21 EMBL June 2004 &cetera Newsletter of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory EMBL and DESY extend collaboration Lab Day-and-a-half 2004... page 3 Kevin Leonard rides off into retirement... page 6 EMBL and DESY renew their vows New website spans EMBL and the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) have signed an agree- ment building on our 30-year track record of successful cooperation, continuing EMBL Units the partnership into 2015. A key component in the future collaboration is to A new portal has been launched to upgrade the PETRA ring into a dedicated synchrotron radiation source (begin- p rovide better access to re s e a rc h , ning in 2007). This will maintain EMBL and DESY’s global competitiveness in the services and training across EMBL’s field. The two organizations will also continue to collaborate on research and five sites, and to present more infor- development projects and organize seminars, symposia, workshops and other mation about news and events at the scientific events. Pictured above (left) are Chairman of the DESY Board of Lab. Major goals with the “umbrella Directors Albrecht Wagner and EMBL Director General Fotis C. Kafatos at the site” are to standardize the design official signing of the agreement in Hamburg on May 19, 2004. across the Lab and increase function- ality. Check it out at www.embl.org Chemical Genomics facility set to open on page 5 In cooperation with the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ), EMBL has established a Chemical Genomics facility. By July, according to facility head Joe Lewis, everything should be ready to perform the first screens. Like EMBL’s Annual Report out now other core facilities, it will provide services to scientific groups from across the What’s the real story behind the EMBL lab, including small-molecule screening, hit validation and high-throughput logo? How did EMBL research change assay development. on page 2 Swiss watch-making forever? What’s the connection between Barbra Streisand and medaka development? The answers can be found in this year’s Annual Report, Lab Day 2004: from protein crystals to hard rock available now from OIPA ([email protected]). This year’s Lab Day expanded to fill a day and a half of festivities, starting with graduation ceremonies for EMBL’s International PhD Programme, then skip- ping along to poster sessions, postdoc talks and concerts by EMBL’s talented musicians. If anyone finds a box of cereal with a picture of Walter Witke on it, in this issue... please return it to Monterotondo because this crucial component of his group’s poster display was mistakenly thrown away (after the contents were eaten?) by chemical genomics 2 the cleaning staff. on page 3 lab day 2004 3 www.embl.org 5 Groundbreaking ceremony held for PSB names to faces 6 On June 8 EMBL, the ESRF, ILL and IBS celebrated the start of construction on the EMBO corner 7 the new building for the Partnership for Structural Biology in Grenoble. The new science for teachers 7 facility will host over 60 scientists from the partner institutes and will house the core infrastructure for high-throughput protein expression, characterization and news & events 9 crystallization. This will include a Biological Deuterium Labeling Facility which will improve the quantity and quality of research that can be carried out using people@EMBL 10 ILL’s neutron facilities. The ESRF is also constructing a new, highly-automated dual station beamline for macromolecular crystallography. EMBL&cetera Issue 21 - June 2004 New Chemical Genomics facility to provide unique touch to EMBL In cooperation with the German Cancer The result is a collaboration with the chem- EMBL has a very strong track record in Research Centre (DKFZ), EMBL has estab- istry company Tripos Discovery Research molecular biology and has made significant lished a Chemical Genomics facility, on the (TDR), whose chemistry labs are based in contributions to chemistry, but until recently fourth floor of the Heidelberg laboratory, the UK. TDR will provide the screening has not had all the in-house expertise to headed by Joe Lewis. Silke Schumacher, library consisting of approximately 50,000 develop small molecules. Carrying out proj- EMBL's Cooperation Manager, helped to molecules designed to be medicinally rele- ects in the past has required collaborating establish the joint effort between DKFZ and vant, and “follow-upable” to minimize proj- with an external chemistry group. “If you EMBL. By July, Joe says, the facility should ect attrition at later stages in the discovery couldn’t find somebody working on the be ready to perform its first screens. Like p rocess. In addition, TDR will pro v i d e same question, you were out of luck,” Joe EMBL’s other core facilities, it will provide design and synthesis expertise and access to says. “And many projects our researchers services to scientific groups from across the their extensive chemistry knowledge base to wanted to pursue weren’t attractive to phar- lab, including small-molecule screening, hit support chemical optimization of candidate ma or biotech, because they concerned very validation and high-throughput assay molecules that are identified in collaboration basic questions with no clear pay-off.” development. with the research groups. In cases where a collaboration did get off the Establishing a chemical genomics unit in an ground, there was another constraint: work academic setting is unusual, Joe says, at least had to be done on the basis of material trans- for Europe. Of all the types of “omics” out fer agreements, typically with pharmaceuti- there, Chemical Genomics is probably the cal companies. That meant that intellectual one most associated with industry, drug dis- property developed during projects belong- c o v e r y, and applied science. Conducting ed to the company, rather than EMBL. Now, high-throughput screens has been expen- intellectual property arising from work in sive, time-consuming, and difficult. While the facility will benefit the Laboratory. some universities in the US, for example, The facility staff will assist groups in the have created such facilities, EMBL’s unit is development of primary and secondary one of the forerunners in Europe. assays to screen against compound libraries, “This interdisciplinary setup combining then guide them through the process of molecular biology with chemistry gives Joe Lewis, Chemical Genomics facility head developing tool compounds for specific tar- EMBL the chance to create new cutting-edge gets. “This can be done in a cost-effective It’s definitely a worthwhile effort, according research tools for the life sciences,“ says way, opening up new avenues both for basic to Joe – one that fits well into EMBL’s plans Christian Boulin, Head of Core Facilities. research and potential therapeutic applica- for the future. “Small molecules play essen- “The new facility will be very helpful in ful- tions,” Joe says. tial roles in many areas of basic research and filling one of EMBLEM’s major goals: the A successful project needs to be carried out are often used to address important biologi- translation of EMBL’s research results into in stages, he says – typically a limited first new effective pharmaceuticals,” adds cal questions – we’ve seen a steady increase round of screening needs to be carried out to EMBLEM´s Deputy Managing Dire c t o r in the need for such services. Our DKFZ col- determine whether a project is worth pursu- Martin Raditsch. EMBLEM, the technology laborators will focus on finding small mole- ing and if further commitments should be transfer company of EMBL, used its net- cules that modulate cancer related pathways made. The staff has the expertise to help works and know-how to help pull all the and processes. Scientists at EMBL will now re s e a rch ers make these decisions. If you pieces together for the successful launch of be in a better position to develop their own have an idea for a project, stop by the facili- the facility. valuable tools for systems biology research.” ty and speak with Joe. Life Sciences and the Developing World: How much do we care? EMBL Science and A Science and Society minisymposium took tend to be so much more striking than their could cover but a limited number of the place at EMBL-Heidelberg in the afternoon similarities. But, leaving such terminology complex and important issues relating to it. of Friday, June 4. Topics of past meetings problems aside, the basic issue raised from The meeting unfolded along two basic per- have included “stem cells – their origins and different points of view by speakers and spectives: the meaning and viability of medical uses,” “ownership and commercial- panelists concerned the re l a t i o n s h i p doing life sciences in economically under- ization of science,” and “changing publish- between the life sciences on one hand, and privileged social settings, and, second, the ing practices in science.” Responding to the social and economic settings within possibility of influencing and directing the repeatedly expressed interest within the sci- which they are embedded, or, for some rea- life sciences in the more privileged settings entific community at EMBL, this time “Life son fail to get embedded, on the other. When so that the useful knowledge and technolo- Sciences and the Developing World” was we take into account the most appalling of gies that come out of them are more aligned chosen as the main theme. the problems plaguing the world communi- and tuned to the needs of people in the poor- Evidently, it was not so much the compo- t y, the unequal distribution of economic er parts of the world. nents of the main title, “Life Sciences” and resources, it should not come as a surprise to The first session of the symposium consisted “the Developing World,” that gained most anyone that the life sciences are abundantly of talks by three keynote speakers.