Science & Policy Meeting Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz Science in The

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EMBO | EMBL Anniversary Science & Policy Meeting pages 2 – 3 ANNIVERSARY th

page 8 Interview Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz E M B O 50 ©NI H

Membership expansion EMBO News New funding for senior postdoctoral In perspective Georgina Ferry’s enlarges its membership into evolution, researchers. EMBO Advanced Fellowships book tells the story of the growth and ecology and neurosciences on the offer an additional two years of financial expansion of EMBO since 1964. occasion of its 50th anniversary. support to former and current EMBO Fellows. PAGEs 4 – 6 PAGE 11 PAGEs 16

www.embo.org Highlights from the EMBO|EMBL Anniversary Science and Policy Meeting

transmissible cancer: the Tasmanian devil facial Science meets policy and politics tumour disease and the canine transmissible venereal tumour. After a ceremony to unveil the 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of EMBO, the 45th anniversary of the ScienceTree (see box), an oak tree planted in soil European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC), the organization of obtained from countries throughout the European member states who fund EMBO, and the 40th anniversary of the European Union to symbolize the importance of European integration, representatives from the govern- Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). EMBO, EMBC, and EMBL recently ments of France, Luxembourg, Malta, Spain combined their efforts to put together a joint event at the EMBL Advanced and Switzerland took part in a panel discussion Training Centre in Heidelberg, Germany, on 2 and 3 July 2014. The moderated by Marja Makarow, Vice President for Research of the Academy of Finland. Mauro anniversary celebration recognized the science that has contributed to the Dell’Ambrogio, State Secretary for Education, success of the organizations over the years and acknowledged the roles of Research and Innovation in Switzerland, stressed EMBO, EMBC, and EMBL in policy, politics, and society. that science policy, to be effective, must not only invest in knowledge but also in people. Carmen Vela, Spain’s Secretary of State for he meeting featured the participation of internationally renowned research institutions Research, Development and Innovation, outlined European ministerial representatives, sci- in Europe and have dispersed this philosophy of how participation in EMBL had been essential Tentific talks from researchers, and pres- EMBL and EMBO across Europe,” said Schütte. for the development of science in her country. entations on policy issues focused on excellence He also discussed the crucial early roles EMBO Evarist Bartolo, the Minister of Education and and inclusion. It was also an opportunity to bring and EMBL played in helping molecular biology Employment of Malta, outlined the state of life together current and former directors of EMBO become a major, if not one of the most important, science research in his country. Malta’s appli- and EMBL as well as former committee and coun- forces in influencing the life sciences over the last cation to become a member of both EMBL and cil members who shaped the direction of both several decades. the European Molecular Biology Conference was organizations over the last decades. The importance of the scientific workforce as endorsed in the same week as the anniversary Maria Leptin, Director of EMBO, and Iain a whole and the individual scientists contribut- meeting, an excellent illustration of the roles of Mattaj, Director General of EMBL, opened the ing to research was discussed in several contexts. EMBO, EMBC, and EMBL in contributing to the meeting and welcomed more than 250 scientists, “EMBO and EMBL have shown that when Europe cohesiveness of European research. politicians, policy makers, supporters of science, combines its forces by bringing together its best The second day of the meeting focused on con- and friends of EMBO from across the world. In talents, it can lead the world in science and inno- cerns about excellence and inclusion in scientific their presentations, they summarized the past, vation,” remarked Robert-Jan Smits, Director- research. Bruno Strasser, a science historian at present and future roles of each organization. General, Research & Innovation, for the European the University of Geneva, opened by recounting “EMBO’s achievements have been possible due Commission. The development and implementa- the origins of EMBO and the European Molecular to cross-country cooperation,” said Leptin. “The tion of key infrastructures and the provision of Biology Conference. “The history of the European foundation of EMBC in 1969 had a dual aim: training have been important contributions to the Molecular Biology Conference illustrates how To secure a source of funds for the activities of European life science community. molecular biologists succeeded in bringing their EMBO and to provide a framework to establish The ability to bring highly trained individuals discipline to national and international political the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. It is together, either within a physical infrastructure agendas and gained broad intergovernmental a remarkable testament that both goals have been like EMBL, or in transnational research projects, backing.” The journey was not straightforward achieved.” will be a key contributor to advancing science and many of the barriers appear familiar for Georg Schütte, State Secretary of the German and research in Europe over the next several transnational cooperation projects. The scientists Federal Ministry of Education and Research, decades. active in the early years of EMBO and the EMBC emphasized how EMBO and EMBL have been In a scientific talk, Elizabeth Murchison learned quickly and were remarkably astute in trendsetters in the life sciences. “Many for- of the University of Cambridge described her ascertaining what was needed in the context of mer EMBL researchers are now directors of groundbreaking work to investigate two types of science policy. The foundation of the EMBC was

Bruno Elizabeth Strasser Murchison

Marc Heppener (left) and forum chair Carl-Henrik Heldin ©EMBL PhotoLab | M. Schupp

European ministerial representatives an essential step for the sustainable funding of excellence and inclusion by Helga Nowotny, ERA discussed national and international science policy issues: (from left to right) the activities of EMBO, and of the laboratory that Council Forum, Austria. The promotion of excel- Evarist Bartolo | Malta, was established in 1974. lence is essential and well established in the Marc Hansen | Luxembourg, Marc Heppener of the European Space Agency European scientific landscape but challenges Roger Genet | France, explained how the ESA works as a platform for exist in ensuring that everyone benefits. “We are Carmen Vela | Spain and the inclusion of nations with emerging inter- all striving to support and promote excellence in Mauro Dell’Ambrogio | Switzerland ests in space science and space exploration. He the life sciences but we have to be acutely aware described some of the many successful projects that it must be inclusive and take into consid- that have been concluded or are in progress. eration diversity,” said Nowotny. This precise entrants to research, is exactly the intersection The meeting concluded with a talk and dis- concern, how to recognize and reward excel- where EMBO, EMBC, and EMBL will continue to cussion specifically on the relationship between lence while promoting the development of new work in the years ahead.

The ScienceTree The ScienceTree project originated in the summer of 2002 when the idea of a tree to symbolize European integration was first suggested. The initial proposal was to plant a tree in soil originating from countries throughout the European Union to symbolize the importance of European integration for future generations and taking science as a leading example.

ver the years, renowned European scientists, including three Nobel laureates Oand 16 EMBO Members, provided soil samples from their countries. It was Marc Vidal of the Harvard Medical School who helped make the project a reality. He had the idea to collect the soil samples and use them for the ScienceTree project. By May 2014, 29 samples had been collected, 28 samples from the countries forming the European Union and one sample from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), which was included as an example of European integration that benefits the life sciences and to also recognize the roles of Israel, Norway and Switzerland in the support of European research. “I would like to believe that this tree repre- sents first and foremost our common European commitment to progress in the life sciences for the benefit of people – consolidating our very best efforts and deploying our very best scientists and innovators,” commented Robert-Jan Smits, Director-General, Research & Innovation, for the European Commission at the ceremony. ©EMBL PhotoLab | M. Schupp

Julius Sandra Brennecke Schmid Institute of University of Texas Molecular Biology, Southwestern Medical Center, Vienna, Austria Dallas, United States EMBO Member EMBO Associate Member elected in 2014 elected in 2014 ©IMBA – Institute for Molecular Biotechnology Meet the Meet the ©U T Southwestern Medical Center scientist scientist MEMBERS At 38 you are one of the youngest EMBO Members. A few MEMBERS What do you wish EMBO for its 50th birthday? years ago you also received an ERC Starting Grant. What The problems we are now tackling are increasingly com- have you done right in your career? plex and require interdisciplinary efforts to solve. I applaud EMBO for its It was the combination of finding projects that fit my type of scientific think- sponsorship of methods courses and meetings that bring different scientists ing and the right environment. The biology of micro-RNAs was the topic of together and allow rapid dissemination of new methods, results and ideas. my doctoral research at EMBL. Later, it shifted to the Piwi-interacting RNAs EMBO should celebrate its 50 years of success and continue to promote or piRNAs. innovation in science. What I like about small RNA research is that it is on the one hand a highly sophisticated, ancient evolutionary process. On the other hand, the How has the focus of your research changed throughout your career? simple four-letter alphabet of RNA helps us keep our feet on the ground. My research has focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms that govern clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME) since I was a graduate student You started off as field researcher in the Galapagos Islands; ten years ago with James Rothman. However, we have consistently adapted or developed you switched to the competitive field of Drosophila research. Weren’t you new technologies and methods as rapidly as possible and whenever needed. afraid of the risks? I started my career – in the tradition of Arthur Kornberg, a mentor and force- During my university education I was torn between classical field biology of-nature at Stanford – with the goal of reconstituting clathrin-coated vesicle and modern molecular biology. The job as a field biologist is doubtlessly formation using purified components and defining the “minimal” molecular much more exciting compared to life in an air-conditioned and illuminated machinery required. The only tools were those of the “bucket biochemists” laboratory. Yet in field research it takes so much time to answer very simple – grind and find. hypotheses. I was getting impatient. Today, with the advent of molecule biology, GFP fusion proteins, total What I find attractive about molecular biology is that we can coin sophis- internal reflection microscopy, siRNA technology, and powerful computers – ticated hypotheses and test them with unbelievable accuracy and speed. none of which existed when I started – we can study coated pits and vesicles Competition does not worry me. Different laboratories take different routes in their “native environment” and begin to define the “maximum” machin- to the truth behind the biological phenomena. ery that governs and, importantly, regulates clathrin-mediated endocytosis.

Do you plan to concentrate on small RNAs in the future? You signed DORA and published a commentary in Science Careers saying There is no reason to change from this fascinating field. Various small that job candidates should not be judged on the basis of their publications. RNA pathways are players in an ancient evolutionary conflict – the conflict What were your motives and on what basis do you employ faculty now? between a host genome and parasitic DNA elements. This ancient conflict Publications are important: they tell you that an individual is a ‘finisher’ is probably the origin of small RNA pathways. This is true in plants, in ani- and an effective communicator. Thus, I do not ignore publications. I would mals and in fungi, and as it now turns out, even in bacteria. All of them rather read with interest the two or three key publications recommended by use small RNAs, yet with completely different strategies, different adapter each candidate – but ignoring the journal in which they were published, as proteins and accessory factors. By studying RNA silencing pathways we are this information is not necessarily predictive of the quality and importance learning about basic biological processes in ways that we would not have of the contribution. I also gave full credit to work in progress that will even- understood without the small RNA angle. tually be published, so as not to unnecessarily delay hiring until after potentially long struggles with reviewers and editors. What are the advantages and the drawbacks of being a scientist today? The technical possibilities available today are an amazing advantage. Recent What made you go back to school recently? Did your master affect your breakthroughs such as deep sequencing, RNA interference and genome edit- approach to running a lab? ing give us the ability to answer questions much more precisely and much There is nothing more complex than leadership, teaching and motivating faster. The biological arena has been extended into non-standard model sys- others, and coordinating team efforts. Why not study and take advantage tems. Especially for non-standard model systems these technological revo- of established protocols and proven methods for doing this effectively and lutions have proved to be game changing. The drawbacks are on the career efficiently? My Masters Degree in Executive Leadership taught me invalu- side. Too often, young scientists are facing uncertain prospects. One of the able and effective techniques for leading diverse individuals, creating learn- biggest challenges for today’s scientists is the race for the good jobs that are ing and highly innovative work environments, strategic planning, and more. few and far between. These have significantly changed how I run my lab and have increased my lab’s productivity, morale and allowed me to more effectively train the next generation of scientists.

Robert Nina May Wedell Emeritus Professor University of Exeter, at Oxford University Penryn, United Kingdom EMBO Member EMBO Member elected in 2014 elected in 2014

©University of Oxford Meet the Meet the ©University of Exeter scientist scientist MEMBERS How did you become interested in ecology? MEMBERS How important is the expansion of EMBO membership After returning to Australia from my postdoctoral research into evolution, ecology and neurosciences? at Harvard in 1961, I spent twelve years in the physics department at Sydney It is extremely important to encompass these research fields as they have University. The head of the biology department at Sydney – a distinguished been using cutting edge molecular techniques for quite some time. It means ecologist – established an organisation called Social Responsibility in Science going with the times. To include all the active and impactful researchers and I thought I should learn more about it. I developed interest in animal using molecular techniques can only strengthen EMBO. And vice versa: The population dynamics and the relationship between complexity and stability expansion can help forge links between researchers who would not normal- in natural communities. ly interact with each other.

You have degrees in chemical engineering and physics, you are an ecologist, Is evolutionary biology particularly relevant today? zoologist and mathematician. What is your common theme? I do not think it is any more or less important than it was before. There are I like looking at complicated things and asking what are the essentials of some examples of high-profile researchers who have successfully applied what is happening. I see the mathematical approach as a way of thinking evolutionary biology to areas that have not been viewed that way before. very clearly and expressing ideas unambiguously. Mathematics is the cen- The additional media exposure raised the awareness of the potency of evo- tral theme in the way I have moved from place to place in pursuit of inter- lutionary biology more generally. esting problems. However, I would not necessarily view it as a new trend, as it has been going on all along. The last twenty years have seen a huge advancement You took maths to the banking and finance system. It is a long way from in this field with the help of molecular biology tools. Only now do we have chemical engineering. the data to unravel broader scale patterns and ask very specific questions That was completely accidental. I was part of the study group put together about the genetic basis of evolution. Before, it was done from a deductive by the US National Academy of Sciences and the Federal Reserve Bank in point of view. 2006, before the banking crisis happened. At that time we had published a paper on modelling the banking system. It opened a new way of making What inspired you to go into evolutionary biology? short-term predictions on things that looked random, but were governed by I have been interested in evolutionary biology and natural history from a rules. This is how I started working for the Bank of England. very early age. Initially, I wanted to be an explorer and an author. Then I realised that science and evolutionary biology would allow me to find Is it important to be flexible? answers to all those questions I had: Where do we come from? Why do ani- I never planned a trajectory for my life. Most of the things that have hap- mals behave like they do? Why do they interact in certain ways? pened in my life were accidents rather than careful planning. There is an interesting book Chance and Necessity by Jacques Monod. He emphasises Is mobility absolutely necessary for scientific success? that a nature of a scientific discovery is a mixture of accident and the alert- I do not know if I would have been as successful had I stayed in Sweden. It ness to take advantage of the accidents. This is something I have been pretty probably would have taken a lot longer. Moving to Geoff Parker’s laboratory good at. in Liverpool to do postdoctoral research was hugely influential to me. All of a sudden I had all these people that I read about during my PhD at my From your time as Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK government and as doorstep. I could visit them and expose them to my research. That eventu- President of the Royal Society, what do you think you are particularly well ally helped me get my Royal Society University Research Fellowship, which I remembered for? had for almost ten years. The investment made by The Royal Society opened When I took on the job as Chief Scientist in 1995, the public excitement many doors for me. I realised that I can actually do high-risk research with about mad cow disease was at its peak. Shortly after, I produced a formal potentially high return beyond the three-year cycle of a short research grant. protocol for science advice in government. This protocol emphasized that That would have been much harder had I stayed in Stockholm. science not always tells the government what to do, but reports what the knowledge is. Who are your scientific heroes, both internationally and in Sweden? During my time at the Royal Society, it was more the Society as a whole My professor of evolutionary ecology at the University of Stockholm, Birgitta that recognised that it should widen its membership. The provision was to Sillen-Tullberg, was absolutely pivotal for me deciding to undertake a PhD. elect people who had been successful in the application of science in busi- Linda Partridge has done some amazing work on reproduction and ageing. ness and industry rather than those who advanced the frontiers of knowl- Her ability to grasp the potential of new cutting-edge techniques and apply edge. Also, we did a better job at electing more women as members. I made them to her questions is truly astounding. Of course, I am also very influ- a start on much of this and other people have carried it forward very well. enced by Carl Linnaeus. He had acute observational skills and was very capable of putting down on paper what he saw. His books were hugely inspirational for my expedition-style type of research.

Congratulations EMBO Members for 2014 to the following EMBO Members Anniversary election

EMBO Members who joined the 106 scientists elected ranks of the Royal Society in the EMBO has decided to expand the scope of its membership on the occasion of its 50th anniversary to UK and the US National Academy honour the progress that has been made in the fields of neuroscience and ecology & evolution. The 106 new of Sciences this year: members for 2014 include 50 scientists who have made exceptional contributions to these research areas. The newly elected members and associate members are: New Royal Society Fellows and Foreign Members EMBO Members Fellows DE Ralf H. Adams HU Tamás F. Freund GB Josephine Pemberton ➔➔ Ewan Birney PT Margarida Amaral CH Rainer Friedrich CH Antoine Peters ➔➔ Liam Dolan ➔➔ Amanda Fisher FR Michalis Averof GB Karl J. Friston FR Lluis Quintana-Murci

➔➔ James Naismith DE Ian T. Baldwin GB Uta Frith IT Giacomo Rizzolatti ➔➔ Julian Parkhill AT Nicholas H. Barton DE Anne-Claude Gavin IT Sabrina Sabatini ➔➔ Sheena Radford ➔➔ David Ron GB Malcolm Bennett SE Sten Grillner GB Erik Sahai ➔➔ William Rutherford SE Per-Olof Berggren FI Ilkka Hanski GB Vincent Savolainen ➔➔ Nicholas Talbot ES Anna Bigas DE Volker Haucke GB Christopher Schofield Foreign Members DE Antje Boëtius NL Albert J.R. Heck GB Wolfram Schultz ➔➔ Stephen Harrisonr ➔➔ Philippe Sansonetti CH Sebastian Bonhoeffer DE Peter Hegemann DE Erin Schuman

➔➔ Joan Steitz FR Déborah Bourc’his FR Carsten Janke AT Peter Schuster ➔➔ Clifford Talbot FR Philippe Bousso FI Jukka Jernvall IT Giorgio Scita

New Members and Foreign NL Ineke Braakman NL Mike Jetten IL Idan Segev Associates of the National GB Paul Brakefield CH Henrik Kaessmann FR Michael Sieweke Academy of Sciences DE Michael Brecht GB John Kendrick-Jones members DE Wolf Singer ➔➔ Michael Hall AT Julius F. Brennecke DE René F. Ketting AT Michael Sixt ➔➔ Michael R. Green NL Thijn R. Brummelkamp SE Ole Kiehn GB Peter Somogyi Foreign Associate DE Oliver Brüstle GB David Komander IL Haim Sompolinsky ➔➔ Hans Clevers DE Johannes Buchner GB Loeske E.B. Kruuk DE Christian Spahn ➔➔ Julian Davies ➔➔ V. Narry Kim FR Carmen Buchrieser DE Gilles Laurent GB Karen Steel ➔➔ Edvard Moser GB Ian Chambers GR Zoi Lygerou GB Christoph M. Tang ➔➔ May-Britt Moser GB Brian Charlesworth GB Troy W. Margrie FR Daniel Vaulot ➔➔ John Skehel ➔➔ K. VijayRaghavan GB Deborah Charlesworth IT Michela Matteoli GB Scott Waddell ➔➔ Huanming Yang DE Emmanuelle Charpentier GB Robert M. May CH Andreas Wagner

FR Philippe Chavrier GB Gil McVean SE E. Gerhart H. Wagner

FR Daniel Choquet GB Pascal Meier DE Markus Wahl

PT DE Rui M. Costa Randolf Menzel GB Nina Wedell

FR Stanislas Dehaene DE Hannah Monyer Upcoming GB Stuart A. West deadlines DE Winfried Denk GB Richard G.M. Morris CH Emmanouil Dermitzakis GB J. Colin Murrell EMBO Associate Members EMBO Long-Term Fellowships US Susan Gottesman Mid-August GB Raymond Dolan IT Marco Muzi-Falconi

FEBS | EMBO 2014 GB Peter Donnelly FR Stéphane Noselli US Tomas Kirchhausen Online registration 29 August IL Yadin Dudai GB John O’Keefe US Sandra L. Schmid EMBO Keynote Lectures US David L. Spector 1 October CH Dieter Ebert FR Isabelle Olivieri

Nominations 2015 SE Hans Ellegren GB Christine A. Orengo CN Xiaodong Wang Women in Science Award 15 October GB Barry J. Everitt GB Julian Parkhill JP Yoshinori Watanabe

The study also adds to previous work involving Standing on the the Colot team that revealed clear connections between epigenetic variation and ecosystem shoulders of function.2 Meanwhile, on another floor of IBENS Eric giants in Paris Meyer’s team focuses on the genomics and epi- genomics of the ciliate Paramecium tetraurelia. The Institut de Biologie de Ciliates use specialized small RNA pathways based on scan RNAs (scnRNAs) to recognize l’École Normale Supérieure in germline transposable elements and their single- Paris (IBENS) has recently hired copy remnants during sexual reproduction, and three new teams with a strong excise them during development of the somatic macronucleus. In P. tetraurelia, these genome- focus on ecology and evolutionary wide scnRNAs do not keep a memory of parasitic biology. This new initiative sequences, but instead mediate a transnuclear coincides with two milestone subtraction that allows the zygotic macronucleus to eliminate any germline sequence not pre- publications from the institute sent in the maternal macronucleus. The team led that demonstrate the role of by Meyer and their collaborators have recently epigenetics in underlying heritable shown that this mechanism has been repeat- Entrance edly adopted and used for mating-type determi- of the École traits in plants and ciliates. The nation and maternal inheritance.3 They found Normale that different genes of a conserved mating-type Supérieure implications for understanding the in the evolutionary processes underlying pathway are targeted for inactivation in differ- Rue d’Ulm ent sibling species. These examples establish organism interactions with their scnRNA-mediated regulation as a general mecha-

©ENS environment are profound. nism for transgenerational epigenetic inheritance of cellular polymorphisms, allowing the somat- he École Normale Supérieure (ENS) on the hosts a world-class infrastructure for experimen- ic genome to evolve independently of germline rue d’Ulm in Paris’s Quartier Latin is one tal aquatic and terrestrial ecology research, the mutations. The discovery of the adaptation of Tof the most famous teaching institutions Ecotron, located an hour outside Paris. an RNA-guided DNA-deletion pathway that was in France, reserved for just a few hundred stu- The three new teams join those already resi- proposed to prevent the invasion of foreign DNA dents in the arts and sciences each year. Since dent at IBENS with interests in ecology and evo- sequences into this genome will no doubt stimu- its founding as an elitist school for teacher train- lutionary biology, in particular EMBO Member late the search for other examples of transgenera- ing by Napoleon just after the French Revolution Chris Bowler, Jean-François Brunet, EMBO tional epigenetic inheritance that are intrinsic to (November 1794) it has undergone many chang- Member Vincent Colot, EMBO Member Marie- the cell and which are mediated by homologous es and witnessed the arrival of new neighbours, Anne Félix, Eric Meyer, Lionel Navarro, and RNAs in other organisms. including the Curie Institute and, more recently, Hugues Roest Crollius. Two of these teams have This new work from the ENS adds to a long the Paris Sciences et Lettres Research University. recently published significant research address- tradition of excellence in the biological sciences. IBENS was created from the ENS Département ing the role of epigenetics in the transmission of Louis Pasteur was a former director of the school, de Biologie by neurobiologist and EMBO Member heritable traits and the mechanisms at play in and previous milestones include the first reports Antoine Triller, who has directed the institute responding to environmental signals, heretical of photoperiodism in plants by Julien Tournois since 2010. The institute’s only remit is to per- views according to many evolutionary biologists in 1913,4 and the birth of a strong tradition of form high quality fundamental research in biol- but with some elements resembling those pro- Mendelian genetics in France by the population ogy, and a range of topics and experimental posed originally by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, work- genetics studies on Drosophila performed by systems are addressed, from single-molecule ing in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris at the same Georges Teissier and Philippe L’Héritier in the imaging in neurobiology to the study of global time that the ENS was being built. 1930s.5 The studies of Colot and Meyer have a plankton biodiversity, and from Arabidopsis to The team led by EMBO member Vincent specific resonance with the theories of Lamarck. Paramecium. The institute is already home to Colot, together with their Dutch colleagues, has Sitting atop his pedestal at the entrance of the several EMBO Members and European Research demonstrated that, at least in Arabidopsis, DNA Jardin des Plantes, he is little more than a stone’s Council laureates, and recently launched a new sequence alone is unlikely to explain the inher- throw away from IBENS. He would surely be initiative in ecology and evolutionary biology by itance of complex traits.1 Using a population of astonished to see what his ideas have led to since hiring three new team leaders. Henrique Teotónio epigenetic recombinant inbred lines, they have the advent of molecular biology, and would also heads a team using experimental evolution in shown that heritable variation for the two quan- note that revolution, as well as evolution, are still Caenorhabditis elegans to integrate the study of titative traits they measured, flowering time and in the Spring air of Paris. variation at the levels of phenotype and genotype. root length, can be almost entirely determined Hélène Morlon is leading a team modeling biodi- by epigenetic differences, in the form of multi- Literature versity to study questions ranging from macroev- ple differentially methylated regions (DMRs) that 1 Cortijo et al. (2014) Science 343: 1145 – 1148 olution and macroecology to community assem- are stably inherited independently of any DNA 2 Latzel et al. (2013) Nature Communications 4: 2875 bly, biogeography, and conservation, and Regis sequence change. Some of these DMRs are also 3 Singh et al. (2014) Nature, Advanced online publication. Ferrière and Silvia de Monte are co-directing the found in nature, suggesting that they could con- 4 Pigment of the imagination: Eco-Evolutionary Mathematics team that links tribute alongside DNA sequence differences to A history of phytochrome research. mathematicians and biologists in the study of the genetic (heritable) differentiation that char- By Linda C. Sage. Academic Press Inc. (1992). the interactions between the stochasticity of indi- acterizes natural populations. The implications 5 Burian et al. (1988) J. Hist. Biol. 21: 357– 402. vidual-level processes, the non-linearity of pop- are profound, as these findings demonstrate that ulation-level processes and feedbacks between genetic differences between individuals need not ecological dynamics and evolution. The ENS also be written exclusively in their genome sequence.

of these activities because I am a government A whole new arena of questions employee and I am not allowed to lobby. Political lobbying is something that ASCB has Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz is a been doing for at least fifteen years. For a good tenured investigator at the National reason: it is important for the politicians to be aware of what is happening in cell biology. Most Institutes of Health in Bethesda, of our scientists believe that the big crisis and the United States. Her research focuses budget cuts are major problems facing all of bio- on visualisation, tracking and medical research right now in the United States, impacting our science in a very big way. quantification of organelle pathways and dynamics within living cells and What is your current research project? whole organisms. In an interview I use live cell imaging to address fundamental processes within cells including cell compartmen- with EMBOencounters she talks talization, cell motility, protein trafficking and about her new job as President of organelle inheritance at different scales in space the American Society for Cell Biology and time. My lab has introduced new approaches for visualizing and analyzing these processes, (ASCB) for 2014 and evolving topics including the use of photoactivatable fluorescent proteins for photohighlighting and superresolu- ©NI H in cell biology. tion imaging of single molecules at high densi- ty. I have spent much of my career focused on Professor Lippincott-Schwartz, how exciting is What does your job look like? understanding secretory organelles like the Golgi the task of guiding such a large organisation as My job is to run the ASCB together with Stefano apparatus and the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). ASCB? Bertuzzi and his excellent staff. We work on ini- More recently, I have also studied more obscure It is thrilling. I have been part of the ASCB tiatives that range from improving our journals – organelles, like lipid droplets, peroxisomes, pri- throughout my whole career, going to the annual Molecular Biology of the Cell and Life Sciences mary cilia and autophagosomes, and I am now meeting every year since I was a graduate student Education – to interfacing with our large num- fascinated with mitochondria and their relation- and participating in many of its activities, from ber of committees, including education, interna- ship to other organelles. This has caused me programming planning to serving as President. I tional affairs, women’s issues, and public policy. to begin thinking hard about cell metabolism – have seen ASCB grow as a society. Being at the The biggest job so far has been organizing the how it relates to the behaviour and dynamics of helm of the organisation this year is very gratify- programme of the annual meeting (www.ascb. organelles, in particular mitochondria, and the ing but intimidating given its size. Fortunately, I org/2014meeting), which I have done togeth- cytoskeleton, and how this all might be studied am helped by a terrific professional staff at ASCB, er with my Programme Chair Wallace Marshall. using microscopy. including Executive Director Stefano Bertuzzi. ASCB will be partnering this year with the International Federation of Cell Biology. I also Which were the key factors that contributed to The ASCB president is changed every year. How had to recently select biology artwork from our your successful career? would you like to set yourself apart? members to be displayed at Dulles International I like to focus on questions that are simple but I see that cell biology is changing. For the first Airport in Washington, D.C. take a topic to a new level or direction. I also time, we have the tools to interface with physi- have a philosophical penchant for studying pro- cal science in a big way. This is mainly due to How do you define the role of ASCB? cess and relationships between things. This the improved computational capabilities for pre- Its main role is to facilitate interactions between explains why I am so attracted to fluorescence dictive modelling of data. Another factor is the cell biologists and to help them position them- imaging, since a whole world of dynamics and advanced microscopy techniques that allow us to selves for opportunities in the wider field of bio- relationships is revealed every time one looks look at cells and tissues at higher resolution and medical and biophysical sciences. The society down a microscope. I was an early user of the in a dynamic fashion. These new computational acts as a way for cell biologists to learn about oth- Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) – and helped and imaging techniques are revealing aspects of er scientist’s work and to communicate their own develop some new imaging approaches using it, biology that have never been seen or described research. The annual meeting also hosts a huge including confocal photobleaching, photoactiva- before. This is opening up a whole new arena group of vendors, who themselves play an impor- tion and photoactivated localization microscopy of questions for cell biologists. Since answering tant role in providing the technological develop- (PALM). Everything I am well known for came many of these questions will require bridging bio- ments for doing our science. from being able to visualise at a better level. logical concepts with physical science principles, I am trying to provide ways to better build this How much time remains to pursue your How do you help people understand your bridge. research? research? One of the things that I have initiated this year I still find time to run my lab and continue Science is about communication. All successful is a special issue of our flagship journal Molecular research. That said, there are times when the job scientists that I know are excellent communi- Biology of the Cell, which will be devoted to is full time. Several weeks ago we had our bian- cators. Before I went into science, I spent three papers at the interface of cell biology and phys- nual two-day Council meeting, discussing new years teaching at the high school level: one year ics, as well as papers that incorporate modelling projects and goals of the society. in Africa, two years in California. In 2013, I co- and predictive aspects of modelling involving big organized the EMBO | EMBL Symposium Seeing is data analysis. Does your position also involve political Believing. It was absolutely fantastic. I am also In addition to bridging with the physical scienc- lobbying? speaking in a session on Membrane organiza- es, we also need to integrate cell biology with the One day each year, the ASCB Council spends a tion & super resolution at the FEBS | EMBO 2014 translational sciences. For this, we have designed day on Capitol Hill to talk to congressmen and Conference in Paris this year. We all have dif- several symposia at our annual meeting that will senators to encourage them to support legislation ferent ways of thinking. When I talk about my focus on the cell biology underlying different dis- and give greater financial support to the biomedi- research, I try to understand the perspective of eases – from infectious diseases to cancer. cal profession. I have to recuse myself for some the listener and be as simple as possible.

grants, state-of-the-art equipment and ambitious appropriate rhizosphere microbial partners? To Darwin in research projects. answer this question, the Austrian scientist and One of these is DARWIN21 – a project shaped his team launched a worldwide network of desert the desert by EMBO Member Heribert Hirt. At the end of researchers and plan to build the world’s first her- last year, he decided to move from France to itage stock centre for desert microbes. The next DARWIN21 – a project in Saudi Saudi Arabia to give his research a head start and step is to create a molecular database on rhiso- Arabia to engineer plants and to fulfil a long-standing wish: “KAUST promised to phere microbial genomes and their gene func- get my idea rolling and get the community on tions using the latest genomic analysis methods. secure world food production board.” The scale of his undertaking shows par- Hirt’s research results could be of major allels to the great voyage of Charles Darwin in importance to agriculture as they provide a basis ive years ago, a 36-square-kilometer uni- the nineteenth century, only DARWIN21 explores for the engineering of plants that produce higher versity opened its gates in the desert life in deserts. The aim of the project is to visit yields or are more resistant to drought. If all goes Fsands of Saudi Arabia – the King Abdullah arid regions to collect and analyse rhizosphere well, the scientists could eventually help replant University of Science and Technology (KAUST). microbes. Why in deserts? Because deserts exhib- arid areas and thereby secure future world food KAUST is not only a university – it is an experi- it the harshest conditions of drought, salt and production. ment and a dream made reality by King Abdullah heat that plants are exposed to. Here, selection His laboratory has already set up collabora- Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who aims to stem the has shaped the interactions between plants and tions with groups in Jordan, the United Arab exodus of young, talented students from the microbes for thousands of years. Emirates, Pakistan, Namibia and Argentina. From kingdom and promote Saudi Arabia as a busi- Previous studies have shown that the ability several expeditions to Saudi Arabia and Jordan, ness hub. The 12.5 billion US dollar campus at of a variety of plants to adapt to stress condi- the scientists have gathered a collection of more the Red Sea coast close to Jeddah was completed tions appears to depend on the association with than 700 endophyte strains. They started screen- within two years. Thanks to a generous donation, rhisophere microbes. But can all plants improve ing those on Arabidopsis and found several that the university can afford competitive salaries, stress tolerance when associated with their help these plants to survive under stress conditions. Daniele Daffonchio, a new microbiology professor at KAUST, explores the properties of these microbes. Specialists from the Center for Bioinformatics at KAUST produce publicly accessible databases. Additional field trials with some microbial strains that passed the test with Arabidopsis are planned for autumn 2014 with wheat and barley. “KAUST is an exceptional place to work,” con- cludes the 58-year-old after his first six months at the new institute. “It reminds me of a monastery where about 120 top researchers are concentrat- ed with their teams in a small village of about four thousand people.” For Hirt, what counts even more is the intensive interaction between researchers, ample funding and the most modern technology that allows realization of projects that are impossible to do elsewhere. INFO: International conference on Root desert rhizosphere microbes for sustainable agriculture ©KAUS T will be held at KAUST from 3–5 November 2014.

TOP The KAUST Library near Jeddah at the coast of the Red Sea.

RIGHT Expedition to the south of Saudi Arabia with Ton Bisseling (Wageningen University), Jacob Thomas and M. Al-Yusef from Riyadh University (left to right) H eribert irt ©

ithin the science community, EMBL is recognized for its excellence in Wresearch, outstanding training opportunities and world-class research infrastructures and services. Turning 40, EMBL has become a pre- mium “brand” in the world of science, but unlike for example CERN remains relatively unknown EMBL 40th Anniversary Events to the general public. To raise awareness and fos- ➔➔ Vernissage ter fascination for life science research, EMBL has DNA | Portraits just launched a multi-component public aware- by Horst Hamann The Sunday Science Matinees ness and engagement campaign. During a pilot EMBL Heidelberg, Germany at EMBL were well attended by phase until the end of 2014, the campaign will be 13 September 2014 locals interested in life sciences conducted in German with particular focus on its www.embl.de/leben/ ©EMBL PhotoLab | M. Schupp headquarter site in Heidelberg and on Hamburg, ➔➔ Sunday Matinee Series the site of EMBL’s German outstation. From 2015, These include Sunday Science Matinees “Mehr Der Sonne entgegen – wie unseren selected elements will be implemented in other vom Leben” (More from Life) presented by young Vorfahren aus dem Meer ein Licht aufging. languages, including English, and at the other researchers, a Research Camp for interested par- by Silvia Rohr EMBL sites. ticipants to conduct lab work at EMBL, as well EMBL Heidelberg, Germany At the centre of the campaign is a tag line as an “arts meet science” photographic exhibition 26 October 2014 that communicates EMBL’s mission in basic “DNA | Portraits by Horst Hamann.” www.embl.org/40years research: ‘Vom Leben lernen’ (Learning from life). To strengthen EMBL’s visibility and engagement ➔➔ Symposium and Celebrations EMBL also launched a new web site, its regionally, a combination of events and outreach EMBL Hamburg 40th Anniversary Discovery Pages (www.embl.de/leben/), activities will take place throughout the year. EMBL Hamburg, Germany for the general public. 27 – 28 November 2014 www.embl-hamburg.de/training/ events/2014/HH-40th-Anniversary

Bringing science to the public Exploring science first hand in a research lab, discussing biomedical findings with scientists – this is what high school students, teachers, legal experts and science journalists can do at the Institute ©IFOM of Molecular Oncology Foundation (IFOM) in Italy. charity and spontaneous donations. There is a students in the fourth year of secondary school growing need for accountability and for returning are invited to present their research activity in ouScientist, the IFOM Science & Society to society what it pays into the research system. front of an audience of non-experts. The winner Programme (www.ifom.eu/en/science- Hands-on laboratories on molecular genetics, of the poster day is awarded a one-week intern- Ysociety), has offered to more than 25 000 including simulations for BRCA1 and 2 genetic ship in an advanced European research institute. people the opportunity to discover how cancer testing, kids performances about biological phe- The YouScientist programme is also engaged research works. Participants work side-by-side nomena such as DNA replication and DNA repair, in editorial activities, mainly directed to students with scientists and experience not only their pas- and scientific lectures from IFOM scientists are and science teachers. It offers educational science sion and enthusiasm, but also the difficulties some examples of how YouScientist reaches out kits and protocols easily reproducible at schools, and limitations of scientific research. Scientists to the public. a recently published handwritten video tutorials become more aware of their role and responsibili- Every year, IFOM also organizes a popular and an e-book on cancer. ties towards society. At a time of public funding nationwide summer school contest, now in its Further information: www.ifom.eu/en/ restrictions, science activities rely increasingly on tenth year. After two weeks in IFOM laboratories, Contact: [email protected]

EMBO Advanced Fellowships

To offer outstanding postdoctoral researchers during the two-year window a fellow sets up his a more sustainable help, a new type of funding or her own research group, the remaining amount New funding was introduced last July. The EMBO Advanced up to a maximum of thirty thousand Euros will Fellowships allow for an additional two years of be transferred in one payment. It can be used for for senior financial support to former and current EMBO laboratory related costs such as hiring people or Fellows. It is intended for those who have been buying equipment. showing exceptional progress during their post- The advanced fellowships seamlessly fit postdoctoral doctoral work. The scheme is highly selective into the range of EMBO activities: They close and restricted to five fellowships per year for sci- the gap between the Fellowship and the Young researchers entists based in one of the twenty-seven EMBC Investigator Programme that offers support to the Member States. best young group leaders in Europe. t feels great to get one of the best research This new type of funding for senior post- At the same time, EMBO has introduced non- fellowships in the world,” says Matheshwaran doctoral researchers who are close to becoming stipendiary fellowships for researchers who opt ISaravanan, EMBO Fellow from 2009–2011, group leaders is exceptional in Europe. “By grant- out of the financial scheme but still would like who spent his two-year fellowship at the ing postdocs the extended financial support we to remain members of the international, interdis- European Molecular Biology Laboratory in make it possible for them to complete a research ciplinary network. Non-stipendiary fellows can Heidelberg. EMBO Fellowships are considered project they have demonstrated to be on a suc- also apply for the additional funding. prestigious and offer the awardees a high degree cessful track,” says EMBO programme manager of independence in their laboratory. However, Andrea Hutterer. The extra money allows them to The 2014 deadline for submission is most scientists need longer than the two years finish their work with a certain level of independ- Friday 22 August. that are granted to them. “You can hardly com- ence and establish their own line of research. More information can be found at plete a project within such a short timeframe,” An additional advantage is that the scientists www.embo.org/funding-awards/fellowships/ says Matheshwaran. can take the money to their new laboratory: If advanced-fellowships

Saving the past, documenting the present To capture its own history and keep track of the heritage of molecular biology, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) launches an archive website to invite its staff and alumni for their contributions. Inauguration ceremony of EMBL in et’s not wait until memories have faded 1978, outside the big lecture hall of the neighbouring and papers be discarded at the end of a Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics. From left to right: Lcareer before deciding to save our herit- Mary Holmes, Peter von Sengbusch and John Kendrew. Far right, with the age,” wrote Sydney Brenner in 2007, in a letter raincoat over his arm, is Raymond Appleyard, the first Director of EMBO. announcing the donation of his papers to the ©Ken H olmes Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. The letter was history – their own stories. We would like to along with the accompanying figures and records, a key document that gave rise to a new project engage the community to help us piece this back personal correspondence between the main play- at EMBL, the EMBL Archive. The community together.” ers, emails, perhaps even tweets. endeavour, initiated by the Alumni Association The archive will eventually offer a unique The donations from the community will go Chair, Giulio Superti-Furga, was rolled out at the repository for molecular biologists, historians towards sorting, cataloguing and digitizing the EMBL 40th Anniversary Reunion. At www.embl. and philosophers of science to mine and explore material contributions, with the aim of making org/archive, past and present staff from EMBL’s the primary sources and original records of past these available online in three years time. The five sites can now make valuable contributions research processes. “The discovery process is nev- project is being developed with the advice of such as letters, documents, pictures, lab books, er as smooth as it appears in papers,” comments archivists Jenny Haynes and Jenny Shaw from diaries, and donations to support the processing Giulio Superti-Furga. “The interesting twists and the Wellcome Library. costs of incoming collections. turns, the characters and ideas that helped along EMBL is in good company. Its archive will “One mission of the archive is to safeguard the way may never be known unless somebody complement other existing molecular biol- EMBL’s history in the face of its fast turno- records it.” ogy archives like those belonging to the MRC ver,” says Mehrnoosh Rayner, Head of Alumni The first objective will be to systematically Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cold Spring Relations and project leader for this initiative. reconstruct the full picture of the past decades at Harbor and the Weizmann Institute. What makes “While the short-term contracts ensure that great EMBL: historical documents relating to the foun- the EMBL archive unique however is its focus on minds return to their countries, they also mean dation of the institute and the establishment of the the European life sciences and the Laboratory’s that they take with them small chunks of EMBL units, the most important scientific achievements international approach to scientific collaborations.

D-Genome is an ambitious multidiscipli- “The genome is not only a linear string of let- immortalized B cells to macrophages. They will nary project that aims to untangle the ters,” explains EMBO Member Miguel Beato. The study the conformation of the genome and its 4role of the 3-dimensional (3D) struc- classical view of genomes as nucleotide sequenc- dynamic changes at various levels of resolution, ture of the human genome and its dynamics es is being replaced by the concept that the organ- from the nucleosome fiber to the distribution in gene expression. This study is supported by ization of the nucleus is dynamic, complex and of chromosome territories in the nuclear land- a European Research Council Synergy grant of functional. It has been shown that the spatial scape. State-of-the-art technology platforms and 12 million Euros that was awarded to four sci- location of genes modulates gene expression but infrastructures in Barcelona, including photonics, entists in Barcelona: Miguel Beato, Thomas Graf, the precise molecular mechanisms and relation- next-generation sequencing and supercomputing, and Guillaume Filion at the Center for Genomic ships are still to be elucidated. The 4D-Genome will be key elements for the success of the project. Regulation (CRG), and Marc A. Marti-Renom at team combines expertise in genomics, genome In the long term, the researchers hope to pro- the National Center of Genomic Analysis (CNAG) modelling, statistics, mathematics and super duce a 3D “google” browser to query the genome and the CRG. The leaders of this multidisciplinary resolution microscopy to study the dynamics of at different resolution and time scale, and exam- project have broad expertise in gene regulation, genome architecture in two well-established mod- ine its interplay with changes in gene expres- stem cells, statistics, computational and struc- el systems: transient hormonal response in breast sion. “4D-Genome can lead to novel concepts in tural biology. cancer cells and stable trans-differentiation of molecular biology text books and to completely unexpected findings”, says Miguel Beato. “This is all part of the adventure and excitement of basic research in biology.”

The 4D-Genome team, including members from the laboratories of Miguel Beato, Thomas Graf, Guillaume Filion and

EMBO Courses & Workshops EMBO Peer Bork speaking Practical at the symposium in Course Santiago de Chile EMBO Practical Course comes to Chile omputational Biology: Genomes to sys- organiser the meeting turned out a huge suc- tems is the title of the EMBO Practical cess,” said Peer Bork, who gave the opening CCourse that took place in Chile last keynote lecture, and also spoke at a symposium April and was organised by EMBO Member on the last day of the meeting. The course even Peer Bork of the European Molecular Biology made it to the biggest national newspaper in Laboratory. For the course held in the city Chile, El Mercurio. “The EMBO Practical Course of Puerto Varas, 22 students were selected and the International Symposium were very from 14 different countries. Students worked important to us, because computational biolo- together in teams of two, contributing differ- gy is an underdeveloped research area in Latin ent expertise and skills to solve interdiscipli- America with a steeply increasing demand,” nary problems. The international symposium commented Melo. subsequently held in Santiago gathered 200 attendees. Local co-organiser Francisco Melo Ledermann of the Catholic University of Chile secured a smooth running of the course on- site. “With the tremendous help of the local ©Catholic of Chile University

painstakingly ana- more than 1 molecule in 1000, a situation which lyzed the kinetics of may work for E. coli. Thus, by necessity, selec- the labeling patterns tion of an mRNA sequence in the human genome, using sucrose gra- 1 molecule in millions, necessitates a multi-step, dients. The results cascade-type process and, therefore, complex were very different processing machinery and regulation.” compared to bac- Ueli Schibler, professor at the University of terial labeling pat- Geneva, commented: “Looking back today, the terns. Two rapidly discovery of large non-stable RNAs by Scherrer labeled peaks were and Darnell can be considered to be a real break- visible at 45S and through in understanding gene transcription in 35S of guanine- and mammalian cells. In fact, their simple size-frac- cytosine-rich RNA, tionation experiments with pulse-labeled RNA followed by a trail revealed the precursors of both ribosomal RNA of adenine- and uri- and messenger RNA. In the B.C. (before cloning) dine-rich RNA up to around 80S. era the precursor-product relationship of large Papers “Our unexpected results in HeLa cells revealed heterogeneous nuclear RNA (hnRNA) and mes- the presence of a high-molecular-weight RNA senger RNA was virtually impossible to estab- or giant RNA,” says Klaus Scherrer, who is now lish. However, work in a number of laboratories, of influence Directeur de Recherche Émérite CNRS, France, at including those of Jim Darnell, Robert Perry, and the Institut Jacques Monod. “These findings were Klaus Scherrer during the early seventies suggest- As part of the 50th anniversary completely at odds with what was being found in ed that both hnRNA – synonymous to pre-mRNA of EMBO, EMBOencounters looks bacterial systems and our results prompted much – and mRNA carried a methylated cap structure skepticism at the time.3 Facing general disbelief, (m7GpppN) at their 5′ ends and a poly(A) tail at back on scientific publications we had to wait until 1969 to prove by a new elec- their 3′ ends. This obviously begged the question that changed the way researchers tron microscopy technique that such giant mol- of how large hnRNA molecules can be processed thought about molecular biology. ecules existed.” into much smaller mRNAs. The final answer “If RNA processing as a basic mechanism was came with the discovery of pre-mRNA splicing proven in 1962 for the most abundant rRNA by in the laboratories of Phillip Sharp and Richard he first paper to be featured was pub- simple pulse chase, such types of experiments Roberts in 1977 making RNA processing not only lished in Biochemical and Biophysical have not been conclusive for biosynthesis of spe- obvious but necessary. Often, the 5′- and 3′ termi- Research Communications in 1962 by cific mRNA even today except, possibly, in viral ni of pre-mRNAs may be conserved during mRNA T 1 Klaus Scherrer and Jim Darnell. The discovery systems,” says Scherrer. “For instance, in 1973 the maturation, and, hence, the sequences which are of large precursor RNA molecules or “giant RNA” first globin cDNA probes showing the presence of removed and destroyed during pre-RNA to mRNA that are converted into ribosomal RNA (rRNA) globin sequences in transcripts of high-molecu- processing are located in between the capped 5′ suggested the phenomenon of RNA processing. It lar-weight RNA were eventually confirmed by ends and the polyadenylated 3′ ends.” took 15 more years before the idea of precursor reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction Martin Billeter, Professor Emeritus at the mRNA was accepted more widely by the scien- (RT-PCR) in 2004 with cloned globin riboprobes University of Zürich, remarked: “This seminal tific community. By that time scientists had dis- for transcripts up to 33 kb.4 But the physical paper is characteristic of the whole career of Klaus covered the existence of “gene fragmentation” in conversion of such transcripts into mRNA could Scherrer: He has always been ahead of the gen- DNA, which pointed towards RNA processing as never be proven for any gene except in viral sys- erally approved scientific consensus. His visions, a general rather than an alternate phenomenon. tems. The discovery of splicing made processing which were based on rigorous experimentation, Today it is widely accepted that almost all of pre-mRNA a necessity. Furthermore, the pro- had to await new experimental procedures to be functional RNA molecules arise from precursor tection of 5′- and 3′-ends of primary RNA, as well generally accepted. RNA has remained his main molecules. Processing is the main mechanism as of mRNA by 5′-Cap and 3′-poly(A) reinforced subject of study. He recognized very early on that visible in gene expression. The goal of the recent the validity of the processing model. However, the full domain transcripts contain a wealth of ENCODE project was to identify all functional since some primary transcripts may be cleaved, regulatory information far more complex than elements in the human genome, acknowledg- re-capped and re-polyadenylated, this was as a that required for transcriptional regulation.” ing that protein-coding genes account for only general rule not proof for primary pre-mRNA.” around 1.5% of DNA in the human genome and Says Scherrer: “Although the recent ENCODE References that there is a wealth of information captured and data show up to 90% transcription of eukary- 1 Scherrer K, Darnell JE (1962) Sedimentation character- expressed in different types of RNA molecules. In otic DNA and, hence, imply transcription of istics of rapidly labeled RNA from HeLa cells, Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 7(6): 486 – 490 the 1960s, things were very different. The idea most genomic domains, the high throughput 2 Gros F, Gilbert W, Hiatt H, Kurland C, Risebrough RW, that gene expression would be controlled at the RNA sequencing techniques do not differentiate Watson JD (1961) Unstable ribonucleic acid revealed by level of RNA had not even been formulated. between Full Domain Transcripts (FDTs) and ini- pulse labelling of Escherichia coli, Nature 190: 581 – 585 In 1961, Jim Darnell in the Department tiation from multiple promoters within a domain. 3 Scherrer K (2003) Historical review: The discovery of of Biology at The Massachusetts Institute of The hypothesis of FDT as the most likely inter- “giant” RNA and of RNA processing : 40 years of enigma, Technology in the United States asked his col- pretation of facts was – and still is – based on Trends in Biochemical Sciences 28: 566 – 571 league Klaus Scherrer to reproduce some RT-PCR data. The presence of high-molecular- 4 Razin SV, Rynditch A, Borunova V, Ioudinkova E, Smalko V, Scherrer K (2004) The 33-kb transcript of the chicken pulse labeling experiments first performed weight RNA in puffs of genetically marked poly- α-globin gene domain is part of the nuclear matrix, in Escherichia coli by François Gros and Jim tene chromosome bands and, also, the presence Journal of Cellular Biochemistry 92: 445 – 457 2 Watson. The original experiments had revealed of DNA loops tens of kilobase pairs long in the 5 Scherrer K, Jost J (2007) The gene and the genon concept: a typical 10–20S mRNA profile but Darnell and electron micrographs of Miller-type christmas A functional and information-theoretic analysis, Scherrer wanted to look at Hela cells, a human trees has supported since the 1960s the pre-mRNA Molecular Systems Biology 3: 87 cell line. model. Furthermore, the theory of information (doi:10.1038/msb4100123) The researchers grew HeLa cells in the pres- processing excludes due to thermodynamic noise ence of radioactively labeled 14C-Uridine and physical or biochemical single-step selection of

Practical Courses Workshops Conferences ESF | EMBO Symposia Cryo-electron microscopy and 3D The regulation of aging and Brain development and disorders Synthetic biology of antibiotic image processing proteostasis FR-Saint Raphaël, 5–8 September production DE-Heidelberg, 31 August–9 September IL-Ma’ale Hachamisha, 7–12 September ES-Sant Feliu de Guixols, The molecular and cellular basis of 30 August – 4 September Ubiquitin and related modifiers Advances in protein – protein regeneration and tissue repair IT-Alghero, 6–13 September interaction analysis and modulation ES-Sant Feliu de Guixols, Long regulatory RNAs FR-Hyères, 9–12 September 6–10 September PL-Pułtusk, 13 –18 September Protein expression, purification, and characterization (PEPC9) Current advances in membrane Interdisciplinary plant development Flies, worms and robots: Combining DE-Hamburg, 8–16 September trafficking: Implications for polarity UK-Cambridge, 21–24 September perspectives on minibrains and and diseases behaviour Microscopy, modelling and CL-Puerto Natales, 9–14 September Innate lymphoid cells ES-Sant Feliu de Guixols, biophysical methods FR-Paris, 29 September–1 October 8–13 November DE-Heidelberg, 8–20 September Unraveling biological secrets by single-cell expression profiling Centrosomes and spindle pole bodies Single-cell gene expression analysis DE-Heidelberg, 25–26 September PT-Lisbon, 30 September–3 October DE-Heidelberg, 19–25 September EMBO | EMBL Symposia Decoding neural circuit structure and Stem cells in cancer and regenerative Targeted proteomics: Experimental function medicine The complex life of mRNA design and data analysis TR-Istanbul, 26–28 September DE-Heidelberg, 9–12 October DE-Heidelberg, 5–8 October ES-Barcelona, 28 September–3 October Development and regeneration of Experimental approaches to Frontiers in metabolism: From Computational analysis of protein- the spinal cord evolution and ecology using yeast molecular physiology to systems protein interactions: From sequences ES-Sitges, 1–4 October DE-Heidelberg, 12–15 October medicine to networks DE-Heidelberg, 17–20 November ZA-Cape Town, Cancer stem cells 20 years later: Ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like proteins: 29 September–3 October Achievements, controversies, At the crossroads from chromatin to Frontiers in stem cells and cancer emerging concepts and technologies protein DE-Heidelberg, 29–31 March 2015 Non-coding RNA in infection IT-Catanzaro, 3–6 October AR-Buenos Aires, 19–24 October DE-Würzburg, 12–18 October Cellular heterogeneity: Role of Human RNA viruses The Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) as a variability and noise in biological Analysis of high-throughput TR-Istanbul, 6–8 October hub for organelle communication decision-making sequencing data ES-Girona, 26–31 October DE-Heidelberg, 15–18 April 2015 UK-Hinxton, 20–25 October Wnt signalling: Stem cells, development and disease From functional genomics to systems Mechanisms of neurodegeneration High-throughput microscopy for AU-Broome, 6–9 October biology DE-Heidelberg, 14–17 June 2015 systems biology DE-Heidelberg, 8–11 November DE-Heidelberg, 20–26 October Translational advances in cancer cell Enabling technologies for eukaryotic signalling and metabolism Mechanisms and regulation of synthetic biology Solution scattering from biological ES-Bilbao, 7–9 October protein translocation DE-Heidelberg, 21–23 June 2015 macromolecules HR-Dubrovnik, 21–25 March 2015 DE-Hamburg, 27 October–3 November Non-coding RNAs in genome The mobile genome: Genetic and expression, maintenance and stability Chromatin and epigenetics physiological impacts of transposable Biomolecular interaction analysis: FR-Cargèse (Corsica), 7–10 October DE-Heidelberg, 6–10 May 2015 elements From molecules to cells DE-Heidelberg, 16–19 September 2015 PT-Porto, 24–28 November Cell plasticity and nuclear dynamics RNA localization and local translation SG-Singapore, 12–15 October GR-Hersonissos, 28 June–3 July 2015 Seeing is believing: Imaging the Metabolomics bioinformatics for life processes of life Epigenetic plasticity: Implications in DNA replication, chromosome scientists DE-Heidelberg, 7–10 October 2015 UK-Cambridge, 16–20 February 2015 neural (dys)function segregation and cell division PT-Braga, 22–25 October UK-Egham, 27–31 July 2015 New approaches and concepts in In vivo plant imaging microbiology Cancer stem cells and epigenetics Ribosome synthesis DE-Heidelberg, 9–15 March 2015 DE-Heidelberg, 11–14 October 2015 CN-Hong Kong, 16–18 October BE-Brussels, 19–23 August 2015 Single molecule and single cell The non-coding genome A systems-level view of cytoskeletal Meiosis fluorescence Å/nm/µ/mm-scopy DE-Heidelberg, 18–21 October 2015 DE-Heidelberg, 15–23 March 2015 function UK-Oxford, IL-Rehovot, 27–31 October 30 August–4 September 2015 Biological oscillators: Design, The characterization of post- Upstream and downstream of Hox mechanism, function translational modifications Autophagy signalling and progression genes DE-Heidelberg, 12–14 November 2015 DK-Odense, 9–15 April 2015 in health and disease IN-Hyderabad, 14–17 December IT-Chia, 9–12 September 2015 Computational biology: From Cortical development in health and genomes to systems Ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like disease JP-Okinawa, 17–22 April 2015 modifiers: From molecular EMBO Global Activities IL-Rehovot, 26–29 April 2015 mechanisms to human diseases Lecture Courses Small angle neutron and X-ray HR-Cavtat, 18–22 September 2015 Embryonic-extraembryonic scattering from proteins in solution High-throughput NGS applied to interfaces: Emphasis on molecular FR-Grenoble, 18–22 May 2015 The multidisciplinary era of endocytic infectious diseases control of development in amniotes mechanics and functions TN-Tunis, 15–25 September 2014 Advanced electron microscopy for DE-Göttingen, 6–9 May 2015 FR-Mandelieu-la-Napoule, cell biology 27 September–2 October 2015 Biochemistry and molecular biology SMC proteins: Chromosomal FR-Bordeaux, 8–19 June 2015 bench to bedside approaches organizers from bacteria to human BR-Cuiabá/Poconé, 27 October–7 Synthetic biology in action AT-Vienna, 12–15 May 2015 November 2014 DE-Heidelberg, 8–20 June 2015 Developmental circuits in aging Structural and biophysical methods GR-Hersonissos, 25–28 May 2015 Developmental neurobiology: Other EMBO events for biological macromolecules in From worms to mammals Macromolecular assemblies at the solution UK-London, 21 June–4 July 2015 crossroads of cell stress and function FEBS | EMBO 2014 TW-Taipei, 4–10 May 2015 Image processing for IL-Jerusalem, 31 May–4 June 2015 FR-Paris, 30 August – 4 September 2014 cryo-electron microscopy Mechanisms of plant speciation EMBO Members’ Meeting UK-London, 1–11 September 2015 SE-Norrtälje, 9–13 June 2015 DE-Heidelberg, 29–31 October 2014 For further information, Current methods in cell biology Cell and developmental systems 15th EMBO|EMBL Science and Society DE-Heidelberg, 14–22 September 2015 CH-Arolla, 18–22 August 2015 Conference please visit EMBO Courses Foods are us! On eating and becoming & Workshops Cell cycle DE-Heidelberg , 6–7 November 2014 HU-Budapest, 4–7 September 2015 www.embo.org/ For a complete and up-to-date The EMBO Meeting 2015 – Stem cell mechanobiology in funding-awards/ list of EMBO events please go Advancing the life sciences development and disease UK-Birmingham, 5–8 September 2015 to events.embo.org IT-Capri, 18–21 October 2015 courses-workshops

EMBO THE EMBO Desensitation 4-MBC EMBO Molecular Medicine for physiological JOURNAL Molecular Medicine CatSper ligands O O DnBP O CH3 O n-NP O Glucose Glucose O Glucose Wnt H Ca2+ O Immature auditory Mature auditory Glycolysis and PPP intermediates Enzyme-free reaction cascade OH O H HO 4-OP H TCS mechanotransduction mechanotransduction O Cl OH machinery machinery Progesterone O RTK EDCs RTK RTK Glu G6P 6PG G6P Glucose 6-P Glucose 6-P Glucose 6-P Glu 6PG Endocrine O Cl Cl β-CATENIN Disrupting O Cadherin-23INDUCED Cadherin-23 HMS PI3K AKT TRANSCRIPTION Archean PI3K AKT ChemicalsPI3K AKTOH F6P Ru5P Ru5P Protocadherin-15 Protocadherin-15 Ocean F6P Myc NUCLEOTIDE PDK ionic BIOSYNTHESISMechano-electrical Mechano-electrical transduction channel MCT-1 transduction channel enviroment F16BP R5P X5P PyruvateCatSper Plasma membranePyruvate in sperm tail F16BP R5P X5P Ribose MCT-1 Serine LDH-A 70°C Research article Glycine Pyruvate Lactate Lactate S7P DHAP G3P S7P Aspartate DHAP G3P PC PDH PC PDH Water Increased Ac-CoA Ac-CoA ANGIO- calcium inﬂux Increased PC PDH PDK GENESIS OAA motility responseOAA 3PG E4P Citrate Research artAc-CoAicle E4P Endocrine+ disruptors impair Ca2 LIPID 3PG TCA TCA OAA SYNTHESIS human sperm function Citrate PROTEIN 2PG TCA ACCUMULATION Research article Researchers identify Pcdh15-CD1link -KG 2PG SpermA at plethorarest of endocrine-disrupting α ATP ATP LIPID between colon cancerPcdh15-CD2 and Pcdh15-CD2 CO ROS SYNTHESIS PEP chemicals2 interfere with human H O CO PROTEIN Pcdh15-CD3 Hearing protein required PEP 2 2 metabolism Glutamine H O ACCUMULATION Myc sperm function in a way that2 may to convert sound into brain Pyr have a negative impact on fertiliza- More than 60 years ago Otto signals Pyr tion. These are the findings of a Warburg recognized thatGlutamine cancer CELLGerman SURVIVAL – Danish teamCELL of research GROWTH - cells differCELL from PROLIFERATION normal cells in the A specific protein found in the Research article ers from the Center of Advanced metabolic pathway they use for the bridge-like structures that make up European Studies and Research oxidation of sugar. Rather than the part of the auditory machinery of Reconstructed ancient ocean in Bonn, Germany, and the typical series of oxidative steps that the inner ear is essential for hear- reveals secrets about the origin University Department of Growth take place in the citric acid cycle, ing. The absence of this protein or of life and Reproduction, Rigshospitalet, cancer cells metabolize sugar via impairment of the gene that codes Copenhagen, Denmark. The work the glycolytic pathway irrespective for this protein leads to profound Researchers from the University suggests that endocrine disruptors of whether oxygen is present or not. deafness in mice and humans, of Cambridge have published may contribute to widespread fertil- Researchers in the United States respectively. details about how the first organ- ity problems in the Western world report that the reason for this differ- “The goal of our study was to isms on Earth could have become in a way that hitherto has not been ence in colon cancer is changes identify which isoform of proto- metabolically active. The results recognized. in the Wnt signaling pathway, an cadherin-15 forms the tip-links, permit scientists to speculate how “For the first time, we have shown essential communication pathway the essential connections of the primitive cells learned to synthe- a direct link between exposure operating in these tumours. auditory mechanotransduction size their organic components – the to endocrine disrupting chemi- “Cancer cells have different machinery within mature hair cells molecules that form RNA, lipids cals from industrial products and metabolic demands than normal that are needed to convert sound and amino acids. The findings also adverse effects on human sperm cells,” remarked Marian Waterman, into electrical signals,” remarks suggest an order for the sequence function,’’ said Niels E. Skakkebaek, Professor at the University of Christine Petit, the lead author of events that led to the origin of professor and leader of the Danish California, Irvine and the lead of the study and Professor at the life. team. author of the study. “However, until Institut Pasteur in Paris and at “Our results demonstrate that the In this initial study, about one now the molecular evidence for Collège de France. conditions and molecules found in hundred chemicals were tested. how this metabolic reprogramming Three types of protocadherin-15 the Earth’s ancient oceans assisted Around one third, including ultra- takes place in cancers of the colon are known to exist in auditory and accelerated the interconver- violet (UV) filters like 4-methylben- has not been very well defined. Our sensory cells of the inner ear but sion of metabolites that in modern zylidene camphor (4-MBC) used in results show that Wnt signaling it was not clear which of these organisms make up glycolysis and some sunscreens, the anti-bacterial plays an important role in estab- protein isoforms was essential for the pentose-phosphate pathways, agent Triclosan used in toothpaste, lishing aerobic glycolysis as the hearing.“Our work pinpoints the two of the essential and most and di-n-butylphthalate (DnBP), predominant sugar-metabolizing CD2 isoform of protocadherin-15 as centrally placed reaction cascades showed adverse actions. pathway to support colon cancer.” an essential component of the tip- of metabolism,” says Markus Ralser, The scientists looked at the Biochemical assays and link and reveals that the absence Group Leader at the Department impact of these chemicals on the advanced imaging techniques of protocadherin-15 CD2 in mouse of Biochemistry at the University CatSper ion channel, a calcium in live cells revealed that block- hair cells results in profound of Cambridge and the National channel controlling sperm motility. ing the activity of Wnt reduced deafness.” Institute for Medical Research. “In They showed that endocrine disrup- glycolysis, promoted a shift to The researchers engineered mice our reconstructed version of the tors – applied at concentrations sugar metabolism by the citric acid that lack only the CD2 isoform of ancient Archean ocean, these meta- measured in body fluids – directly cycle, and reduced tumour growth. protocadherin-15 exclusively during bolic reactions were particularly open CatSper and, thereby, increase The researchers also identified the adulthood. While the absence of sensitive to the presence of ferrous calcium levels in sperm, change enzyme pyruvate dehydrogenase this isoform led to profound deaf- iron that helped catalyze many their swimming behavior, and trig- kinase 1 as one of the targets for ness, the lack of the other protocad- of the chemical reactions that we ger the release of digestive enzymes Wnt activity related to its effects on herin-15 isoforms in mice did not observed.” that help sperm to break through metabolism. affect their hearing. Non-enzymatic glycolysis and pentose the egg coat. Wnt signaling directs a metabolic The CD2 isoform of protocadherin-15 is phosphate pathway-like reactions in a Direct action of endocrine disrupting program of glycolysis and angiogenesis in an essential component of the tip-link plausible Archean ocean chemicals on human sperm colon cancer complex in mature auditory hair cells Markus A. Keller, Alexandra V. Turchyn, C. Schiffer, T. Strünker and colleagues Kira T. Pate, Marian L. Waterman and Elise Pepermans, Christine Petit and Markus Ralser Read the paper: colleagues colleagues Read the paper: doi: 10.15252/embr.201438869 Read the paper: Read the paper: doi: 10.1002/msb.20145228 doi: 10.15252/embj.201488598 doi: 10.15252/emmm.201403976

humans spread to every corner of the plan- Foods are us! et, the availability of diverse food sources caused groups of humans to adapt differently On eating and to different environments, and this may have left its mark on their genomes. becoming This raises some fascinating questions: Do genetic differences predispose individuals to perceive the taste of foods differently? The 15th EMBL | EMBO Science and How does the sociocultural environment into Society Conference will be held on which we happen to be born, and within which we are raised, shape our food prefer- 7– 8 November ences and perception? What is the relation- iologically, as well as metaphorically, in ship between the food we eat and the micro- what sense are we what we eat? The focus organisms we carry within us? Why does Bof this year’s EMBL | EMBO Science and the genetic make-up of some people make Society Conference will be the impact food has them particularly vulnerable to certain foods on our body and mind, both from the long-term – reactions that range from addictive respons- evolutionary perspective and the view of every- es to allergic reactions? day life. The conference programme will highlight These are some of the questions that will the biological and cultural processes through be the focus of the 15th EMBL | EMBO Science which food both defines us and transforms us. and Society Conference in Heidelberg. Humans are the only species that cook their cooking must have had a profound effect on our

food and this unique trait coincided with the evolution because it increased food efficiency, ©Painting with permission of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien Guiseppe Arcimboldo | Redproduced by evolutionary emergence of our earliest ancestors which allowed human ancestors to spend less More information is available at about two million years ago. Scientists argue that time foraging, chewing, and digesting. Then, as www.embl.de/training/events/2014/SNS14-01

Based on personal interviews with Sydney Brenner, L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Georges Cohen, James Watson and the directors of EMBO, this anniversary book tells the story of the journey from the study of molecules and microbes in the nuclear age to the growth and expansion of EMBO and the life sciences. It also provides new perspectives on some of the creation myths of the organization.

For more information on how to obtain a copy of EMBO in perspective: A half-century in the life sciences please contact [email protected]

CONTENT

Chapter 1 Chapter 3 Chapter 5 Before the beginning Engineering success EMBO embraces the life sciences Molecules and microbes in the Nuclear Age Responding to the challenge of new technologies From the organism to the molecule and back

Chapter 2 Chapter 4 Chapter 6 The birth of EMBO Expansion and engagement Future visions Some creation myths and the growth of an Programmes and policies within and beyond A few last words organization Europe

scientific symposium held at the Centre for Molecular Biology at the University of A Heidelberg (ZMBH) last May celebrated Symposium the eightieth birthday of Hermann Bujard, former EMBO Director. A number of eminent scien- honours tists came to Heidelberg to honour the internationally renowned molecular biologist including Hermann Bujard Richard Losick from Harvard University and Tim Hunt from the London Research Institute. Hunt chaired the EMBO Council from 2007 to 2009 – at the time when Hermann Bujard led the organization. At the symposium, the Nobel Laureate spoke about The Control of Mitosis while Richard Losick gave a presentation on Chance and ©ZMB H Memory in Bacterial Decision Making. Hermann Bujard was at the helm of EMBO Anglo-Saxon way of doing science. This objec- a division for molecular biology. There, he began for three years. He influenced the development tive helped Heidelberg become one of the most to work on a vaccine against malaria. A few years of the organization and receives continued rec- important centres of biosciences in Europe,” says later, he was asked back to head the ZMBH as ognition for this work. Bujard expanded the geo- Bujard. Director. “He developed an absolutely unique sci- graphical scope of EMBO activities by signing an His experience of working in American labo- entific environment in the German research land- agreement with South Africa. During his tenure, ratories in the 1960s made him try to introduce scape,” said current Director Bernd Bukau in his the annual conference The EMBO Meeting was a flat hierarchy type of scientific culture. After symposium speech. launched and the new journal EMBO Molecular returning to Germany in 1969, he accepted a pro- Since leaving EMBO at the end of 2009, he has Medicine was first published. fessorship in molecular genetics at Heidelberg been a Distinguished Professor of the University He also shares the credit for EMBO coming to University. of Heidelberg at ZMBH and still runs an active Heidelberg in 1973. Teaming up with Peter von In the early 1980s, Bujard helped to set up the lab. His candidate malaria vaccine is about to Sengbusch and Ken Holmes at the Max Planck Centre for Molecular Biology at the University of enter clinical trials after twenty years of research. Institut for Medical Research in Heidelberg, Heidelberg (ZMBH). However, at that time the ‘If these studies look promising, my goal is to go they put together the case for EMBO to come authorities refused to set aside centuries of tra- back to Africa and see if we can demonstrate effi- to Heidelberg. “I always thought we could only dition and to adopt a departmental structure. In cacy,’ he says. “Obviously a reason to keep me develop if we attracted more molecular biolo- 1983 Bujard therefore joined the pharmaceutical going.” gists who had been ‘culturally immersed’ in the company Hoffmann-LaRoche in Basel to build up

visualize stages later than 8–9 days. The full atlas and one in the Video Competition. It is a great A quail embryo has now been published and is accessible online honour and, personally, a special recognition of at http://quail.anatomyportal.org. Since the pro- my work.” duction of commercial equipment that allows This year’s video competition had hundreds of as never seen optical tomography ceased in 2012, Gabriel videos submitted. In second place was Michael Martins started to develop his own system at Weber from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular before Centro de Biologia Ambiental of the Faculty of Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG, Germany) Sciences of the University of Lisbon, Portugal, with a video showing the beating heart of a two- An award-winning video from the with pieces from other microscopes and low-cost day-old zebrafish embryo. In third place, was Gulbenkian Institute of Science components. As Martins explains: “The system Lin Shao from Janelia Farm Research Campus, is able to photograph transparent embryos from Howard Hughes Medical Institute, USA with a reconstructs the development of a more than 1000 angles. By image processing video showing the inner details of the mitochon- quail embryo in its first ten days in we compute a series of ‘virtual’ slices, with all dria in a living HeLa cell. the egg. internal anatomical details, as seen in the video.” These and other images can be seen here: The reconstructions can, for example, be used in www.gabygmartins.info/research/haeckaliens video showing a sequence of “virtual” classes to teach students about internal anatomy slices through a quail embryo in the first of embryos, or how embryos vary from stage to VIDEO A ten days of gestation inside the egg won stage, or from species to species. They can even the first prize of this year’s Nikon Small World be used in “virtual dissections.” in Motion Photomicrography Competition. Gabriel In the spirit of open source, Martins and his G. Martins, head of the Advanced Imaging Unit colleagues Emilio Gualda and Nuno Moreno from at the Gulbenkian Institute of Science in Oeiras, the Advanced Imaging Unit at the institute, start- Portugal, used an imaging technique called opti- ed a project – OpenSPIN (https://sites.google. cal tomography that reveals the anatomy of large com/site/openspinmicroscopy) – to share public- samples. The images are several times larger than ly the plans to build this and other microscopes those available by conventional microscopy. that can rotate and view samples from multiple The whole adventure started when Gabriel angles, a feature that commercial microscope 3D reconstruction of a quail embryo – received quail embryos from a colleague, Robert manufacturers always disregarded. This work comprised of more than 1,000 separate Bryson-Richardson from Monash University, was published last year in the journal Nature images Australia. He had the challenge to complete the Methods. http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/ full three-dimensional atlas up to 15 days of “I have entered images for the Nikon contest in galleries/entry/2013-small-world-in- development, overcoming the technical difficul- the past, but this year I was lucky to get three rep- motion-competition/1 ties of commercial microscopes that could not resented: two images in the Photo Competition

Crossing Frontiers in Life Sciences Targeting the Kinome III Proteases at work: Cues for understanding neural Vienna, Austria | 11 – 12 September 2014 Basel , Switzerland | 26 – 28 September 2014 development and neurodegeneration EMBO Member Graham Warren is co-organizing a The University of Basel and the Friedrich Miescher Baeza, Spain | 20 – 22 October 2014 symposium on the occasion of the 100th birthday Institute in Basel are jointly organizing the meeting EMBO Member Paola Bovolenta is coorganizing of Max F. Perutz. The symposium entitled Crossing Targeting the Kinome III from 26 – 28 September 2014 in the workshop Proteases at work: Cues for under- Frontiers in Life Sciences will take place at the Basel. The conference will focus on the latest scientific standing neural development and neurodegeneration University of Vienna from 11 –12 September 2014. developments in protein kinase research, molecu- together with Paul Saftig of the University of Kiel. lar signal transduction in cancer, and translational The workshop will take place at Baeza, Spain, from To view the full programme go to approaches involving kinases relevant for other 20 – 22 October 2014. https://frontiers.univie.ac.at disease states. For further information visit More information can be found at www.unia.es/content/view/3769/1021 www.targetingthekinome3.org

SAVE THE DATE – 2015 EMBO Laboratory Management Courses: Registrations for the courses open in October 2014.

A good read – Publications from the EMBO Community embo members, Young Investigators & Fellows

The alarmin IL-33 promotes regulatory T cell function Cell adhesion geometry regulates non-random DNA Yeast DJ-1 superfamily members are required for in the intestine segregation and asymmetric cell fates in mouse skeletal diauxic-shift reprogramming and cell survival in muscle stem cells stationary phase Ahmed N. Hegazy (EMBO Fellow), Fiona Powrie (EMBO Member) and colleagues Shahragim Tajbakhsh (EMBO Member) and colleagues Tiago Fleming Outeiro (EMBO Installation Grantee) and Nature | 16 July 2014 Cell Reports | 22 May 2014 colleagues doi: 10.1038/nature13577 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2014.04.016 PNAS | 2 April 2014 doi: 10.1073/pnas.1319221111 The Ctenophore genome and the evolutionary origins Processing properties of ON and OFF pathways for of neural systems Drosophila motion detection MTH1 inhibition eradicates cancer by preventing Inna S. Povolotskaya (EMBO Fellow) Fyodor A. Kondrashov sanitation of the dNTP pool Rudy Behnia (EMBO Fellow), Claude Desplan (EMBO (EMBO Young Investigator) and colleagues Member) and colleagues Ronnie P-A Berntsson Nature | 21 May 2014 (EMBO Fellow) and colleagues Nature | 6 July 2014 doi:10.1038/nature13400 Nature | 2 April 2014 doi:10.1038/nature13427 Amygdala interneuron subtypes control fear learning doi: 10.1038/nature13181 Enhancer loops appear stable during development and through disinhibition Maternal retinoids control type 3 innate lymphoid cells are associated with paused polymerase Jan Gründemann, Gilad A. Jacobson (EMBO Fellows), and set the offspring immunity Eileen E.M. Furlong (EMBO Member), Yad Ghavi-Helm Andreas Lüthi (EMBO Member) and colleagues Henrique Veiga-Fernandes (EMBO Fellow) and colleagues Nature | 11 May 2014 (EMBO Installation Grantee), Elaine Dzierzak (EMBO doi:10.1038/nature13258 Nature | 2 July 2014 Member) and colleagues doi: 10.1038/nature13417 Identification of LRRC8 heteromers as essential compo- Nature | 19 March 2014 doi: 10.1038/nature13158 Inferring human population size and separation nent of the volume-regulated anion channel VRAC history from multiple genome sequences Thomas Jentsch (EMBO Member) and colleagues Structural basis for translocation by AddAB helicase/ Science | 9 May 2014 nuclease and its arrest at Chi sites Stephan Schiffels (EMBO Fellow) and Richard Durbin doi: 10.1126/science.1252826 (EMBO Member) Wojciech W. Krajewski Nature Genetics | 22 June 2014 Phosphorylation modulates clearance of alpha-synuclein (EMBO Fellow) and colleagues doi:10.1038/ng.3015 inclusions in a yeast model of Parkinson’s disease Nature | 16 March 2014 doi:10.1038/nature13037 Tiago Fleming Outeiro (EMBO Installation Grantee) and Generation of mouse models of myeloid malignancy colleagues with combinatorial genetic lesions using CRISPR-Cas9 Mapping the epigenetic basis of complex traits genome editing PLOS Genetics | 8 May 2014 doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1004302 Vincent Colot (EMBO Member) and colleagues Monika S Kowalczyk (EMBO Fellow) and colleagues Science | 7 March 2014 Proliferation, dispersal and patterned aggregation of doi: 10.1126/science.1248127 Nature Biotechnology | 22 June 2014 iridophores in the skin prefigure striped colouration of doi:10.1038/nbt.2951 zebrafish EMBO at 50 The faces of Big Science Ajeet Pratap Singh (EMBO Fellow), Christianes Nüsslein- Paul Nurse (EMBO Member) Science | 10 January 2014 Gottfried Schatz (EMBO Member) Volhard (EMBO Member) and colleagues Nature Cell Biology | 28 April 2014 doi: 10.1126/science.1247701 Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology | 23 May 2014 doi:10.1038/ncb2955 doi:10.1038/nrm3807 Neuronal control of metabolism through nutrient- Origins and functional evolution of Y chromosomes dependent modulation of tracheal branching Structure of the AcrAB-TolC multidrug efflux pump across mammals Irene Miguel-Aliaga (EMBO Young Investigator) and Ben Luisi (EMBO Member) and colleagues Henrik Kaessmann (EMBO Member) and colleagues colleagues Nature | 22 May 2014 Nature | 24 April 2014 Cell | January 2014 doi:10.1038/nature13205 doi: 10.1038/nature13151 doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2013.12.008 embo members & Young Investigators

BOOKS

Quantitative Genetics in the Wild Antibiotics – Targets, Mechanisms and Resistance Bacterial Gene Regulation Loeske E. B. Kruuk (EMBO Member) and Claudio Gualerzi (EMBO Member) and M. Madan Babu (EMBO Young Investigator) colleagues colleagues Caister Academic Press | March 2013 Oxford University Press | April 2014 Wiley-VCH | October 2013 ISBN 978-1-908230-14-0 ISBN 978-0-19-967424-4 ISBN 978-3-527-33305-9

embo member EMBO MEMBERS EMBO Member Oscar Marín has been appointed as the new Director Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Waddington Medal 2014 Nature Mentoring Award Prize of the MRC Centre for Developmental Philip Ingham, Joint Research Director at Michela Matteoli of the University of Neurobiology at King’s College Michael Reth is the recipient of this prize, A*STAR’s Institute of Molecular and Cell Milan, Italy, has been awarded the Nature London, and has taken up the role in which is one of the highest honours in Biology in Singapore, has been awarded Mentoring Award – a yearly award given by July 2014. Professor Marín is currently science in Germany and comes with an the Waddington Medal 2014 by the British Nature magazine since 2005 for “outstand- a Research Professor at Instituto de award of 100,000 Euros. Reth is professor Society for Developmental Biology. The ing scientific mentorship.” She was the Neurociencias, Alicante (Spain). for Molecular Immunology at the University medal is awarded annually to development winner of the “mid-career award”. The prize of Freiburg and his research aims at biologists for outstanding research perfor- was given out by President of the Italian decoding how immunity operates at the mance. As of February 2014, Ingham took Republic Giorgio Napolitano together with molecular level to find new therapies for up the position as Distinguished Professor Philip Campbell, the editor-in-chief of EMBO Press cancer and infectious diseases. and Vice Dean of Research at the Lee King Nature magazine. Chian School of Medicine in Singapore. Poster Prize winners 2014 Körber Prize Luigi Sacconi Medal Congratulations to Edvard and May-Britt Moser, co-direc- EMBO YOUNG INVESTIGATORS tors of the Kavli Institute for Systems Roland Lill of the Philipps University of Marburg, Germany, has been awarded the following winner: Neuroscience at the Norwegian University Colworth Medal of Science and Technology, have been the 2014 Luigi Sacconi Medal of the EMBO molecular medicine selected for the 750 000 Euros award from Italian Chemical Society and the Luigi Helen Walden, a principal investiga- the Hamburg-based Körber Foundation. Sacconi Foundation. Lill also received the tor at the University of Dundee, has Firdous Ahmad Bhat Albrecht-Kossel Prize of the German Society been awarded the 2014 Colworth Medal, University of Madras, Chennai, India Their selection is yet another recognition of their seminal finding of specialized neurons of Chemistry this year, the first time this sponsored by Unilever and presented by Quercetin inhibits EGF induced called grid cells, which are critical in help- prize was awarded for achievements in the Biochemical Society. The medal is the signalling molecules involved in ing all mammals, including humans, find biochemistry. most distinguished award that a biochemi- prostate cancer metastasis – in vitro their way. The Körber prize is awarded to cal researcher in the early stages of their Carl Zeiss Lecture 2014 independent research can receive in the Presented at the International research projects that show great potential United Kingdom. Conference on Cancer Biology: for possible application and international Ernst Stelzer received the Carl Zeiss Molecular Mechanisms and Novel impact. Lecture 2014 at the International Meeting Protein Science Young Investigator Award Therapeutics of the German Society for Cell Biology in Chennai, India L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Regensburg, Germany, on 18 March 2014. M. Madan Babu from the MRC Laboratory 30 January – 2 February 2014 Award This prize is awarded annually for interna- of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United tionally outstanding achievements in the Kingdom, is the recipient of the 2014 Brigitte Kieffer receives the 2014 L’Oréal- field of light and electron microscopy. Ernst Protein Science Young Investigator Award, UNESCO for Women in Science Award. The Stelzer’s development and patents for light which recognises important contributions prize honours her work on the mechanisms sheet microscopy have led to the avail- to the study of proteins by a scientist in the in the brain involved in pain, mental illness ability of a new fluorescence microscopy early stages of an independent career. He and drug addiction. Kieffer has been select- system to scientists worldwide. received the award for his contributions to ed as the winner for Europe for her research our understanding of the principles of regu- at the Institut de Génétique et de Biologie 2014 Carol Nachman Prize lation in biological systems – especially in Moléculaire et Cellulaire, in Strasbourg, the fields of intrinsically disordered proteins France. Four other women scientists will George Kollias of the Biomedical Sciences and gene regulation. receive this prize, one from each conti- Research Center Alexander Fleming in nent. This award, funded by the L’Oréal Greece, has been awarded this year’s Carol Cell Press Foundation and by UNESCO, recognizes the Nachman Prize for his pioneering work in exceptional career paths and contributions the field of pro-inflammatory cytokines. He Five EMBO Young Investigators Óscar of women scientists worldwide. was honoured for establishing the human Fernández-Capetillo, Maya Schuldiner, Next issue tumour necrosis factor transgenic animal Aurelio Teleman, Jacob Hanna and David EMBOencounters Wolf Prize 2014 model for rheumatoid arthritis. Keays were selected to the list of “40 under 40” by Cell Press on the occasion of 40 years Leif Andersson of Uppsala University, American Academy of Arts & Sciences of Cell. Sweden is one of the winners of the Wolf The next EMBOencounters EMBO Associate Member David L. Spector, Prize in Agriculture awarded by the Israel- Professor and Director of Research at Cold issue – Autumn 2014 – will be based Wolf Foundation. Andersson received Spring Harbor Laboratory, United States, dispatched in October 2014. this recognition for contributions to plant EMBO FELLOWS and animal sciences using genomics. The was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2014. Please send your suggestions, prize comes with a monetary award of Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize 2014 100,000 US dollars and was given to eight contributions and news, to researchers on 1 June at Knesset in Israel. American Academy of Microbiology Former EMBO Fellow Dorothee Dormann of the University of Munich, Germany, is [email protected] Cecília Maria Arraiano of the University one of the recipients of the 2014 Heinz Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine of Lisbon, Portugal, became a Fellow of by 14 September 2014. Maier-Leibnitz Prize, considered one of the American Academy of Microbiology EMBO Associate Member Peter Walter has the most important prize for early career this year. AAM Fellows are elected through received Asia’s highest scientific honour, researchers in Germany. Each of the ten a highly selective, annual, peer review the 2014 Shaw Prize in Life Science and recipients was presented with the prize process, based on their records of scientific Medicine. Walter, a University of California of 20,000 Euros. Dormann’s group is achievement and original contributions San Francisco professor, received this prize looking into the transport processes and that have advanced microbiology. Editorial for his discovery of a system that makes pathomechanisms of RNA-binding proteins “life and death decisions” for the cell. He in neurodegenerative disorders. The prize Professor honoris causa shares the prize with Kazutoshi Mori, PhD, was based on two papers published in The Managing Editor a professor of biophysics at Kyoto University Klaus Scherrer, EMBO member since its EMBO Journal. Barry Whyte in Japan. foundation, was awarded the title Professor honoris causa by the University of Brasilia. Vidi Grant Editor Ernst Jung Gold Medal for Medicine Scherrer is known for the discovery of Taco Kooij of the Max-Planck-Institute Yvonne Kaul “giant” RNA and RNA processing at the Charles Weissmann, professor emeritus on Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and for Infection Biology in Berlin has been Proof reading the Florida campus of The Scripps Research subsequent studies on genome and gene awarded with the prestigious Vidi Grant Meryl Schneider Institute, has been awarded the 2014 Ernst expression. Since 1968, six of his former to develop an innovative and independent Jung Gold Medal for Medicine, presented collaborators have contributed to the line of research. The grant facilitates his Print layout by the German Jung Foundation for Science development of molecular biology at the return to the Netherlands where he will Uta Mackensen and Research. Bundesverdienstkreuz University of Brasilia. join the malaria research community at the University of Nijmegen. Kooij is one of 94 Mary Osborn of the Max-Planck- scientists who received a Vidi Grant from E-Newsletter & Web version Doctor honoris causa Yvonne Kaul Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Goettingen, Germany, has been awarded Edward De Robertis received a Doctor Research (NWO) this year. Each scientist Sandra Krahl the Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse des honoris causa from Pierre et Marie Curie receives a maximum amount of 800,000 Bundespräsidenten. University in Paris in December 2013. Euros for the coming five years.

An anniversary conference Paris hosted by SFBBM

Keynote Speakers August – September Catherine Dulac Svante Pääbo Conference Chairs Susan M. Gasser Angela Nieto Plenary Speakers concurrent sessions Michael Reth Ruedi Aebersold covering the latest Eric Westhof research in the David Baulcombe life sciences Hans Clevers Max D. Cooper Richard Durbin Elaine Fuchs Maria Jasin Wolf Reik

febs-embo.org