PROGRAM 13.00 Walter Schaffner Institute of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich Opening th 13.10 Walter J. Gehring 60 Birthday Growth & Development, Biocentre, University of Basel Symposium Master Control Genes and the Evolution of Vision 13.50 Iain Mattaj EMBL, Heidelberg Regulating Nuclear Dynamics 14.30 Coffee Break 15.00 Ueli Schibler Department of Molecular Biology, University of Geneva The Mammalian Circadian Timing System: a Clock in Every Cell JOSEF JIRICNY 15.40 Malcolm D. Walkinshaw Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, University of Edinburgh The Glycolytic Pathway as a Target for Structure Based Inhibitor Design 16.20 Witold Filipowicz Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Basel Friday, 29 April 2011 Regulation of miRNA Function and Metabolism in Mammalian Cells Auditorium Maximum, ETH Zurich 17.00 Short Break 17.10 Irene Bozzoni University of Rome, La Sapienza Role of miRNA Deregulation in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy 17.50 Laurence H. Pearl Sussex Centre for Genome Damage and Stability, University of Sussex Knowing Me, Knowing U - Joe Jiricny and Base Excision 18.30 Closing Remarks 18.40 Apéro CONTACT: Institute of Molecular Cancer Research: [email protected] IRENE BOZZONI LAURENCE H. PEARL began his research career at Birkbeck College and started his own laboratory at studied biology at La Sapienza University of Rome and obtained her Ph.D. in University College London in 1989, becoming Professor of Structural Biology in 1975. After a post-doc at the Institute of Molecular Biology II of the University of 1996. He was Professor of Protein Crystallography at the Institute of Cancer Re- Zurich, she held various research positions at the Centro Acidi Nucleici of C.N.R. search in London from 1999 to 2009, and now heads the School of Life Sciences in Rome. In 1986 she became Associate Professor and in 1993 Full Professor of at the University of Sussex, where he is Professor of Structural Biology in the Molecular Biology at La Sapienza University of Rome. Her main research interests Genome Damage and Stability Centre. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal are the study of post-transcriptional control in eukaryotes, with specific empha- Society (FRS) in 2008. His lab studies the structural basis for assembly, specificity sis on the role of small non-coding RNAs in different regulatory mechanisms, as and regulation of the multi-protein complexes involved in recognition, repair well as the study of non-canonical functions of RNA and their exploitation for and signalling of DNA damage, and in the chaperone-mediated stabilisation and gene therapy of inherited and acquired genetic disorders. activation of cellular signalling pathways. WITOLD FILIPOWICZ WALTER SCHAFFNER received his M.D. at the Medical University of Lodz, Poland, and a Ph.D. in bio- is Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Molecular Life Sciences at the University chemistry at the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics of The Polish Academy of Zurich. After his Ph.D., which he received from the University of Zurich, Insti- of Sciences in Warsaw, where he also worked as an Associate Professor until 1984. tute of Molecular Biology I, he worked at the MRC Cambridge and at Cold Spring During his sabbatical time from 1981-1983 he worked as a postdoctoral fellow Harbor Laboratory. In 1979 he became Assistant Professor at the Institute of Mo- at the New York University Medical School and at Roche Institute of Molecular lecular Biology II of the University of Zurich and Associate Professor in 1983. In Biology in Nutley, N.J. Currently he is a staff scientist at the Friedrich Miescher 1987 he became Full Professor and Director of the Institute of Molecular Biology Institute for Biomedical Research in Basel, and also Professor at the University II of the University of Zurich. His research has mainly focussed on the regulation of Basel. His current research is mainly focused on RNAi and miRNA pathways in of gene transcription, especially the long-range activation by enhancers and the mammalian cells. transcription factors interacting with them. WALTER J. GEHRING UELI SCHIBLER is Professor Emeritus at the Basel Biocentre. He obtained his Ph.D. at the Univer- sity of Zurich. In 1969 he was appointed Associate Professor at the Yale Medical School and in 1972 he returned to Switzerland as Professor of Developmental Bi- studied biology at the University of Bern, and obtained his Ph.D. in 1975. From ology and Genetics at the Basel Biocentre. He has mainly been involved in studies 1975-78 he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in of Drosophila genetics and development, particularly in the analysis of determi- Philadelphia. He then joined the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Re- nation in the embryo and transdetermination of imaginal discs. He and his col- search (ISREC) in Lausanne, first as a junior group leader (1978-81) and then as laborators discovered the homeobox, and his discovery of Pax6 as the universal a senior group leader with tenure (1981-1984). Since 1984 he is Full Professor at master control gene for eye morphogenesis led to a new evolutionary theory on the Department of Molecular Biology, University of Geneva. His research team the monophyletic origin of the various eye-types. studies input and output pathways of the mammalian circadian timing system. IAIN MATTAJ MALCOLM D. WALKINSHAW studied biochemistry at Edinburgh University and completed his Ph.D. studies at the University of Leeds. Following his Ph.D., he carried out postdoctoral research at the Friedrich Miescher Institute and then at the Biocentre Basel before join- obtained both his B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the Chemistry Department at the ing EMBL Heidelberg as a Group Leader in 1985. He became Coordinator of the University of Edinburgh. After leading a structure-based drug design group in Gene Expression Unit at EMBL in 1990 before being promoted to the position of Sandoz in Switzerland for ten years, he took up the Chair of Structural Biochem- Scientific Director in 1999. He was appointed Director General in May 2005. His istry in 1995 at the University of Edinburgh. For his current research he uses crys- current interest is the study of nuclear envelope assembly and the role(s) of the tallographic, biophysical and computational approaches to study protein-ligand Ran GTPase. interactions. JOSEF JIRICNY IRBM was born in Prague in 1951. Following the occupa- tion of Czechoslovakia by the armed forces of the Warsaw Pact in 1968, he decided to emigrate to England, which he did immediately upon finishing his Secondary School education with a Matura. In England he studied chemistry, first in Birming- ham and then in London, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1977. During his postdoctoral studies, which he devoted to studying the chemical syn- thesis of DNA, he became interested in applying his knowledge of oligonucleotide chemistry to molecular biology, especially to cancer research. He moved to the Imperial Cancer Research Fund laboratories in London, where he began to explore repair mechanisms of damaged or carcinogen- modified DNA. In 1983 he moved to the Friedrich Miescher Institute (FMI) in Basel, where his group studied the repair of DNA replication errors and of damage caused by spontaneous deamination of 5-methylcytosine. In 1990 he moved to the Istituto di Ricerche di Biologia Molecolare (IRBM), where he studied HSV1, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C viruses, in addition to mismatch repair. In 1996 he became Director of the Institute of Medical Radiobiology of the Uni- versity of Zurich and the Paul Scherrer Institute. The institute, which was completely restructured during the past years, has been renamed the Institute of Molecular Cancer Research and has returned to the fold of the University of Zurich at the end of 2002. It employs more than 60 scientists, who are investigating the links between DNA repair malfunction and cancer. Josef Jiricny was instrumental in setting up the Functional Genomics Center Zurich (FGCZ, www.fgcz.uzh.ch), a state-of-the art “-omics” technology platform. The success of the FGCZ prompted the direction of the University to start a University Research Priority Program in Functional Genomics/Systems Biology (www.sysbio.uzh.ch), of which Josef Jiricny is the Chairman. In addition to his involvement with the FGCZ and the URPP, Josef Jiricny has set up and chairs the Cancer Network Zurich (www.cnz.uzh.ch), a virtual center for scientific exchange and dialogue, and the Ph.D. program in Cancer Biology that is part of the Life Science Zurich Graduate School. Josef Jiricny is a member of EMBO since 1996 and of Academia Europea since 2000. In 2001, Josef Jiricny was elected member of the Faculty of Natural Sciences (MNF) of the University. In 2003 he was awarded the Gregor Mendel Medal of the Czech Academy of Sciences for his contribution to the elucidation of the genetics of in- herited cancer. In the same year, he was nominated the Bonizzi-Theler Professor of functional genomics, a joint appointment between the University of Zurich and the ETHZ, and received the Swiss Bridge Award. In May 2006, he received the San Salvatore Prize for cancer research and the International Award of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. Josef Jiricny is the author of more than 150 peer-reviewed publications, and of a number of editorials and reviews. LONDON BASEL ROMA ZURICH.