Careers in Science
Meet the discussion leaders of the lunch session "Careers in Science" and decide whom you would like to talk to...
The discussion session is split into three separate rooms: "Junior careers in academia", "Senior careers in academia" and "Non-academic careers".
| Monday | 15.02.2016 |
| 09:00 – 09:10 | Welcome Address Aurélien Roux, Meeting Chairman (University of Geneva) Thierry Soldati, President of LS2 |
| 09:10 – 10:00 | Plenary Lecture I Towards a Physical Basis for Morphogenesis The range of shapes in the plant (and animal) world is "enough to drive even the sanest man mad", wrote Darwin. Motivated by qualitative and quantitative biological observations, I will show that there is a "method in the madness" - using the vertebrate gut, and the inner ear as examples. In each case, we will see how a combination of physical experiments, combined with mathematical models and computations allow us to begin unraveling the quantitative basis for the diversity and complexity of biological morphology. Hide text… |
| 10:00 – 10:30 | Coffee Break and Industry Exhibition |
| 10:30 – 12:30 | Parallel Symposia I |
Molecular and Cellular Biosciences Unravelling novel paradigms in biology using model organisms
Ramesh S. Pillai (EMBL Grenoble) Genome defense by germline small RNAs
Michael O'Connor (University of Minnesota) Vesicle-mediated steroid hormone secretion in Drosophila melanogaster
Rohit Chavan (University of Fribourg) Liver-derived ketone bodies are necessary for food anticipation
Ewald Collins (Harvard Medical School) Reduced insulin/IGF-1-signalling implicates extracellular matrix remodelling in longevity
Malathi Raman (TAKARA Clontech) Change the way you think about Cloning….Discover In-Fusion®
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Plant Sciences Plant Molecular and Chemical Biology
Dorothea Tholl (Virginia Tech University) How plant scent makes sense: Studies in Arabidopsis and beyond
Jurriaan Ton (University of Sheffield) Onset and long-term maintenance of plant immune priming
Cornelia Eisenach (University of Zurich) Identification of a vacuolar malate channel required for plant water balance
Maite Colinas (University of Geneva) Balancing of B6 vitamers is essential for plant development and metabolism in Arabidopsis
David Heywood (Waters) | |
Microbiology Microbial division and replication: from biochemistry to molecular biology
Patrick Viollier (University of Geneva)
Beate Henrichfreise (University of Bonn)
Ioan Iacovache (University of Bern) Near-atomic structure of aerolysin mutants reveals a novel protein fold and elucidates its mode of action
Joe Dan Dunn (University of Geneva) Delineating the immunity functions of reactive oxygen species using Dictyostelium discoideum as a model phagocyte
Sophie Martin (University of Lausanne) | |
Special Session MSc- what's next?
In this session directed at young scientists at the beginning of their career, you can gather information on your career opportunities after having finished with the Master. Several life sciences alumni who have kickstarted their career in Academia, the industry, and non-for profit organisations will answer all your questions in one-to-one discussions. | |
| 12:30 – 13:40 | Lunch, Industry Exhibition and Poster Session (Even Numbers) Posters with even numbers are accompanied by the presenter |
| 12:40 – 13:30 | Careers of Women and Men in Science Round Table Discussion The lunch session "Careers of women and men in Science" is aimed at providing career support to young researchers at any stage, with a special focus on dual career couples, and women-specific mentoring and fellowships in the life sciences. Several round tables with at least one mentor per table invite you to join in on the discussion. The session will be divided into three rooms, each auditorium focussing on a major topic: 315: "Non-academic careers" 315.1: " Career options and challenges of junior researchers in academia" (BSc, MSc, PhD) 319: "Career options and challenges of senior researchers in academia" (PhD, postdocs, PIs) More information on the discussion leaders will follow soon.
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Non-academic Careers
Discussion Leaders
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Junior Academic Careers
Discussion Leaders
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Senior Academic Careers
Discussion Leaders
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| 13:40 – 15:40 | Parallel Symposia II |
Molecular and Cellular Biosciences Unravelling more novel paradigms in biology using model organisms
Marja Timmermans (University of Tübingen) Emily Ann Bayer/Oliver Hobert (Columbia University Medical Center) Veronika Nemčíková Villímová (EPF Lausanne) Delphine Aymoz (University of Lausanne) Agnès Michel (ETH Zurich) | |
Neurosciences Sex hormones and oxytocin/vasopressin signaling: implications for autism spectrum disorder
Sue Carter (Kinsey Institute Indiana) Markus Heinrichs (University of Freiburg) Jack von Honk (University of Utrecht) Chloé Hegoburu (University of Lausanne) Christophe Grundschober (Roche) | |
Stem Cell Research In vitro and in vivo applications of stem cell research
Marcel Leist (University of Konstanz) Louis Casteilla (INSERM Toulouse) Jakub Zimoch (University of Zurich) Andrea Coluccio (EPF Lausanne) Mathurin Buquie (Neurix) | |
Special Session Non-academic careers in the Life Sciences
Several speakers will describe why they chose a career outside of academia, how they transitioned from the University to their recent workplace and what challenges they meet in their job. Fréderic Pailloux (Voisin Life Science Consulting) Stéphane Bernard (Associate Director Debiopharm International SA) Adrian Moriette (Biologist Ecoscan SA) Julie Deuquet (Project Manager Nestlé Institute of Health) Marie Fischborn (IUCN) Davide Staedler (Tibio) Gioia Althoff (Sophiagenetics) Each talk will be 10 minutes and be followed by a general Q&A and discussion session at the end. | |
| 15:40 – 16:00 | Coffee Break and Industry Exhibition |
| 16:00 – 16:30 | Friedrich-Miescher Award Lecture Petr Broz (University of Basel) Sensing the Enemy Within: Innate Immune Detection of Intracellular Bacteria |
| 16:30 – 17:20 | Plenary Lecture II Patterns Within Cells, Between Cells and Over Tissues: from Plant Development to Robot Swarms Computational approaches combined with molecular studies and in vivo microscopy can help us understand polarity and patterning on three different levels: on the scale of the tissue, the cellular and subcellular tissue level. At the single cell level, I will show how a spatially uniform activation and patterning of GTPases can cause polarity to emerge spontaneously, independent of spatial pre-patterns or localized polarizing signals. Moreover, similar mechanisms of cell polarity can be uncovered with mathematical analysis in plant and animal cells. Being capable of intracellular partitioning, neighbouring plant cells that are separated by cell wall can then coordinate their polarities - through indirect cell-cell coupling. This is resultant from changes in concentration level of a phytohormone, auxin, in between cells. In the specific case of pavement cells of leaves, this phenomenon comes about as interdigitation, and requires the opposite response of identical neighbouring cells to the same local auxin signal in the cell wall, between the cells. Our theoretical work identifies key requirements for such indirect cell-cell signalling that that gives rise to correct interdigitation. These requirements, based on known molecular interactions, can then be extrapolated to other multi-cellular tissues, to understand the interdependency between cell and tissue polarity. We will then extrapolate these findings and show how animal cells, capable of direct cell-cell coupling, can establish, through similar principles, robust tissue coordination. And finally, we will show how such principles can be applied to independent and relatively simple agents, such as robots, that through local communication can manifest complex morphodynamics on a swarm of robots. The relevance of biology to technological innovations becomes apparent. Hide text… |
| 17:20 – 19:30 | Poster Apero All posters are accompanied by their presenter Poster session accompanied by music. Apéro with food and drinks. |
| Tuesday | 16.02.2016 |
| 09:00 – 09:50 | Plenary Lecture III Comparative Metabolomics Reveals a Modular Library of Signaling Molecules in Nematodes The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is one of the most important model organisms for biomedical research, because of its biological tractability and because many of its physiological pathways show strong homology to corresponding pathways in humans. We aim to complement the highly developed genomics and proteomics of C. elegans with a comprehensive structural and functional characterization of its metabolome, which has been explored to only a very limited extent. We found that worms are amazingly skilled chemists: using simple building blocks from conserved primary metabolism and a strategy of modular assembly, C. elegans and other nematode species create complex molecular architectures to regulate almost every aspect of their development and behavior. Phenotypes regulated by this combinatorial library of small-molecule signals include dauer formation, adult phenotypic plasticity, adult lifespan, attraction of the other sex, aggregation, dispersal, and other behaviors. Most of the identified compounds are based on the dideoxysugars ascarylose or paratose, which serve as scaffolds for attachment of moieties from amino acid, carbohydrate, neurotransmitter, lipid, and nucleoside metabolism, including an unusual xylopyranose-based adenosine derivative. The resulting signaling molecules can be active at femtomolar concentrations, such that encountering just a few molecules per minute is sufficient for worms to respond. Motivated by this unexpected structural and functional diversity, we have embarked on a systematic characterization of the C. elegans metabolome combining mutant screens and 2D NMR/HPLC-MS-based comparative metabolomics. We find that most small molecules in C. elegans have remained undescribed and that even important primary metabolite classes may include non-canonical compounds. Their identification and quantification in genome-wide mutant screens will, akin to transcriptional profiling, provide a new basis for the study of metabolism and evolutionarily conserved signaling pathways in this model organism. Moreover, the identification of many new variants of primary metabolism-derived structures that serve important signaling functions in C. elegans provides a strong incentive for a comprehensive re-analysis of metabolism in higher animals, including humans. Hide text… |
| 09:50 – 10:00 | Introducing Matters, the Next-gen Science Journal Lawrence Rajendran will present Matters, a recently launched innovative journal. |
| 10:00 – 10:25 | Coffee Break, Industry Exhibition |
| 10:30 – 12:30 | Parallel Symposia III |
Physiology Approaches to circumvent channelopathies
Frédéric Becq (University of Poitiers) Luigi Maiuri (University of Foggia) Maud Frieden (University of Geneva) Emilia Boiadjieva (University of Zurich) Jean-François Denis (University of Geneva) Anneline Nansen (Zealand) | |
Proteomics Next generation proteomics: enabling biological discoveries
Anne-Claude Gingras (Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Toronto) Robert Beynon (University of Liverpool) Peter Blattmann (ETH Zürich) Michel Schneider (SIB) Oliver Rinner (Biognosys) | |
Laboratory Animal Experimentation Interdisciplinary 3 R
Matt Leach (Newcastle University) Paul Flecknell (Newcastle University) Daniel Brönnimann and Christoph Schneider (Alumni Biomedical Sciences) Beat Riederer (Laboratory Animals Ltd) | |
Special Session Tomorrow's PIs- The future of Swiss research
Paloma Ordóñez-Morán (EPF Lausanne) Marco Capogrosso (EPF Lausanne) Joshua L. Payne (University of Zurich) Oscar Vadas (University of Geneva) Giulia Pasqual (Mass. Institute of Technology) Marie Barberon (University of Lausanne) | |
| 12:30 – 14:00 | Lunch, Industry Exhibition and Poster Session (Odd Numbers) Posters with odd numbers are accompanied by the presenter |
Lunch-time movie session: BIO•FICTION@Lausanne
Drop in to enjoy a selection of thought-provoking short films blending life sciences and fiction. Presented by the Forum for Genetic Research (SCNAT) in association with the BIO•FICTION Science, Art & Film Festival. Following the films, the debate on Synthetic Biology will be taking place in the same auditory. | |
| 14:00 – 16:00 | Parallel Symposia IV |
Experimental Pharmacology Pharmacology in the era of Systems Biology
Andrea Califano (Columbia University New York) Anna Keppner (University of Lausanne) Victor Greiff (ETH Zurich) Chiara Ambühl (University of Geneva) Yibo Wu (ETH Zurich) | |
Chemical Biology The interdisciplinary Chemist
Stefan Kubicek (CeMM Vienna) Christian Hackenberger (FMP Berlin) Dimitri Moreau (University of Geneva) Jessica Willi (University of Bern) Gebhard Thoma (Novartis Basel) | |
SCNAT Forum Genforschung /Forum for Genetic Research Research breakthroughs and social impact: young scientists debate synthetic biology
Jan Roelof van der Meer (University of Lausanne) iGEM team 2015 (EPF Lausanne) Emerging technologies have the potential to offer new solutions for society's challenges but also raise concerns about safety and ethical implications. At this round-table, young scientists from different fields will discuss the possible impact of synthetic biology, a maturing scientific discipline aiming to modify, rebuild and design biological systems. All participants of the meeting are welcome to join the discussion! Discussion leader Pia Viviani (Science&Cité) Please find more information on this session here | |
Special Session Challenges and opportunities of research funding in Switzerland and Europe
Mauro Dell'Ambrogio (SERI) The future of Swiss research funding regarding recent changes in the EU-funding scheme for Switzerland
Ayşim Yılmaz (SNF) Challenges and opportunities for (young) life science researchers in Switzerland
followed by Q&A and discussion round (30 min) | |
| 16:00 – 16:30 | Coffee Break, Industry Exhibition |
| 16:30 – 17:15 | Award Session Lelio Orci Award Prof. Gisou van der Goot Poster Awards Tomorrow's PI awards |
| 17:15 – 18:10 | Plenary Lecture IV Cells Feel Their Microenvironment and Remodel Nuclear Structures Soft tissues such as fat bear little physical stress, whereas stiffer tissues like muscle and bone sustain high stress. We have begun to uncover systematic relationships between such tissue properties and differentiation processes, having first shown that a soft matrix helps specify soft tissue lineages while a stiff matrix helps specify stiff tissue lineages [1]. Proteomics analyses of embryonic and mature tissues [2] have now revealed that while collagens directly determine tissue elasticity E the nucleoskeletal protein lamin-A follows polymer physics-type scaling versus E. Lamin-A has been reported for decades to vary widely between tissues, and mutations in lamin-A cause diseases of multiple stiff tissues as well as accelerated aging syndromes with defects in stiff tissue repair. Differentiation of various stem cell types is generally modulated by lamin-A levels downstream of matrix E and soluble factors such as retinoids [2,3], and we have uncovered multiple pathways that are co-regulated by lamin-A. Complementary insights are obtained from analyses in stem cells of the contractile cytoskeleton which not only physically stresses the nucleus but often contributes to key polarized processes of stem cells [4]. Matrices and forces [5] thus combine with growth factors control lineages, lamins, and cell fates. 1. A. Engler et al. Cell 126: 677-689 (2006). 2. J. Swift et al. Science 341: 1240104-1 to 15 (2013). 3. J-W. Shin et al. PNAS 110: 18892–18897 (2013). 4. J-W. Shin et al. Cell Stem Cell 14: 81-93 (2014). 5. D.E. Discher et al. Science 324: 1673-1677 (2009). Hide text… |
| 18:10 – 18:15 | Closing Remarks Aurélien Roux, Meeting Chairman (University of Geneva) Thierry Soldati, President of LS2 |