Program of the Meeting
| Thursday | 29.01.2015 |
| 08:30 – 09:30 | Registration, Welcome Coffee and Croissants, Mounting of Posters |
| 09:30 – 09:40 | Welcome Address Thierry Soldati (President of LS2) |
| 09:40 – 10:30 | Plenary Lecture I Reconstituting Cytoskeletal Organization in Artificial Confinement Important functions of eukaryotic cells such as motility and division depend sensitively on cytoskeletal organization. In particular, microtubules are stiff dynamic polymers that can generate pushing and pulling forces. To fulfill their function, microtubules adopt specific spatial patterns, like the mitotic spindle during cell division. How the shape and size of cells, as well as the balance between pushing and pulling forces control this organization is in many cases still unclear. We reconstitute a dynamic microtubule cytoskeleton inside three-dimensional water-in-oil emulsion droplets, using lipids that can be functionalized with dynein molecular motors. We study the positioning of centrosomes, from which microtubules are nucleated that exert pushing and/or dynein-mediated pulling forces when reaching the boundary. We show that the central position of one centrosome confined in a spherical droplet is drastically destabilized by pushing forces, while pulling forces tend to center the centrosome. Interestingly, when two centrosomes are present, pushing forces cause the centrosomes to find a stable position at opposite sides of the droplet. When both pushing and pulling forces are present, two centrosomes adopt an equilibrium position balancing the dynein-mediated centering effect with the repulsion effect of the two centrosomes, thereby reproducing a ‘mitotic spindle’ like organization. These experiments allow us to study cytoskeletal organization in simple symmetric situations, but do not yet allow us to study the effect of spatio-temporal variations in for example dynein activity. In vivo, such variations are for example important to drive asymmetric divisions in developing embryos. For this purpose, we are now developing ‘opto-control’ techniques that should allow us to control the spatial distribution of active dynein molecules in our experiments. Hide text… |
| 10:30 – 10:35 | Basel Declaration Society Patrick Matthias, Friedrich-Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research The Basel Declaration: Trust, Transparency and Communication on Animal Research |
| 10:40 – 11:00 | Coffee Break, Poster Session, Industry Exhibition |
| 11:00 – 13:15 | Symposia |
SSMCB (Part 1) Optogenetics: new tools to control and study complex cellular networks
Ernst Bamberg (Max-Planck Institut für Biophysik, Frankfurt) Peter Hegemann (Humbold Universität Berlin) Botond Roska (FMI Basel) Dirk Trauner (LMU München) | |
SGV Light and the 3Rs
Ron Stoop (University of Lausanne) Martin Fussenegger (ETH Zürich) Francois Lassailly (London Research Institute)
Christian Heinis (EPFL) | |
SSAHE Three-dimensional microscopy: from atoms to organisms
Johannes Schittny (University of Bern) Nenad Ban (ETH Zürich) Henning Stahlberg (University of Basel)
Ali Yasin Sonay (ETHZ, BSSE) Patrick Sandoz (EPFL)
Kristian Wadel (FEI) | |
Special Session «Master students» Doing a PhD in Switzerland
Alina von Essen, University of Fribourg Pascal Pfiffner, Harvard Medical School Moritz Saxenhofer, University of Bern | |
| 13:15 – 14:45 | Lunch, Poster Session, Industry Exhibition, Delegates Assembly SSMCB |
| 13:30 – 14:30 | Careers of Women and Men in Science
round table discussion with the following topics: - Applying for your next position as a PhD student |
| 13:30 – 14:30 | Skills Networking in Science speakers Daniel Roiz and Thomas List (Life Science Zürich Young Scientists' Network) |
| 14:45 – 17:00 | Symposia |
SSMCB (Part 2) Selected Short Presentations
Björn Hegemann, ETH Zurich Maria Mitsi, Paul Scherrer Institute Nadim Mira, University of Lausanne Laura Merlini, University of Lausanne
Industry talk Michael Elser, Takara Clontech
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SPS Pancreas in the limelight: physiopathology of islets, acinar and ductal cells
Introduction (Simone Camargo, UZH and Sabrina Sonda,USZ)
Cécile Haumaitre (University Pierre et Marie Curie, CNRS, Paris) Genetic and epigenetic control of pancreatic endocrine cells in development and disease
Julia Mayerle (University of Greifswald) Pancreatitis, all premature protease activation?
Ivana Novak (University of Copenhagen) The role of purinergic signaling in exocrine pancreas – in health and disease
Irene Esposito (Innsbruck Medical University) On the origin of pancreatic cancer: hypotheses and evidence | |
SSM Positive and negative influence of sunlight on microbes
Gerhard Braus (University of Göttingen)
Thomas Egli (Eawag Dübendorf)
Matthias Rögner (Ruhr-University Bochum)
Helene Guillong (Velux-Stiftung) VELUX STIFTUNG funds projects aiming to change science or society
Short Presentations Charles Van der Henst (EPFL) Human pathogens in the wild: How Vibrio cholerae interacts with the amoeba Acanthamoeba castellanii
Helge Abicht (ETHZ) The role of TlpA and ScoI in copper delivery to the CuA-center of aa3-type cytochrome oxidase in Bradyrhizobium japonicum
Caroline Barisch (University of Geneva) Lipid Droplet Dynamics at Early Stages of Mycobacterium marinum Infection in Dictyostelium | |
Publishing in the 21st century
Michaela Torkar, F1000 Joanna Young, Director Scientific Editing Company, Scotland Barbara Hirschmann, ETH library, E-publishing Mark Patterson, Executive Director e-life | |
| 17:00 – 17:30 | Coffee Break, Poster Session, Industry Exhibition |
| 17:30 – 18:20 | Plenary Lecture II Dissecting the Phytochrome-PIF Signaling Interface Plants constantly monitor the ambient light environment for signals that enable them to adapt to the prevailing conditions. The phytochrome (phy) family of sensory photoreceptors plays a central role in this process. Light absorption induces conversion of the phy molecule to its active Pfr conformer which then migrates rapidly into the nucleus where it induces expression changes in target-gene expression within minutes. This induction mechanism involves binding of the activated phy molecule to a small set of bHLH transcription factors called PIFs (for Phytochrome (phy)-Interacting Factors). This interaction triggers phosphorylation, polyubiquitination and degradation of the PIFs, with consequent altered expression of their target genes. We have shown that this signaling process requires multisite phosphorylation of the PIF molecule, which triggers PIF recognition and ubiquitination by a subset of BTB-Cullin3-type E3 ubiquitin ligases (called LRBs), and that this results concurrently in both transcriptional regulation and direct feedback attenuation of signaling intensity via concomitant PIF and phy degradation. Using genome-wide transcriptome analysis, we have identified PIF-regulated genes that respond rapidly to phy photoactivation, and using integrated ChIP-seq and RNA-seq analysis, we have identified a diverse network of these rapidly light-responsive genes that are direct targets of PIF-regulated transcription. Moreover, the evidence unveils an intriguing dual-layered mechanism of regulation whereby both the level of promoter binding-site occupancy, and in situ modulation of bound transcription-factor intrinsic activity, combine to generate a complex matrix of shared, but quantitatively differential, gene expression patterns, under the control of the phy-PIF signaling pathway. Hide text… |
| 18:20 – 20:00 | Apéritif in the Industry Exhibition Area
Presented by the Dutch Embassy (Ambassade van het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden) Erik van den Akker, Deputy Ambassador of the Netherlands |
| Friday | 30.01.2015 |
| 09:00 – 09:50 | The EMBO Keynote Lecture The Impact of DNA Damage on Aging and Cancer and the Effect of Nutritional Interventions The EMBO Keynote Lecture Inherited defects in the global genome nucleotide excision repair (GG-NER) removing helix-distorting DNA lesions are associated with cancer predisposition as in xeroderma pigmentosum. Defects in transcription-coupled repair, with or without additional GG-NER defects cause severe neurodevelopmental deficits and segmental progeria as in Cockayne syndrome and trichothiodystrophy. Mutations in single NER genes, involved in both pathways such as XPD, are linked with all three disorders in a mutation-specific manner. Various single and double NER mouse mutants reveal that the severity of specific repair defects strictly correlates with the acceleration of selective premature aging features (including prominent neurodegeneration), whereas the type of DNA repair defect determines the kind of progeroid symptoms and/or cancer susceptibility. Microarray, functional and physiological studies revealed that persistent DNA damage down-regulates the IGF1/GH-, lacto- and thyrotropic hormonal axes and upregulates anti-oxidant defenses, favouring maintenance at the expense of growth. This ‘survival response’ resembles the one elicited by dietary restriction (DR), which promotes longevity and links accumulation of DNA damage and IGF1 control of life span. Micro- and mRNA expression profiling of normal, accelerated and delayed aging also revealed a clear parallel with the expression changes triggered by persistent transcription-blocking DNA lesions. These findings strongly support the DNA damage theory of aging. We will present phenotypes of conditional DNA repair models targeting aging to selected organs, striking parallels with Alzheimer’s disease and the remarkable effect of nutritional interventions on the life span of progeroid repair mutants and on features of neurodegeneration. Hide text… |
| 09:50 – 10:20 | Coffee Break, Poster Session, Industry Exhibition |
SKILLS Entrepeneurship in Science
Kaspar Binz (Co-founder Molecular Partners) | |
| 10:20 – 10:50 | Industry Seminar TBA |
| 10:50 – 11:40 | Plenary Lecture IV Optogenetic Analyses of Synaptic Transmission and Neuronal Networks in Caenorhabditis Elegans Optogenetics allow precise stimulation of neurons and synapses in live animals. We establish optogenetic tools in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. We then use them to analyze mechanisms of synaptic transmission at chemical synapses, as well as how small neuronal networks drive behavior of the nematode. Synapses can be stimulated by depolarization using channelrhodopsin. We assessed how synapses respond to prolonged, extreme stimulation, as a model for seizures, by behavior, electrophysiology and by electron microscopy. This allows to follow the formation and recovery of large endocytic structures in the synapses, at the ultrastructural elvel, in a time-resolved fashion, and to analyze molecular determinants of these processes. Also, photoactivated adenylyl cyclase can induce synaptic stimulation, by increasing the rate of synaptic vesicle priming, thus enhancing transmission in response to intrinsic signals, without overriding network activity. The molecular targets of PKA, mediating this type of stimulation, are currently under investigation. Small neuronal networks drive behaviors in C. elegans. We use a “bottom-up” approach, by placing optogenetic tools (channelrhodopsin, halorhodopsin, other rhodopsin optogenetic tools) in previously unstudied neurons, and investigating how stimulation or inhibition of these neurons affects behavior. One such circuit controls the locomotion of the animal in complex ways, allowing navigational steering, for example during food search behavior. This distributed circuit relies on neuropeptide signaling via a “wireless” network, overlaid on top of the “hardwired” synaptic and gap junction networks of the C. elegans neural circuitry. Hide text… |
| 11:40 – 13:30 | Lunch, Poster Session, Industry Exhibition, Delegates Assembly SSMCB |
| 11:45 – 13:15 | Skills workshop Entrepreneurship in Science How to become an entrepreneur/found a start-up in Science |
| 11:45 – 13:15 | LS2 Delegates Assembly |
| 13:30 – 15:45 | Symposia |
SSEP Light: potent modulator of fundamental processes in biology and medecine
Steven Brown (University of Zurich)
Christian Cajochen (University of Basel)
Gilles Vandewalle (University of Liège, Belgium)
Luc Schlangen (Philips Research, Eindhoven, The Netherlands)
short presentations Christoph Schneider (University of Bern) Potentiating therapeutic effects of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) using protein-destabilizing factors
Hamed Hesham (University of Geneva) Diapocynin, a putative NADPH oxidase inhibitor, ameliorates the phenotype of a mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy | |
SSN Seeing the light: early visual processing
Daniel Kiper (ETHZ) SSN-Swiss Society for Neuroscience
Christian Grimm (University of Zürich) Oxygen for Vision: The Hypoxic Response of the Retina
Georg Keller (Friedrich-Miescher Institute, Basel) Learning to see – active sensory processing in mouse visual cortex
short presentations: Simon Musall (University of Zürich) Impact of response adaptation on stimulus perception: Sensory versus optogenetic stimulation of somatosensory cortex
Juan Gerez (ETH Zürich) Novel insights on internalized alpha-Synuclein homeostasis
Gil Vantomme (University of Lausanne) Optogenetic activation of glutamatergic afferents into the reticular thalamic nucleus of mouse
Sonja Kleinlogel (University of Bern) | |
Special Session Non-academic careers in science
Patrick Descombes, Head of Functional Genomics, Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences From entrepreneurship in academia to basic research & management in industry
Zhenyu Xu, CTO Sophiagenetics The adventure of data driven medicine
Birgit Geueke, Scientific Officer, Food Packaging Forum, Zürich From academic science to science communication in a Swiss NGO
Henri Kornmann, Director of Technical Development Biosimilars, Merck Serono Raise the challenge of biosimilarity
Vanessa Rezgui, Regulatory Affairs Associate, CSL Behring Why I chose to start a career as a regulatory affairs professional
Yvette Miata Peterson, Associate Director, Project Management Office Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research Working as a Project Manager in Biotech and Pharma
Amadou Bah, Public Health Consultant at WHO From chromosomes to public health
Nicolas Fischer, Head of Research Department, NovImmune SA A path from light to biotech
followed by a panel discussion and round tables | |
Special Session Tomorrow’s PIs : the future of Swiss research
Gražvydas Lukinavičius (EPFL) Biocompatible fluorophores for imaging of cellular structures
Michalina Janiszewska (Harvard Medical School) Intra-tumor heterogeneity: between genotype, epigenome and phenotype of cancer cells
Pavan Ramdya (EPFL and UNIL) Discovering how small brains solve big problems for robotics and medicine
Yolanda Schaerli (University of Zürich) Design principles of gene regulatory networks
Guillaume Rey (University of Cambridge) Systems-level analysis of circadian metabolic oscillations
Simona Chera (University of Geneva) Age-related aspects of pancreatic β-cells regeneration | |
| 15:45 – 16:15 | Coffee Break, Poster Session, Industry Exhibition |
| 16:15 – 17:00 | Awards Friedrich Miescher Award 2015 Awardee: Martin Jinek "Cutting DNA with the help of RNA: the future of genome engineering" Morphologiepreis of the Swiss Society of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology Awardee: Benoît Zuber "Structural Biology of the Nervous system and bacteria" Tomorrow's PI award (sponsored by F1000 and BioTek) |
| 17:00 – 17:50 | Plenary Lecture V Live-cell Microscopy Reveals Distinct Switch Mechanisms for the Decision of Mammalian Cells to Start the Cell Cycle One of the most fundamental decisions mammalian cells continuously make is whether to stay quiescent or divide. We have developed live-cell approaches to visualize in single cells the key steps leading to the commitment of cells to start the cell cycle. I will be presenting evidence that one needs to distinguish two commitment points, a fist one after which cells do not require any more growth factors, followed several hours later by a second decision point when cells irreversibly commit. This second commitment does not occur if cells are encountering weak stresses along the way. After the second decision, cells become resistant to weak osmotic, DNA and other stresses. We show that the first decision point is controlled by Cyclin D, p21 and phosphorylation of retinoblastoma protein, while the second decision point is controlled by the bistable rapid inactivation of APC-Cdh1, an E3-ligase that degrades critical regulators of DNA replication. Our dynamic studies provide mechanistic insights into one of the most fundamental problems in cell biology and also shows the power of single live-cell microscopy approaches to dissect complex cellular regulatory circuits. Hide text… |
| 17:50 – 18:00 | Closing Remarks Claus Azzalin, Benoît Kornmann and Paola Picotti (Chairpersons) |
