ISSUE 3 (SEPTEMBER) 2013 38th FEBS Congress FEBS programmes: FEBS community FEBS publications Scientific events round-up updates news calendar Page 3 Page 16 Page 20 Page 22 Page 27 CONTENTS Key upcoming dates for FEBS activities Contents: FEBS Congress Round-up FEBS–EMBO 2014 Conference 30 August – 4 September 2014 The 38th FEBS Congress 3 Abstract submission from December 2013 FEBS Medals and Awards 6 Registration from January 2014 FEBS Young Scientists’ Forum 8 www.febs-embo2014.org FEBS Congress Workshops 9 FEBS Congress Science and Society Lecture 12 FEBS Young Scientists’ Forum 27–30 August 2014 FEBS Programmes: updates Applications: 8 December 2013 – 31 March 2014 FEBS Advanced Courses 2014 16 www.febs-embo2014.org FEBS Education Workshops 17 FEBS–EMBO 2014 Conference, and FEBS YSF 18 FEBS Advanced Courses Applications for 2015 course funding: 1 March 2014 FEBS Community News Applications to participate in 2014 courses: see Spanish (SEBBM) Society 20 individual course deadlines Polish Biochemical Society 21 www.febs.org/index.php?id=86 FEBS Publications FEBS Fellowships FEBS Journal 22 Application deadlines: FEBS Letters 24 Long-Term and Return-to-Europe Fellowships: 1 October 2013, then 1 October 2014 Molecular Oncology 25 Summer Fellowships: 1 April 2014 FEBS Open Bio 26 Follow-up Research Fund (for FEBS Fellows): 1 April 2014 Applications for other Fellowships can be 27 Scientific Events Calendar submitted throughout the year Career Opportunities 28 www.febs.org/index.php?id=81 Cover: While this issue of FEBS News reports on the 2013 FEBS Congress in St Petersburg (pages 3–5), plans are already under way for next year’s big event – a joint anniversary conference with EMBO (the FEBS–EMBO 2014 Conference), hosted by the French Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (see pages 18–19). 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A charitable organization advancing research in the molecular life sciences across Europe and beyond A Company Limited by Guarantee (Number 08239097); A Registered Charity (Number 1149638); Registered in England and Wales; Registered office: 98 Regent Street, Cambridge, CB2 1DP, UK. 2 FEBS News September 2013 CONGRESS ROUND-UP The 38th FEBS Congress St Petersburg, 2013 The 38th FEBS Congress, held from 6th to 11th July 2013 in St Petersburg, Russia, and organized by the Russian Biochemical Society, gathered over 2400 delegates from all over the world. As the host country, Russia was represented by over 850 attendees. Other well-represented countries included Turkey, Poland, Italy, USA, Germany, UK, Czech Republic, France, Spain, Korea, Ukraine, Portugal, Japan, Israel, Greece, The Netherlands, Romania, Croatia, China, Hungary, Slovakia, Switzerland, Austria, Serbia, Sweden, Canada and Finland. In total, delegates from over 50 countries attended. The cohort of invited speakers consisted of over 320 internationally renowned scientists, including 11 Nobel Laureates. We are grateful to all speakers who contributed to the event, resulting in an outstanding scientific program spanning all key areas of biochemistry, molecular biology, biotechnology, cell biology, biophysics and related fields. The motto of the Congress ‘Mechanisms in Biology’ was well substantiated by lectures and talks delivered in almost 40 symposia and 18 plenary sessions. The number of invited speakers, and Nobel Laureates in particular, made it possible for Prof. Israel Pecht, FEBS Secretary General, to mention that this event could be regarded as two Congresses! The opening lecture was delivered by Jules Hoffman, a 2011 Nobel Laureate, who told the story of how work on the Drosophila receptor Toll, and subsequent discovery of pathway homologues in other organisms, has reshaped understanding of innate immunity. The Congress Plenary Lectures – delivered by Geneviève Almouzni, Sidney Altman, Aaron Ciechanover, Pavel Georgiev, Anna-Karin Gustavsson, Jules Hoffmann, Robert Huber, Roger Kornberg, Jean-Marie Lehn, Richard Lerner, Susumu Mitsutake, Richard Roberts, Gottfried Schatz, Joseph Schlessinger, Jack Szostak, Susumu Tonegawa, Kurt Wüthrich, and Ada Yonath – should really become part of the annals of science. All lectures were recorded and, after we receive written consent from lecturers, they will be placed on our website. Those who could not join us in Congress Nobel Laureate speakers at St Petersburg: St Petersburg will then still be able to learn from (left to right, from top) Sidney Altman, Aaron Ciechanover, these masterpieces of research. Roger Kornberg, Jean-Marie Lehn, Jack Szostak, The Congress program included many brilliant Susumu Tonegawa, Kurt Wüthrich, Ada Yonath, symposia, and we highlight just some here. Robert Huber, Jules Hoffmann and Richard Roberts. 3 FEBS News September 2013 CONGRESS ROUND-UP was delivered by Michael Sela (Israel) whose pioneering research has contributed greatly to fighting autoimmune diseases; in addition, very informative presentations were made on targeted elimination of pathologic B cells by new-generation compounds developed to treat autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. Indeed, the implications of molecular findings for understanding and treatment of disease were an interesting part of several symposia – from ‘Organization of Eukaryotic Genomes’ (Chairs: Wendy Bickmore and Sergey Razin; e.g. genome organization and disease development), ‘RNA World’ (Chairs: Olga Dontsova and Eric Westhof; e.g. targeted drug design for bacterial ribosomal proteins), ‘Biocatalysis’ (Chairs: Alexander Gabibov and Michael Blackburn; e.g. implications for future in silico metabolic pathways and applied pharmacokinetic research), and ‘Proteomics and Peptidomics’ (from top) Congress venue, Lenexpo, situated on the Gulf of Finland; (Chairs: Vadim Govorun and Congress poster session (photo by A. Payevsky). Vadim Ivanov; e.g. co-existence of macro- and microorganisms Symposia on stem cells (Chairs: Clare Blackburn and and the fight between ‘self’ and ‘non-self’). Alexey Tomilin), bioengineering (Chairs: Vladimir A most important mission of FEBS Congresses is Popov, Vytas Svedas and Marcel Wubbolts), education. Despite revolutionary changes in neoplastic transformation (Chairs: Georgy Georgiev telecommunication, modern science still requires and Joseph Schlessinger), G protein signaling (Chairs: direct contacts between scientists. Virtual Andrew B. Goryachev and Alfred Wittinghofer), communication cannot substitute for real discussion molecular basis of autoimmunity (Chairs: Jean and live communication between a lecturer and Francoise Bach and Ludvig Sollid), biochemistry of auditorium. A chance for young scientists to attend neurodegeneration (Chair: Michael Ugrumov), and such a great event, to listen to world scientific biochemistry of vision (Chairs: Karl-Wilhelm Koch leaders, to communicate with them in an informal and Michael Ostrovsky) were well attended and atmosphere, and to widen the scope of their attracted great interest from the audience. interests beyond their narrow field of research are A multi-session symposium ‘Biochemistry for excellent features of such Congresses. Medicine’ (Chairs: Alexey Egorov, Oleg Kisselev, FEBS supported attendance of young scientists at Serhiy Komisarenko and Tomas Zima) focused on St Petersburg in two ways. First, the main Congress recent advances in treatment of cancer, autoimmune was preceded by the Young Scientists’ Forum and metabolic diseases. One of the keynote lectures (YSF), and 117 grants were awarded to talented 4 FEBS News September 2013 CONGRESS ROUND-UP young researchers to enable them to attend not only the YSF but the main Congress as well; second, 265 young European scientists were awarded FEBS Bursaries this year that covered the registration fee and hotel accommodation. As scientists working in the country hosting the Congress are not eligible for FEBS Bursaries, 198 grants were allocated by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research to support young Russian scientists. Together with 529 scientists under 35 years of age who paid registration fees themselves at the young scientists’ rate (50% of the regular fee), the number of young researchers who attended the event was 1109. We consider this a real success and hope that the 38th FEBS Congress was useful for young people. The Congress organizers received over 1900 abstracts that were published in electronic form as a Supplement to FEBS Journal, and over 1450 abstracts were accepted for poster presentation during the Congress. As an integral part of the Congress scientific program, we also included several satellite