LIFE SCIENCE ZURICH LIFE SCIENCE ZURICH GRADUATE SCHOOL ANNUAL REPORT 2019 DR. SUSANNA BACHMANN 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................ 3 2 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 4 2.1 MISSION ......................................................................................................................... 4 2.2 STRATEGY AND PRODUCTS OF THE LSZ GS ..................................................................... 5 3 ACTIVITIES .......................................................................................................................... 12 3.1 RECRUITMENTS ............................................................................................................ 12 3.2 DATA SYSTEMS AND WEBPAGES..................................................................................... 15 3.3 TRANSFERABLE SKILLS COURSES .................................................................................. 16 3.4 EVALUTATIONS ............................................................................................................. 18 4 ON-GOING PROJECTS ....................................................................................................... 19 5 FINANCES ........................................................................................................................... 20 6 OUTLOOK ............................................................................................................................ 22 APPENDIX 1: FINANCIAL DISTRIBUTION KEY .................................................................. 23 APPENDIX 2: GRADUATE SCHOOL STUDENT BODY....................................................... 24 APPENDIX 3: PHD PROGRAMS ANNUAL REPORTS ........................................................ 25 BIOMOLECULAR STRUCTURE AND MECHANISM ..................................................................... 26 CANCER BIOLOGY .............................................................................................................. 30 CLINICAL SCIENCE .............................................................................................................. 38 DRUG DISCOVERY .............................................................................................................. 41 ECOLOGY .......................................................................................................................... 42 EPIDEMIOLOGY AND BIOSTATISTICS ..................................................................................... 47 EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY .................................................................................................... 51 INTEGRATIVE MOLECULAR MEDICINE ................................................................................... 55 MICROBIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY ...................................................................................... 60 MOLECULAR LIFE SCIENCES ............................................................................................... 66 MOLECULAR AND TRANSLATIONAL BIOMEDICINE ................................................................... 74 NEUROSCIENCE ................................................................................................................. 77 PLANT SCIENCES ............................................................................................................... 81 RNA BIOLOGY.................................................................................................................... 90 SCIENCE AND POLICY ......................................................................................................... 94 SYSTEMS BIOLOGY ........................................................................................................... 101 1 Executive summary For the first time the Life Science Zurich Graduate School has seen a fusion of two PhD programs to a new one: For the fall 2019 semester the programs in Integrative Molecular Medicine and Molecular and Translational Biomedicine merged to a Biomedicine Program. Although the two “old” programs will only be shut down completely when the last student has finished his or her PhD studies, they officially do not form part of the Graduate School anymore. That means that the LSZ GS currently consists of 16 PhD programs and one MD- PhD program. At present, the Graduate School includes 591 research group leaders and 1’538 doctoral students (as of 31 December 2019). Compared to 2018, the numbers of principal investigators (522) as well as the number of PhD students (1’520) slightly increased. 53% of our early stage researchers are female and more than 70% come from abroad. 65% of them are enrolled at the University of Zurich, 33% at ETH Zurich and 2% at other academic institutions in Switzerland (mainly at the Universities of Basel and Berne). Luckily, the reversal of the downward trend in the number of applications we observed at the end of 2018 was not momentarily and continued in 2019 with a small boost at the end of the year. While the total amount was still on the lower side for the July 2019 deadline, we were relieved to see the numbers were on the increase by the end of 2019 with a total of 1’498 applications (compared to 1’129 a year before). It should be noted that for the December deadline we switched one more time application databases. Instead of using the platform of a commercial company that had proven to be too inflexible for our requirements, we now have a tool at our disposal that is tailored entirely to our needs. The number of complete applications is, of course, only one landmark of a given recruitment round. Whereas the December 2018 intake with interviews in February 2019 was below average with a matching rate of 45% and 68% of filled positions, these numbers were again within the range of former years with a matching rate of 58% and 77% of filled positions for the July deadline. As mentioned before, the LSZ GS switched for the December deadline application platforms but this time the database is much user-friendlier and provides an excellent overview of the different steps and the status of a given application. In fact, the application tool “join” is not exclusively an application platform but rather a tool mirroring the entire recruitment process. The reviewing and assessment of the applications are included as well as the administration of the open positions, the very complex planning of lab visits, the designing of individual schedules, the submission of preference lists and the final matching of supervisors’ and applicants’ choices. As in former years, the LSZ GS organized 41 transferable skills courses in 2019, of which 13 were jointly offered by a PhD program or another university institution and the Graduate School. More than 750 PhD students attended one or several of the courses that can roughly be grouped in 5 categories: Best Scientific Practice and Ethics, Communication & Presentation Skills, Methodical Skills, Scientific Writing and Publishing as well as Social and Self-Management Skills. As all courses are generally evaluated by the participants at the end of the event, we know that the doctoral students are to a large extent satisfied with the courses. They really seem to appreciate and take advantage of attending courses that are not directly linked to their research field, but help them to prepare for future leadership functions. 2019 turned out to be the year of internal evaluations. Not only did the Faculty of Science ask the LSZ GS to carry out a so-called quality meeting in June, but also are we requested by the UZH to pass through a formal evaluation of the third cycle. Whereas the latter procedure is still on-going, we aim to implement in 2020 some of the compiled suggestions of the quality meeting to further improve the services of the LSZ GS and the quality of the doctorate. 2 Introduction The idea to found a graduate school that houses all the different PhD programs in the Life Sciences offered at the University of Zurich and the ETH Zurich came up in September 2005. On 8 December 2005, the Life Science Zurich Graduate School was officially launched and became an autonomous branch of the Life Science Zurich Initiative. The LSZ Graduate School currently consists of seventeen highly competitive PhD programs. Thanks to a strong teaching curriculum and a clear mentoring system these programs attract the best students worldwide. 2.1 Mission The aim of the Life Science Zurich Graduate School is to promote first-class graduate education in the life sciences at the University of Zurich (UZH) and the ETH Zurich (ETH). The LSZ GS offers centralized services (e.g. recruitment administration, assistance in identifying new funding possibilities) and products (e.g. transferable skills courses) that support established PhD programs and facilitate the development of new programs in the Life Sciences. The centralized administration of these services enables the individual PhD programs to focus on the education of their graduate students within the respective research fields. The individual PhD programs are thereby relieved of administrative tasks and ensuing costs in areas not directly related to their specific research fields. Specifically, the Life Science Zurich Graduate School aims: • to increase the visibility and attractiveness of the LSZ-PhD programs world-wide in order to reach excellent undergraduates