 8th International Symposium on Autophagy Nara, Japan, 29 May – 1 June 2017 EMBO Member Annalisa Pastore will Annie Lee become the first women to take up a in India Columbia University, USA Professorial Chair in the sciences at the Scuola Abeta42 oligomers mediate its synaptotoxic effects Normale di Pisa. n March 2018, EMBO Member VijayRaghavan, through AMPK-dependent increase in mitochondrial fission in dendrites of hippocampal CA1 neurons “I was actually unaware of the gender imbal- former director of the National Centre for I Presented at the EMBO | EMBL Symposium “Mechanisms of ance when I applied for this role – for me the Biological Sciences in Bangalore, India, was Neurodegeneration” Heidelberg, Germany, 14 – 17 June, 2017 Normale is a great scientific place that I had appointed as the new science advisor to the always dreamed to go to,” says Pastore. “Now government of India. VijayRaghavan replaces Carsten Bahr German Centre for Cancer Research (DKFZ), Heidelberg, that the pattern is broken, it will be crucial physicist Rajagopala Chidambaram, who held the Germany to continue on this path potentiating the pres- post as Principle Scientific Advisor for the last 16 A cluster of enhancer modules directs differential ence of women in science at the Normale and years. Myc expression along the normal and leukemic haematopoietic stem cell hierarchies elsewhere.” EMBO Member Satyajit Mayor of the National Presented at the EMBO Conference “Chromatin and Epigenetics” Pastore’s plans for her own work are to Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, India, Heidelberg, 3 – 6 May 2017 continue to pursue research spanning the said, “Please join me in wishing Vijay all the Dhana Friedrich sciences and humanities. She has proposed very best in his new appointment at the helm of Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany two meetings that connect genetics and neuroscience in the Indian Government. We all hope From transcription factor dynamics to cell fate: science with linguistics, and says that this line that Vijay will bring his advocacy for excellent p53 nuclear accumulation changes stochastic gene of research is something she will promote in science and its application to the [government’s] expression of target genes. Presented at the IMB Conference “Gene Regulation by Numbers” Pisa. vision for science in India.” Mainz, 19 – 21 June 2017

Awards of Excellence EMBO MEMBERS

Houska Award Chemistry-Nobel-Prize recipient for his work on the genetic and solving many of the challenges ground breaking contribution to Stefan Ameres and his team Manfred Eigen. mechanical regulation underlying associated with Rubisco research. cancer research. Specifically, the at the Institute of Molecular tissue proliferation, homeostasis prize recognizes his discovery of Kavli Prize in Nanoscience Roger de Spoelberch Prize Biotechnology, Vienna, Austria and repair. The prize recognizes transcription facor E2F1 and its received the Houska Award for the The Kavli Prize in Nanoscience extraordinary scientific achieve- The Roger de Spoelberch role in cell division. The prize is development of the sequencing was awarded to EMBO Members ment by American or French Foundation has awarded its annu- endowed with 1.5 million Danish method SLAMseq, which allows Emmanuelle Charpentier, Max scientists under the age of 45. It al prize to David Rubinsztein, kroner. the direct detection of sudden Planck Institute of Infection is endowed with a 70,000 US University of Cambridge, UK. The Ignaz L. Lieben Award changes in gene expression. The Biology, Berlin, Germany, and dollar prize. prize is endowed with 750,000 Virginijus Šikšnys, Vilnius euros and is awarded for clinical prize is awarded by the B&C Iva Tolić, Ruđer Bošković Institute, University, Lithuania, together Princess of Asturias Award and basic scientific research in Private Foundation. Ameres Zagreb, Croatia, received the with Jennifer Doudna, University for Technical and Scientific the area of neurodegenerative received 400,000 euros and the Ignaz L. Lieben Award 2017 for of California, Berkeley, USA. Research diseases and psychiatric disorders. Houska trophy. her outstanding achievements in They receive the prize, which The 2018 Princess of Asturias molecular cell biology, especially is endowed with one million Spinoza Prize Pradel Research Award Award for Technical and Scientific for her work on microtubules. The US dollars, for the invention of Anna Akhmanova, Utrecht award is granted to scientists who The National Academy of Sciences and Research has been awarded CRISPR-Cas9. University, Marileen Dogterom, have worked in Austria, Bosnia- in the USA has recognized Silvia to Svante Pääbo, Max Planck Delft University of Technology, Herzegowina, Croatia, the Czech Arber’s (Biozentrum, University Institute for Evolutionary Kavli Prize in Neuroscience and John van der Oost, Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany, Republic, Hungary, Slovakia or of Basel, Switzerland) work on EMBO Member Christine Petit, Wageningen University, are for developing methods to study Slovenia for the last three years neuronal circuitry controlling Collège de France and Pasteur recipients of the Spinoza Prize ancient DNA. The award is part of and includes a prize of 36,000 motor behavior with the Pradel Institute, Paris, France, received 2018. The prize is the highest a series of annual prizes awarded US dollars. Research Award. The annual the Kavli Prize in Neuroscience award in Dutch science, given by in Spain by the Princess of award recognizes mid-career together with A. James Hudspeth, the Netherlands Organisation EMBO INSTALLATION GRANTEE neuroscientists and is endowed Rockefeller University, New Asturias Foundation. for Scientific Research scientists with 50,000 US dollars. York, USA and Robert Fettiplace, working in the Netherlands. Each CNRS Silver Medal Charles F. Kettering Award University of Wisconsin, Madison, will receive 2.5 million euros to The French National Center Manfred Eigen Award USA. They receive the prize, which Manajit Hayer-Hartl, Max Planck support their research on the for Scientific Research (CNRS) The Max-Planck-Institute is endowed with one million US Institute for Biochemistry, Munich, cytoskeleton (Akhmanova and has honoured Bruno Klaholz, for Biophysical Chemistry in dollars, for the discovery of the Germany, received the Charles Dogterom) and CRISPR-Cas (van Institute of Genetics and Göttingen, Germany, awarded molecular and neural mecha- F. Kettering Award. The award der Oost). Molecular and Cellular Biology, its first Manfred Eigen Award to nisms of hearing. by the American Society of Plant Illkirch, France with the CNRS Peter Schuster of the University Biologists honours outstanding KFJ Prize Silver Medal for his research on of Vienna, Austria. The award Richard Lounsbery Prize work in the field of photosyn- Kristian Helin, together with the structure and function of ribo- honours the work of scientists Yohanns Bellaiche, Curie thesis. Hayer-Hartl is recognized Anne Tybjærg-Hansen, University somes and his contribution to the carrying out research related to Institute, Paris, France, received for her insights into chloroplast of Copenhagen, Denmark, development of high-resolution the work of institute founder and the Richard Lounsbery Prize protein-chaperone biology and received the KFJ Prize for his cryo-electron microscopy.

Good Read – Publications from the EMBO community Visualization and analysis of Cell-type specific sequencing The Ubiquitin E3/E4 Toolbox: Creating a systematic PTEN deletion in luminal non-covalent contacts using of microRNAs from complex Ligase UBE4A Adjusts database of secretory pathway cells of mature prostate the Protein Contacts Atlas animal tissues Protein Ubiquitylation and proteins uncovers new cargo induces replication stress and M. Madan Babu (EMBO Member) Luisa Cochella, Stefan Ameres Accumulation at Sites of DNA for COPI senescence in vivo and colleagues (EMBO Young Investigators) and Damage, Facilitating Double- Maya Schuldiner (EMBO Daniel Metzger (EMBO Member) Nature Structural & Molecular | colleagues Strand Break Repair Member) and colleagues and colleagues 15 January 2018 Nature Methods | 26 February 2018 Yosef Shiloh (EMBO Member) Traffic | 12 March 2018 Journal of Experimental Medicine | Doi: 10.1038/s41594-017-0019-z Doi: 10.1038/nmeth.4610 and colleagues Doi: 10.1111/tra.12560 9 May 2018 Doi: 10.1084/jem.20171207 Mutant p53 gain of function Molecular Cell | 1 March 2018 Dynamic changes in Sox2 Doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2018.02.002 Transient external force underlies high expression spatio-temporal expression induces phenotypic reversion Quiescin Sulfhydryl Oxidase levels of colorectal cancer stem promote the second cell fate Systematic discovery of of malignant epithelial 1 (QSOX1) Glycosite Mutation cells markers decision through Fgf4/Fgfr2 antiphage defense systems in structures via nitric oxide Perturbs Secretion but Not Varda Rotter (EMBO Member) signalling in preimplantation the microbial pangenome signaling Golgi Localization and colleagues mouse embryos Rotem Sorek (EMBO Member) Mina Bissell (EMBO Associate Deborah Fass (EMBO Member) Oncogene | 18 January 2018 Ian Chambers (EMBO Member) and colleagues Member) and colleagues and colleagues Doi: 10.1038/s41388-017-0060-8 and colleagues Science | 2 March 2018 eLife | 21 March 2018 Glycobiology | 11 May 2018 Doi: 10.1126/science.aar4120 Doi: 10.7554/eLife.26161 Doi: 10.1093/glycob/cwy044 Structural basis of RNA Biochemical Journal | 27 February 2018 Doi: 10.1042/BCJ20170418 polymerase III transcription Environment dominates Expanding Actin Rings RSPO2 inhibition of RNF43 initiation Live imaging of neurogenesis in over host genetics in shaping Zipper the Mouse Embryo for and ZNRF3 governs limb Alessandro Vannini (EMBO the adult mouse hippocampus human gut microbiota Blastocyst Formation development independently of Young Investigator) and Gregor-Alexander Pilz (former Eran Elinav and Eran Segal Nicolas Plachta (EMBO Young LGR4/5/6 colleagues EMBO Long-Term Fellow), (EMBO Members) and Investigator) and colleagues Bruno Reversade (former Nature | 18 January 2018 Sebastian Jessberger (former colleagues Cell | 19 April 2018 EMBO Young Investigator) and Doi: 10.1038/nature25441 EMBO Young Investigator) and Nature | 8 March 2018 Doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.02.035 colleagues colleagues Doi: 10.1038/nature25973 Nature | 16 May 2018 Phosphoethanolamine Feedback inhibition of actin on Doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0118-y cellulose: a naturally produced Science | 9 February 2018 Doi: 10.1126/science.aao5056 Intensify3D: Normalizing Rho mediates content release chemically modified cellulose signal intensity in large from large secretory vesicles FAM35A associates with REV7 Regine Hengge (EMBO Member) PRDM9 methyltransferase heterogenic image stacks Benny Shilo (EMBO Member) and modulates DNA damage and colleagues activity is essential for meiotic Hermona Soreq (EMBO Member) and colleagues responses of normal and Science | 19 January 2018 DNA double-strand break and colleagues Journal of Cell Biology | 7 May 2018 BRCA1-defective cells Doi: 10.1126/science.aao4096 formation at its binding sites Science Reports | 9 March 2018 Doi: 10.1083/jcb.201711006 Richard Wood (EMBO Member) Bernard de Massy (EMBO Doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-22489-1 and colleagues Recon3D enables a three- Local arrangement of Member) and colleagues The EMBO Journal | 22 May 2018 dimensional view of Daughter-cell-specific fibronectin by myofibroblasts Doi: 10.15252/embj.201899543 gene variation in human Molecular Cell | 1 March 2018 Doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2018.01.033 modulation of nuclear pore governs peripheral nuclear metabolism complexes controls cell cycle positioning in muscle cells Ines Thiele (EMBO Young entry during asymmetric Edgar Gomes (EMBO Installation Investigator) and colleagues division Grantee) and colleagues Nature Biotechnology | 19 February 2018 Miguel Beato (EMBO Member) Developmental Cell | 8 May 2018 Doi: 10.1038/nbt.4072 and colleagues Doi: 10.17632/trhmpz9h23.1 Nature Cell Biology | 12 March 2018 Doi: 10.1038/s41556-018-0056-9

Practical Courses UK-Harrogate | 3 – 7 September 2018 | Experimental approaches to Symposia R. Hawkins evolution and ecology using yeast DE-Heidelberg | 26 – 31 August 2018 | Physics of cells: From biochemical to and other model systems EMBO | EMBL Symposia H. Sapers mechanical (PhysCell) Molecular geobiology IT-Lucca | 21 – 25 October 2018 | DE-Heidelberg | 5 – 8 September 2018 | IN-Bangalore | 4 – 8 September 2018 | M. Lemberg C. Haering BE-Bruxelles | 2 – 7 September 2018 | J. Rink Endoplasmic reticulum function in Principles of chromosome structure D. Fontaneto Size and shape health and disease and function Microbial ecology: Hands-on training in prokaryotic and eukaryotic IT-Pavia | 9 – 12 September 2018 | BE-Ghent | 24 – 27 October 2018 | DE-Heidelberg | 10 – 13 September metagenomics (ICME-9) A. Mattevi K. Ravichandran 2018 | J. Knoblich Enzymes, biocatalysis and chemical Phagocytosis of dying cells: Molecules, Organoids: Modelling organ DE-Heidelberg | 2 – 10 September 2018 | biology: The new frontiers mechanisms and therapeutic development and disease in 3D C. Sachse implications culture Cryo-electron microscopy and 3D GR-Kolymbari | 11 – 15 September 2018 | image processing methods S. Mandrup SG-Singapore | 11 – 13 November 2018 | DE-Heidelberg | 16 – 19 September Nuclear receptors and biological R. Dunn 2018 | P. Bork DE-Hamburg | 10 – 18 September 2018 | networks Molecular mechanisms of The human microbiome C. Löw developmental and regenerative Membrane PEPC1 – Membrane FR-Cargèse | 11 – 21 September 2018 | biology DE-Heidelberg | 3 – 6 October 2018 | Protein Expression Purification M. Labouesse A. Ephrussi Characterization 1 Physics of integrated biological IL-Kibbutz Ein-Gedi | 8 – 12 December The complex life of RNA systems 2018 | A. Yaron UK-Bristol | 23 – 28 September 2018 | Mechanisms of neuronal remodelling India | EMBO Symposia FR-Montpellier | 12 – 15 September P. Verkade IN-Manesar | 15 – 18 October 2018 | Correlative light electron microscopy 2018 | M. Simonelig IN-Bangalore | 4 – 7 February 2019 | piRNAs and PIWI proteins H. Ghosh S. Banerjee PT-Faro | 24 – 29 September 2018 | Molecular neuroscience: From genes From synapses to memory: RNA T.M. Embley HR-Cavtat | 14 – 18 September 2018 | to circuits in health and disease based regulatory mechanisms M. Sibilia Tree building: Advanced concepts and IN-Chennai | 10 – 13 March 2019 | practice of phylogenetic analysis Cellular signalling and cancer therapy DE-Heidelberg | 13 – 15 March 2019 | S. O’Donoghue R. Siddharthan LU-Luxembourg | 4 – 10 October 2018 | MT-Valetta | 15 – 19 September 2018 | Visualizing biological data (VIZBI) Regulatory epigenomics: From large R. Krause J. Godwin data to useful models The molecular and cellular basis of ES-Sant Feliu de Guixols | 23 – 27 March Phenotyping neurological syndromes IN-New Delhi | 15 – 17 April 2019 | for systems genetics regeneration and tissue repair 2019 | R. Erdmann Current advances in protein A. Pareek PT-Porto | 29 October – AT-Seefeld in Tirol | 16 – 21 September translocation across membranes Sensing and signalling in plant stress 3 November 2018 | F. Silva 2018 | Y. Ivarsson response Biomolecular interaction analysis: Modularity of signaling proteins and UK-Oxford | 1 – 5 April 2019 | From molecules to cells networks J. Rehwinkel Pathogen immunity and signalling IT-Rome | 5 – 10 November 2018 | A. Via GR-Kyllini | 17 – 21 September 2018 | Lecture Courses Computational analysis of protein- Z. Lygerou CL-Santiago | 2 – 5 April 2019 | DNA replication, chromosome M. Concha EMBO | FEBS Lecture Course protein interactions: Sequences, GR-Spetses Island | 23 – 31 May 2019 | networks and diseases segregation and fate decisions Bridging cell and tissue mechanics to fate specification in development S. Rose-John ES-Barcelona | 11 – 16 November 2018 | CH-Arosa | 21 – 25 September 2018 | Molecular mechanisms of tissue E. Sabidó T. Simmen IL-Herzliya | 7 – 11 April 2019 | Y. Shiloh injury, repair and fibrosis Targeted proteomics: Experimental Membrane contact sites in health Genome dynamics in neuroscience and disease and aging Global Exchange Lecture Course design and data analysis CL-Las Cruces | 5 – 13 April 2019 | DE-Hamburg | 19 – 26 November 2018 | DE-Martinsried | 25 – 28 September ES-El Puerto de Sta María | 8 – 11 April J. Sierralta D. Svergun 2018 | V. Hornung 2019 | G. Sabio Small brains, big ideas Solution scattering from biological The inflammasomes Organ crosstalk in energy balance macromolecules and metabolic disease FR-Les Embiez Island | 30 September – DE-Dresden | 5 – 13 February 2019 | 3 October 2018 | UK-Windsor | 15 – 17 April 2019 | A. Hyman M.A. Hakimi S. Helaine For a complete and up-to-date Methods for studying phase Molecular advances and parasite Toxin-antitoxin systems in bacteria list of EMBO events please go to separation in biology strategies in host infection ES-Paguera | 28 April – 3 May 2019 | events.embo.org DE-Heidelberg | 7 – 12 April 2019 | DK-Copenhagen V | 2 – 5 October 2018 | B. Bukau M. Schorb L. Pedersen Protein quality control: From High-accuracy CLEM: Applications at Cilia mechanisms to disease room temperature and in cryo DE-Mainz | 10 – 13 October 2018 | DE-Heidelberg | 1 – 4 May 2019 | ES-Barcelona | 7 – 13 April 2019 | P. Beli A. Akhtar Next issue RNA and genome maintenance: Chromatin and epigenetics M. Lluch Senar The next issue of EMBO The 2019 whole-cell modeling Cooperation and conflict GR-Heraklion | 7 – 10 May 2019 | summer school management Encounters issue will be F. Bradke dispatched in December 2018. IT-Capri | 14 – 17 October 2018 | Cell biology of the neuron: Polarity, Please send your suggestions, M.R. Matarazzo plasticity and regeneration contributions and news to Workshops From epigenome towards epitranscriptome in cell fate choice PT-Cascais | 11 – 15 May 2019 | [email protected] by CH-Arolla | 20 – 24 August 2018 | L. Jansen 22 October 2018. S.G. Martin DE-Heidelberg | 17 – 20 October 2018 | Chromosome segregation and Cell and developmental systems K.R. Patil aneuploidy

IT-Siena | 25 – 29 August 2018 | CZ-Prague | 15 – 18 May 2019 | C.T. Baldari P. Svoboda UPCOMING DEADLINES Lymphocyte antigen receptor Awakening of the genome: The signalling Editorial maternal-to-zygotic transition Young Investigator Programme 1 April DE-Heidelberg | 29 August – GR-Athens | 19 – 23 May 2019 | Coordinating editor G. Kollias 1 September 2018 | M. Köhn Annika Grandison EMBO Installation Grants Chemical biology Mesenchymal cells in inflammation, Text Sandra Bendiscioli, Annika immunity and cancer 15 April AT-Vienna | 3 – 5 September 2018 | Grandison, Adam Gristwood, IL-Rehovot | 19 – 24 May 2019 | C. Schleper Long-Term Fellowships Molecular biology of archaea: Katrin Weigmann, Kathy Weston J. Abramson ThymE: T cell and thymus biology throughout the year From mechanisms to ecology Print & web layout Sandra Krahl

More than 40% of the proteins in eukaryotes encode library and then tested for functional transcription in a intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) that do not adopt biological assay. By comparing functional and non-func- defined structures, but are nonetheless functionally tional sequences, the researchers established that TAD important. IDRs tolerate mutations and evolve rapidly, functionality requires mini-motifs of negatively charged making it difficult to assign them specific functionalities. and aromatic residues. Negatively charged residues may Ravarani et al. have now developed a high-through- ensure that the segment is in an extended conformation, put screen to assign function to disordered regions. while aromatic residues bind to the interaction partners. Specifically, the researchers, led by EMBO Member The approach can be expanded to study other functions Madan Babu, probed the presence of a transactiva- mediated by IDRs. tion domain (TAD), which is required for transcription factors to interact with their transactivation partners, High-throughput discovery of functional disordered regions: investigation of transactivation domains. within an IDR. They substituted the TAD domain of a Ravarani et al. heat shock transcription factor with a random sequence Read the paper: msb.embopress.org/content/14/5/e8190

EMBO THE EMBO Molecular Medicine JOURNAL

Mitochondrial fusion in the Respiration relies on serine Blood test for Alzheimer’s Putting cancer cells to sleep balance Serine plays a central role in the It is often argued that the Palbociclib is a drug used for the Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type synthesis of nucleotides and some development of drugs against treatment of advanced estrogen- 2A (CMT2A) is a neurological cancer cells are highly dependent Alzheimer’s disease has been receptor-positive breast cancer. disorder characterized by muscle on serine uptake for proliferation. hampered by the fact that the It induces cell cycle arrest and weakness and loss of sensation. In mammalian cells, two serine disorder can only be diagnosed senescence, an irreversible resting It is caused by mutations in the hydroxymethyltransferase (SHMT) when it is too late for an effective state marking these ‘out-of-order’ Mitofusin 2 (MFN2) gene, a enzymes, SHMT1 and SHMT2, intervention. To tackle this problem, cells to be cleared by the immune dynamin-related GTPase that break down serine into glycine and Nabers et al. developed a blood system. Miettinen et al. now promotes mitochondrial fusion. one-carbon units, which can then test for Alzheimer’s disease that addressed in more detail why cells To investigate the mechanism be used as building block for the can detect early indicators of the treated with palbociclib enter behind these mutations, El Fissi et biosynthesis of nucleotides and for disease. The blood test works by senescence. The researchers used al. generated Drosophila models other biosynthetic reactions. measuring the relative amounts a novel method called thermal of a pathological and a healthy proteome profiling to detect cellular of CMT2A expressing MFN2 with By ablating SHMT2 using the form of amyloid-β in the blood. changes induced by the drug. This mutations in either the GTPase CRISPR-Cas9 system, Lucas et al. The accumulation of pathological technology is based on observing domain or the adjacent helix showed that the enzyme is required amyloid-β in the brain is one of the drug induced changes in the bundle. to support the mitochondrial hallmarks of the disease. thermal stability of cellular proteins. oxidative phosphorylation The researchers showed that alleles It will pick up proteins that either system, the main process through The researchers found that their associated with the GTPase domain bind to the drug directly or change which mammalian cells generate test reliably detected amyloid-β not only impair mitochondrial their activity in response to the ATP. Serine catabolism thus alterations in the blood of fusion, as may be expected, drug. but also trigger aggregation of couples biosynthesis and energy participants with mild cognitive unfused mitochondria in neurons. production in the cell. While other impairment that also showed With this approach the researchers Mutations in the helix bundle, in research groups had previously abnormal amyloid deposits in brain uncovered the proteasome as a contrast, increase the activity of demonstrated a role of SHMT2 in scans. In addition, the assay was yet unknown target of palbociclib. the protein, leading to enhanced mitochondrial translation, Lucas able to detect signs of the disease More specifically, palbociclib mitochondrial fusion. Both types of et al. reveal a novel regulatory on average eight years before dissociates the proteasome from mutations result in mitochondria link between SHMT2-mediated diagnosis. It correctly identified an inhibitory component. Once being trapped in the cell bodies, one-carbon metabolism and the those with the disease in almost freed, the proteasome can degrade unable to move along the axon mitochondrial respiratory chain. 70% of the cases, while about 9% proteins required for cell cycle towards the synapse. Mitochondrial They showed that one-carbon units of true negative subjects would progression, thus driving cells into depletion at the synapse, in turn, produced by SHMT2-mediated wrongly be detected as positive. senescence. The discovery could may impair neurotransmission, serine catabolism are essential The researchers suggest that help expand palbociclib-based thus explaining the disease for the assembly of functional their blood test serves as a cheap breast cancer treatments and phenotype. Complex I of the respiratory and simple option to pre-select identify patients that would profit chain. These findings suggest individuals from the general most from this medication. Drugs that increase mitochondrial that serine catabolism could be a population for further testing by fusion have previously been Thermal proteome profiling of breast useful target for the treatment of more invasive and costly methods cancer cells reveals proteasomal envisioned as treatments for cancer or diseases associated with to exclude the falsely positive activation by CDK4/6 inhibitor palbociclib CMT2A. The data presented by El mitochondrial dysfunction. subjects. Miettinen et al. Fissi et al. indicate that they could Read the paper: emboj.embopress. be detrimental for some patients. Serine catabolism is essential to maintain Amyloid blood biomarker detects org/content/early/2018/04/16/ mitochondrial respiration in mammalian Alzheimer’s disease embj.201798359 Mitofusin gain and loss of function drive cells Nabers et al. pathogenesis in Drosophila models of Lucas et al. Read the paper: embomolmed.embo- CMT2A neuropathy Read the paper: life-science-alliance.org/ press.org/content/early/2018/04/04/ El Fissi et al. content/1/2/e201800036 emmm.201708763 Read the paper: embor.embopress. org/content/early/2018/06/13/ embr.201745241

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