arcompressed

EMBL Annual Report 2003/04

222

EMBL 2004/2005

benefits that arise through planting seed money andletting things grow.

MH: All of the things that we have discussed here arevery valuable practical enhancements within EMBL

and are going to make something that is already verygood even better and more noticeable. If we were topaint a picture of the ideal scenario years down theroad, we would include all of the different aspects wehave mentioned organized under the umbrella of

Two years ago, EMBL established a new facility to trainteachers in today’s science and to give scientists achance to get their feet wet in the field of education.The EU grant that established the European LearningLaboratory for the Life Sciences (ELLS) and sponsoredteacher workshops at our sister organization, EMBO,came to a close in March 2005; in two short and busyyears, ELLS has become a fixture at EMBL. As well asbeing integrated into a larger framework of trainingactivities in the Lab, its influence is being felt wellbeyond, through a growing network of institutions andteachers.

The platform for ELLS’ activities are LearningLABs:three-day courses built around hands-on practicals andlectures developed by ELLS staff members, AlexandraManaia and Julia Willingale-Theune, and EMBL scien-tists. The topics of this year’s LearningLABs rangedfrom the study of single molecules to organism devel-opment, bioinformatics and science and society, andintroducing controversial issues such as stem cellresearch. Teaching materials from these activities areroutinely deposited in the ELLS’ online repository,TeachingBase. Many activities are available in severallanguages and may be downloaded freely for use in thescience classroom.

Developments this year included taking LearningLABson the road to institutes in EMBL member states, andformally integrating PhD students into ELLS activities.

Exporting ELLS LearningLABs can make a huge difference for scienceteachers, giving them valuable exposure to cutting-edge science and providing them with materials to takeback to the classroom. So far more than 250 teachersfrom 15 countries have taken part, and more than 100scientists from 23 EMBL research teams have activelyparticipated. This year the ELLS staff took theLearningLABs on the road and organized activities inPortugal, Italy and Germany. In doing so they estab-

lished sustainable links between local teaching com-munities and nearby research institutes, enablingEuropean teachers to engage in modern science in theirnative languages. Here are some highlights:

PhD student Jan Korbel taught a new edition ofELLS’ PERL programming course at the Landes-akademie für Fortbildung und Personalentwicklungan Schulen, Esslingen, Germany in September 2004and January 2005.

“Inspiring Science” was the name of a workshopheld at the Gulbenkian Science Institute in Oeiras,Portugal in April 2004. The course, which aimed tocapture the imagination of teachers with the latestresearch in developmental biology, received greatinterest, with more than 100 applicants andextensive media coverage.

The Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology andthe Faculty of Science of the University of Portohosted Portugal’s second ELLS course in September2004. The course included lectures on topics such asthe structure and functions of proteins involved inhealth and disease.

Renewed contact with EMBL alumna Maria LuisaTenchini led to a fruitful two-way collaborationwith the Life Learning Center at the University ofMilan, Italy. Silvia Boi, a scientist with high-schoolteaching experience, visited ELLS during thesummer of 2004 to adapt educational resources fora course organized in Milan in November 2004.

ELLS’ second port of call in Italy was EMBL-Monterotondo in December 2004, where the coursefocused on stem cells and associated technologies.Monterotondo scientists lent their expertise toconceive and implement the hands-on activities.

These on-the-spot ELLS activities were met with suchsuccess that the local hosting institutes have decided to

Placing cutting-edge science in the classroom: ELLS deepens roots

223

ANNUAL REPORT

EICAT, plus a conference center that allows us to houseand host these activities at a very regular and integrat-ed, systematic level. EMBL would essentially offer theEuropean counterpart to the outstanding training pro-gramme of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the

USA. We have most if not all components for that inplace, or immediately accessible to us, with one majorexception, and that is the conference facility itself. Ourlong-term goal is to do everything possible for this tobecome a reality.

integrate them into their regular activities. Maria Luisaand Silvia have obtained funding from their regionaleducation agency and the Marino Golinelli Foundationto organize future activities; the Porto institutes havesecured national funding to launch a new course in2005 and the organizers of the Oeiras event are gather-ing support from government and private agencies toorganize a follow-up course.

From lab to classroom and back againELLS activities have quickly become a staple in theEMBL scientific community, especially among PhDstudents. Some have spent manyextra hours helping to demon-strate hands-on activities,divulging “tricks of the trade” toteachers and coming up with newideas. Anastasios Koutsos, a stu-dent in the Kafatos lab, has comeup with an imaginative idea toteach the fundamentals of DNAmicroarray technology.

“DNA chips are one of the mostimportant tools used in molecu-lar biology today,” says Anas-tasios, “but the technology is difficult to bring into theclassroom. The chips are delicate to handle, expensiveto produce and analyzing the results from experimentsin which they are used is time-consuming and compli-cated. The question was, how could we turn chip tech-nology into an activity that is informative andattractive for both teachers and students?” With a littlehelp from ELLS, Anastasios came up with solution: theVirtual Microarray.

The Virtual Microarray is a teaching activity that mim-ics what happens during a large-scale gene expressionanalysis (see page 21 for more). Ten big circles on a bigplastic mat replace a glass slide with 30,000 spots usedin a real microarray experiment; Velcro replaces the

DNA and mRNA molecules, and several small flash-lights simulate fluorescent probes.

ELLS’ activities have to be robust enough to stand thescrutiny of questioning school kids, so they need to bethoroughly tried and tested. John Watson, a member ofthe Life Science Curriculum Development Team forthe European Schools Network, is one of ELLS’ keytesters. He and his colleagues played the VirtualMicroarray during a teachers workshop, and providedvaluable feedback to the ELLS team. “Working withEMBL scientists on this project was a beneficial experi-

ence. We were able to add ateacher’s perspective to the activityand made some adjustments tomake it really effective for theclassroom,” he says. “I can’t wait totry it out with my advanced biolo-gy class later this year.”

Such a feedback loop is integral toactivity design.“One of the aims ofELLS is to seek out a better interac-tion between scientists and high-school teachers,” says Julia. “TheVirtual Microarray is a good

example of how teachers and scientists can worktogether effectively to take revolutionary techniques ofmodern molecular biology into the classroom.”

E-STAR students jump on boardAnother very positive aspect of the evolution of ELLSis the facility’s strengthening ties to EMBL’s Inter-national PhD Programme. When the programmereceived a major new grant (E-STAR, see page 216)from the EU, Matthias Hentze and Anne Ephrussiimmediately thought of ELLS as a way to add value tothe students’ training. From the ELLS side, this is a wel-come development because young scientists have plen-ty of great ideas and act as powerful role models toattract young students to scientific careers.

and strengthens the network with European teachers and scientists

High-school biology teachers roll up their sleevesand play the Virtual Microarray.

196 LAB NOTEBOOK

A close collaborative project between the EMBL

International PhD Programme and ELLS was initiated in

February 2005. Since then, 18 students have worked with

ELLS to design and produce innovative materials which

have been tested, refined and disseminated in the context

of ELLS courses and other outreach activities.

The Ukrainian connection

The export of LearningLABs to new European locations

was a major activity, presenting a new model for sustain-

ability of nationally organised and funded initiatives.

Tanya Klymenko, a postdoctoral fellow from Jürg

Müller’s group, played a crucial role in establishing this

model in the Ukraine. Through Tanya’s connections with

the Ukrainian education and scientific communities, the

first LearningLAB, “Exploring the molecules of life” was

organised in collaboration with the Bogdan Khmelnitsky

Cherkasy National University in May 2005. The course

had such a positive impact that the Ukrainian education

authorities supported a second wave of LearningLABs

that were held throughout the Ukraine in four locations:

Cherkasy 28-29 October 2005, Kharkiv 27-28 January

2006, Lutsk 2-3 February 2006 and Kherson 7-8 April

2006. �

“Real” science in European classrooms

The European Learning Laboratory for the Life Sciences

(ELLS) is EMBL’s facility dedicated to improving science

education in schools throughout Europe. Created in 2003

within the framework of an EU-funded project co-ordi-

nated by EMBL’s sister organisation EMBO, ELLS brings

high-school teachers and scientists together in

LearningLABs: three-day courses built around hands-on

practicals, bioinformatics activities, educational games, as

well as science and society forums dealing with contro-

versial issues. The activities are developed by ELLS staff,

Alexandra Manaia and Julia Willingale-Theune, together

with EMBL scientists. ELLS follows the philosophy that

excellent science teaching in high-school classrooms pro-

motes the understanding of science in the general popu-

lation and helps attract talented students to careers in

science.

Over the last three years, 26 LearningLABs have been

held across Europe: in France, Germany, Italy, Portugal

and the Ukraine, reaching more than 350 teachers from

15 different nationalities and involving around 150 EMBL

scientists.

2005/06 was a busy year, highlighted by the development

of innovative educational projects in collaboration with

the EMBL PhD International Programme.

The European Learning Laboratory for the Life Sciences (ELLS)

197EMBL ANNUAL REPORT 05·06

A First Look at the Code of Life – an intro-duction to bioinformatics by CleopatraKozlowski

“I came up with the idea of designing a bioinfor-

matics course aimed at students with little back-

ground in biology during the EMBO Teacher’s

Workshop in May 2005. As accessibility was my

main concern, the four lessons were designed to

use only paper and pencil and the concepts were

explained using metaphors and games. In the

“mutation game”, nucleotide cards are used to

create “mutations” in RNA sequences. Lesson

three explains how the accumulation of DNA

mutations allows bioinformaticians to deduce phy-

logenetic relationships between organisms. The

last lesson explores the concept of mobile DNA,

comparing it to scrambling up words in a cooking

recipe, to see if new recipes appear. The course

has been very well received by teachers, who have

provided invaluable feedback for improvement.”

A hands-on practical on protein expressionand purification by Philipp Gebhardt

“Designing a science classroom activity is quite a

challenge for a bench scientist. One has to focus

on the basic concepts underlying biological pro-

cesses and then try to convey them in easily

understandable terms to a non-expert audience.

Simplifying the principle of protein affinity purifica-

tion and putting it into a hands-on activity format

was a very interesting experience for me. I also

developed an accompanying teaching system, the

Modular Extensible Magnetic Array (MEMA), com-

prising different magnetic elements to be used on

a traditional classroom board. The teachers’ feed-

back helped me to further refine the system. It is

inspiring to participate in these activities: there are

mutual benefits for scientists and teachers.”

“Explorer les molécules: de la structure àla fonction” – designing and instructing aLearningLAB at the EMBL Grenobleoutstation by Jeanne Morinière and ElenaSeiradake

“Getting official accreditation from the Grenoble

Rectorat was the first step towards enabling

French teachers to attend the course. We then

concentrated on putting the programme together,

involving EMBL Grenoble scientists in teaching

and preparing the handbook. The final programme

covered a classic protein crystallisation work-flow

at the EMBL: purifying and crystallising the protein,

freezing the crystals, working on the beamlines at

the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility

(ESRF), processing diffraction images, visualising

3D-model, and demonstrating classroom kits

designed by Manfred Weiss from EMBL Hamburg.

The 12 participants were highly qualified biology

and physics teacher-trainers, possessing a strong

scientific background. They were so eager to learn

about our work; this made us feel special and real-

ly increased our regard for our own research!”

Three projects among many illustrate the innovation andinput of advanced skills from our PhD students:

Left: PhD studentPhilipp Gebhardtexplains basicbiological processes to teachers

Right: French teachersworking on proteinpurification andcrystallisation at EMBL Grenoble

128 A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF EMBL

Mouse biologists meeting in Monterotondo

Scientists from four Japanese institutes were wel-

comed to EMBL Monterotondo on 19-20 April for a

Mouse Biology Meeting. The visit was part of the

collaboration agreement that EMBL signed in

August 2005 with Japan’s National Institute for

Basic Biology (NIBB). During the meeting, local

group leaders and the visitors presented their

research on mouse limb and head development as

well as transgenics.

A Yearin the Life

of EMBL

The European Learning Laboratory for the Life

Sciences (ELLS) took their LearningLABs for the

first time to Grenoble on 3-4 April. Scientists at

the French Outstation hosted local science teach-

ers for a series of talks and presentations, con-

centrating on the area of structural biology.

LearningLABs aim to combine cutting-edge sci-

ence with simpler activities that are transferable to

the classroom.

April

2006

ELLS workshop in France


Lab Day 2006

Croatia becomes EMBL’s 19th Member State

EMBL’s Member State

count is now up to 19

after Croatia signed the

accession contract in

June 2006. The joining

of Croatia is an impor-

tant first step towards expanding EMBL’s member-

ship to Eastern Europe. The delegate representing

Croatia in the EMBL Council is Professor Kresimir

Pavelic from the renowned Ruder Boskovic Institute

in Zagreb.

June

2006

Scientists from all units gathered in

Heidelberg on 9 June for another EMBL

Lab Day, a chance for all scientists to con-

vene and learn about their colleagues’

activities. The event included postdoc

seminars, a ceremony for this year’s grad-

uating predocs and a presentation of

ELLS’ new project, SET-Routes. Only one

day before, on 8 June, the Postdoc

Association and EMBLEM organised a

Career Options Day. The event gave an

overview of non-research career possibili-

ties, such as those in scientific writing,

industry, patenting and policy making.

A visit from Scandinavia

On 14 June, the Board of Directors of the Swedish

Research Council visited EMBL to find out about

EMBL’s special culture and discuss future plans with

the Director General. The delegation of 28 enjoyed

two days in Heidelberg with a fully packed schedule

including discussions and presentations.

ˆˆ


EMBL attends ESOF

On 15-19 July, Munich hosted the second

EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF), an international

conference to engage the public, journalists and

young scientists in cutting-edge research. EMBL

was also there to present its work and opportunities

for young scientists as an EIROforum member

organisation.

August

2006

July

Group leaders in new Partnership talks

EMBL scientists, EMBLEM and EMBL’s venture

vehicle, EMBL Ventures GmbH, founded Elara

Pharmaceuticals GmbH, a start-up company that

will translate basic research findings into new anti-

cancer drugs. Elara is a spin-off company dedicat-

ed to drug development and will follow up on

promising small molecules that have shown power-

ful anti-cancer actions in screening experiments.

ECM in Leuven

Crystallographers from all over Europe descended

on the university city of Leuven, Belgium, for a week

in August for the 23rd European Crystallographic

Meeting. EMBL was represented with a stand in the

exhibition area, and scientists were in attendance

to let visitors know about the institute’s facilities.

EMBL’s attendees also contributed to the conference

with talks and presentations.

A new start-up company to developanti-cancer drugs

Spanish journalist visits EMBL

For a week in July, EMBL hosted the Spanish journal-

ist Pilar Gil Villar, who took the opportunity to zoom

into various scientific projects at EMBL. The visit was

part of the European Initiative for Communicators of

Science, funded by the Max Planck Institute for

Biophysical Chemistry. Pilar, who lives in Madrid and

writes for the science magazine Quo, got acquainted

with new scientific methods, instruments and, last

but not least, the day-to-day life in the lab.

In mid-July, several EMBL group leaders and Core

Facility heads met researchers from the Station

Biologique de Roscoff (SBR) at its location in

Brittany, France, for a three-day mini-conference.

Both parties explored new areas of collaboration and

a possible EMBL Partnership. While the SBR would

benefit from access to EMBL Core Facilities and the

possibility to increase their activity in developmental

biology, EMBL would gain access to their diversity

of marine species.


September

New EMBL partnership in Barcelona

A new EMBL partnership with the Centre for

Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona is set to

advance the understanding of complex biological

systems. Funded by the Spanish Ministry for

Education and Science for the next nine years, the

EMBL/CRG partnership is dedicated to systems biol-

ogy, an emerging field that focuses on understanding

and engineering complex biological systems.

Faculty Retreat in Hamburg

Faculty members from

all five EMBL sites met

on 13 September in

Hamburg for their annual

retreat. The Faculty

Retreat gave group

leaders a chance to

present their work and get feedback from others.

And it showed once again that nothing can replace

face-to-face encounters and a joint discussion about

the current research projects, away from the bench.

More than 60 postdocs

from all EMBL units

came together for the

2nd EMBL postdoctoral

retreat from 30

September to 2 October

in Aalen, Germany. The

programme featured talks by invited speakers and

EMBL postdocs, poster presentations and joint discus-

sion of the postdoctoral experience at EMBL. The moti-

vation behind the event was to strengthen the links

between postdocs in different units.

Second EMBL postdoctoral retreat

October

A groundbreaking ceremony on

6 October for EMBL Heidelberg’s

Advanced Training Centre wel-

comed special guests including

Annette Schavan, Germany’s

Minister for Education and

Research, sponsor Klaus Tschira

and Baden-Württemberg’s Minister

for Science, Peter Frankenberg.

The building, in the structure of a

double helix, will feature an audito-

rium for 450 people, a display area,

teaching labs and seminar rooms.

Work begins on the ATC

2006


A fruitful get-together

This year, the predocs’ organisational committee chose Prague as a perfect backdrop to a weekend of discus-

sion for PhD students from all EMBL sites. The talks during the predoc retreat covered a wide spectrum of

scientific topics, ranging from metagenomics and proteomics to gene silencing in Drosophila. During the Prague

meeting, the PhD students also got a chance to learn the rules of successful paper submission. After only two

events, this forum for communication has already become an established part on the PhD programme.

Science Days in Rust

EMBL took part in Germany’s biggest science festival

on 12-14 October when the European Learning

Laboratory for the Life Sciences (ELLS) team exhibit-

ed at ‘Science Days 2006’ in Rust, near Freiburg.

ELLS demonstrated its microarray game to the young

audience and a series of posters about the movers

and shakers in the history of biology. The festival

welcomed more than 24,000 visitors over three days,

including children of all ages, teachers and families.

Bridges between neighbours

Thirteen young group leaders from the German

Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) met EMBL Heidel-

berg and EMBL-EBI faculty for the 2nd DKFZ-EMBL

retreat on 12-13 October in Herxheim, Germany. The

scientists discussed different aspects of research at

all three sites in four separate sessions and devel-

oped ideas of how to tighten the scientific bonds

between the institutes.

2006


November

A beautiful mind?

At the 7th joint EMBL/EMBO Science and Society

Conference on 3-4 November, ‘Genes, brain/mind

and behaviour’, more than 300 scientists, students

and interested laypeople came from all over the

world to discuss this fast-growing area of discovery.

Talks covered the genetic basis of depression and

the social and ethical implications of these research

areas within the life sciences. Twenty-five invited

speakers explored the current state of genetics,

neurotechnologies and neuroethics in four separate

sessions followed by lively panel discussions.

Grant approval for SET-Routes

SET-Routes, a project to promote women in

science, received an EU FP6 Science and Society

grant allowing it to spread its message in schools

and universities throughout Europe. Coordinated by

EMBL, EMBO and CERN, the programme aims to

mobilise women in science, engineering and tech-

nology (SET) and to encourage pupils, students

and graduates to pursue an education or career

in science.

Approval for future

From predocs to predocs

The 8th International EMBL PhD Student Symposium,

‘Biology of Disease: A Molecular Battlefield’, was

held in Heidelberg at the end of November, close to

the end of the EMBL PhD course. The symposium,

fully planned and carried out by EMBL predocs,

started with a public lecture about avian influenza

infecting humans and ended with an award ceremony

for the joint EMBO/EMBL Science Writing Prize.

Eighteen prominent speakers and around 130 guests

came to share their insights on topics ranging from

food-related diseases to mental disorders.

The approval of the budget and the scientific pro-

gramme for the coming five years was the big news

from the EMBL Council meeting, which took place in

Grenoble on 21-22 November. After more than a year

at the drawing board, the EMBL Programme and the

Indicative Scheme 2007-2011 received the go-ahead

from delegates. The new Indicative Scheme will rep-

resent a significant increase in member state funding,

particularly for data resources at EMBL-EBI.

December

‘EB-eye’ launch

EMBL-EBI’s new, faster and easier-to-use website

was launched on 11 December. As well as an attrac-

tive design, the new resource boasts an exhaustive

search engine which allows instant searches of all

EMBL-EBI’s databases from a single query.

Genomes, genes, proteins, structures and biological

functions can all be explored through a single simple

interface. ‘EB-eye’ is the result of a survey to find out

users’ preferences.


January

2006

2007

Board of US professors at EMBL

Twenty professors and associated professors of

biochemistry and chemistry from various US universi-

ties were given an introduction to EMBL, its training,

outreach and technology transfer activities on

8 December. The event was organised by the

German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

Head of EMBL Monterotondo, Nadia Rosenthal, was

invited to deliver the 2006 Howard Hughes Medical

Institute Holiday Lecture. She gave two presentations

on ‘Adult Stem Cells and Regeneration’ and ‘Stem

Cells and the End of Aging’, covering basic research

with an emphasis on clinical implications. By deliver-

ing the lecture, Nadia joined a prestigious list of for-

mer speakers including Nobel laureates. Originally

designed as a lecture series for local high-school

students, the event now attracts many thousands

of audience members worldwide.

Burns’ Night Supper

As it does every year, EMBL celebrated Scotland’s

most famous poet with a full-blown Burns’ Supper in

January. The numerous guests at EMBL Heidelberg

were first allowed to sample the traditional Scottish

haggis rounded off by ‘bashed neeps’ and ‘champit

tatties’ and then went on to practice the vivid

Scottish Ceilidh. Following tradition, the gastronomic

and dancing affairs were accompanied by literary

extras including a recitation of famous Burns’ poems.

Howard Hughes Holiday Lecture


February

2007Far East connection

Visitors from Japan’s National Institute of Basic

Biology (NIBB) on 25-28 February had a comprehen-

sive tour of various EMBL facilities and learned about

the Core Facilities and the outreach and training

activities at EMBL. After signing an agreement on

academic exchange in 2005, both institutes now

strive to strengthen the administrative ties between

them.

On 1 February, it was officially announced that the

German Federal Ministry for Education and Research

(BMBF) will provide funding of Euro 8.8 million for

EMBL@PETRA-III. The new facility is an Integrated

Centre for Structural Biology on the new high-energy

storage ring at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron

(DESY), one of the world’s most powerful synchrotron

rings. This new addition to EMBL Hamburg’s existing

facilities will start operating in 2010.

Kick-off for new facility at PETRA-III

Predocs’ choice

Within the series of Distinguished Visitor Lectures,

the EMBL PhD students invite a speaker of their

choice each year. In February 2007, their guest was

Alain Fischer, from the Necker University Hospital in

Paris. Alain Fischer talked about ‘Genetic defects of

the immune system as a good model for bench to

bed-side research’. Fischer was awarded the Luis-

Jeantet Prize for medicine in 2001 for his use of

stem-cell techniques to treat immune deficiencies.

EMBL’s busy events calendar

To show the USA

what European

molecular biology

has to offer and to

raise its profile inter-

nationally, EMBL

took part for the

first time in the annual meeting of the American

Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS),

held in San Francisco on 16-19 February. The AAAS

is the world’s largest general science organisation.

Once a year it brings together scientists, policy-mak-

ers, teachers, journalists and members of the public

in a big science fair. At the end of February, EMBL

also attended the third annual meeting of the EU IT

BIOXHIT conference in structural biology, held in

Didcot, UK.

136

March

Scientific Writing Course for predocs

In a survey last year, EMBL PhD students

expressed a strong desire for communication train-

ing. EMBL responded to the predocs’ wish and

organised a three-day course on scientific writing

and publishing on 21-23 March, entitled ‘Effective

Writing for Life Sciences Research’. Tutor Jane

Fraser, an experienced British freelance scientific

writing trainer, explained the rules of a good scien-

tific story. The practical sessions covering style,

writing and editing exercises were very much

appreciated by all attendees. The course was

funded by the Marie Curie E-STAR grant.

New Scandinavian liaison

A new partnership in Scandinavia complements

EMBL’s worldwide scientific network. The Nordic

EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine will have

three nodes: one in Oslo (Norway), one in Helsinki

(Finland), and a third in Swedish Umeå, which will

be called the Laboratory of Molecular Infection

Medicine. The Swedish Research Council agreed to

help the Umeå department expand with six new

research groups, but the exchange will also pro-

ceed in close collaboration with the other nodes.

The joint agreement was accompanied by mutual

visits of the Scandinavian partners in Heidelberg

and vice versa.

2007

EBI at Cambridge Science Festival

Thirty volunteers from EMBL-EBI and their next-door

neighbour, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, took

2000 people through an array of activities at the 2007

Cambridge Science Festival in March. This time, the

children were invited to investigate all things big and

small, from giant ladybirds and monsters in the plant

world to tiny pollen grains. The Cambridge Science

Festival is one of the most popular science events in

the UK with plays, exhibitions, demonstrations and

workshops for the whole family to make science and

technology more accessible – for big and small.

A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF EMBL

2007Ragna Schirmer, one of Germany’s most renowned

young piano artists, gave a concert featuring Bach’s

Goldberg Variations in EMBL Heidelberg’s large

Operon on 19 April. The recital was part of the

international music festival ‘Heidelberger Frühling’,

which for the first time ever entered into a collabora-

tion with EMBL. More than 300 guests found their

way up the hill for the concert. Instead of paying an

entrance fee, visitors were asked for donations for

the aid organisation ‘Helfer ohne Grenzen’ which

supports orphans, refugees and impoverished

families in crisis regions.


Science on Stage

Around 500 science teachers from 27 European

countries took part in the second EIROforum’s

‘Science on Stage’ festival, held in Grenoble from

2-6 April 2007, which was also attended by the

EMBL-based ELLS team. The large-scale festival

was full of spectacular experiments and examples

of innovative teaching methods. The organisers put

together a four-day programme of parallel sessions,

with workshops and presentations ranging from

‘Motivation in Science’, to ‘Physics Experiments at

Less Than 1 Euro’ and ‘How to Surprise Leonardo

and Einstein’.

April

Eleven-year-old Eva Heinzmann joined Mustafa

Uyguner, EMBL Heidelberg’s main housekeeper, and

his colleagues for ‘Girls’ Day’ at the end of April. Her

visit was part of a national initiative to give school-

girls a taste of what are thought to be traditionally

‘male’ jobs. Eva, who attends the Realschule in near-

by Wiesloch, spent a busy day helping to refurbish

labs and painting columns with Andreas Schlecht –

a challenge that she clearly enjoyed.

Girls’ Day at EMBL

Piano recital at EMBL

120

World’s biggest microtubule

As a result of the chim-

ney design competition,

the world’s biggest

microtubule now stands

at the back of the main

lab in Heidelberg. It has

two shades of EMBL

green with red dots

representing the protein

Mal3p. And it is probably

the only microtubule so

easy to spot with the

naked eye.

A Year in the Life

of EMBLMay

Breaking through the glass ceiling

Things are getting better, but gender imbalance is

still a major problem in science, especially in top-

level positions. What can be done? This question

was the focus of a two-and-a-half day conference,

‘Women in Science: The Way Forward’, held at

EMBL Heidelberg on 9-11 May. More than 270

participants attended the event with contributions

from scientists, psychologists, representatives of

renowned institutions and grant agencies. The

conference was organised as part of the EU

project SET-Routes, a collaboration between

EMBL, CERN and EMBO to encourage more girls

to pursue a career in science, engineering and

technology (SET).

AR_08_Calendar_H.qxp:AR05_06_labnotebook_Anna 02.06.2008 17:50 Uhr Seite 120


June

EMBL Hamburg in the EU spotlight

EMBL Hamburg was among the hosts of the

EU’s annual European Conference on Research

Infrastructures (ECRI 2007) on 5-6 June. Several

ministers, including EU commissioner Janez

Potočnik, heard talks by EMBL DG Iain Mattaj and

EMBL-EBI Director Janet Thornton at the meeting

which took place on the DESY campus. The ECRI

meeting aims to provide valuable feedback for FP7

and Europe’s ‘roadmap’ of research infrastructures.

The origins of speech behaviour

The first ever EMBL Science and Society Symposium

organised jointly with EMBL-EBI, ‘Biology and

Language’, brought geneticists and cognitive

scientists together for some unusual and thought-

provoking talks. The afternoon-long symposium was

held at Robinson College in Cambridge, UK, and

focused on the evolution of language, the brain

processes underlying language, and biolinguistics,

among other topics. The attendees particularly

praised the way the various fields were presented

coherently to a mixed audience of scientists and

non-scientists.

Scientific cross-over

The first call for applications for EMBL’s new Interdisciplinary Postdoc (EIPOD) positions was issued in June.

EIPOD projects bring together scientific fields that are usually separate or that transfer techniques to a novel

context. After the 2007 selection round, which attracted 124 applicants, EMBL selected 15 EIPODs supported

by at least two labs from different units. With the new initiative, EMBL underlines its strong commitment to

promoting interdisciplinary research.

2007



July

EMBL presented its research profile to the interna-

tional gathering of scientists, policy makers, journal-

ists and members of the public at the 32nd annual

Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS)

congress, held in Vienna on 7-12 July. The FEBS

congress was a great opportunity to deepen the

knowledge of congress visitors about EMBL, to

recruit scientists and to seek new collaborations.

Scientists from Europe, the USA and Asia stopped

by at the EMBL stand to find out more about open

positions, scientific training possibilities and the

visitors programme.

EMBL expands to Australia

In July, council

delegates repre-

senting EMBL

offered Australia

associate mem-

bership in its

international

community.

Through its associate membership, Australia will con-

tribute to the diverse activities at EMBL by sending

early-career scientists to join EMBL as faculty and

postdoctoral and predoctoral fellows, while EMBL will

share with Australian institutions its renowned exper-

tise in research, training and research infrastructure

development. The membership officially started in

March 2008 and will initially last for seven years.

EMBL Summer Party

Scorching temperatures didn’t keep the guests away

from the Staff Association Summer Party 2007 at

EMBL Heidelberg. Around one thousand party atten-

dees enjoyed the delicious food, cocktails and rich

entertainment programme including attractions for

children, live bands and DJ music until the small

hours. A record sum of 3276 euros was raised during

the tombola for the Waldpiraten camp – a nearby

facility for children suffering from cancer.

EMBL advertises itself

2007



August September

New training facilities Science and socialising

Barcelona, the beautiful Catalonian capital, was the

predocs’ choice for their annual retreat this year. The

three days in September were filled with sightseeing,

socialising and, above all, science. As always, the

purpose of the retreat for the 50 attending students

was to exchange ideas, collect feedback on their

work and identify overlapping interests and ways to

collaborate.

EMBL’s old and new faces in Dresden

EMBL presented its activities with a stand at the

2007 ELSO meeting in Dresden. Visitors to the EMBL

stand were interested mainly in job opportunities and

information about its visitors’ programme. The meet-

ing was also an occasion for a get-together of EMBL

staff and alumni. The event was very well attended,

attracting alumni from all ranks, including former

EMBL DG Lennart Philipson.

Faculty retreat in Tivoli

This year, faculty

members old and

new chose sunny

Italy for their annual

retreat to exchange

ideas and hear

about each other’s

activities. The

meeting took place in the Grand Hotel Duca D’Este

in Tivoli, near Rome, on 19-20 September. The ten

new group and team leaders who had joined the five

EMBL sites just prior to the retreat also used the

meeting to present their projects and mingle with the

old hands.

EMBL busy at the BSR meeting

The brand new IT training suite at EMBL-EBI, with 40

permanent workstations and the option to double the

room’s capacity for an additional 40 laptop-based

users, was inaugurated in August. The emphasis of

the training provided at EMBL-EBI is to equip

researchers with the bioinformatics knowledge they

need to identify the relevant resources for their

areas of work. The training programme started in

September with an average of one course per

month.

Exhibiting at the 9th International Conference on

Biology and Synchrotron Radiation on 13-17 August

in Manchester, EMBL had the biggest, busiest stand

ever with extra sections devoted to the EU projects

Saxier and BIOXHIT, as well as the general display.

Members of the structural biology community from all

over the world dropped by to update themselves on,

among other things, the PETRA III project at EMBL

Hamburg.



October

EBI spreads its Wing

Prominent guests attended the official opening of the new East Wing on EMBL-EBI’s campus on 23 October, including UK Minster of State for Science and Innovation, Ian Pearson. The new wingwill enable EMBL-EBI to enhance its activities in its areas of research and to increase its staffcapacity, creating approximately 70 new positions. It offers modern office space, attractive areas and a new training suite.

First self-run ELLS event in Monterotondo

More than 60 teachers from all over Italy applied to

take part in the LearningLAB ‘Benefici e rischi delle

nuove tecnologie applicate al DNA’, the first course

organised by the European Learning Laboratory for

the Life Sciences (ELLS) in Monterotondo. During the

three-day course, 23 selected participants got an

overview of the newest molecular biology techniques

and some hands-on experience with isolating, modi-

fying and expressing genes. The course was a

promising debut for ELLS activities in Monterotondo,

with huge enthusiasm from both the attending teach-

ers and the speakers.



November

Attracting young talent

2007Accepted by EMBL’s council and rati-

fied by the parliament of Luxembourg,

the Grand-Duchy has officially joined

EMBL as the 20th member state in

November 2007. As a member state,

Luxembourg will benefit from the vari-

ous services and training programmes

that EMBL offers and will have access

to research facilities at the five EMBL outstations. By accept-

ing Luxembourg, EMBL doubled its size from its initial mem-

bership of ten states in 1974.

EMBL doubles its initial size

As it does every year, EMBL’s ELLS participated in

Germany’s biggest science festival, Science Days

2007. Twenty thousand visitors flocked to the event

at the Europa-Park in Rust, near Freiburg. With the

help of six pupils from the Bertha-von-Suttner school

in Ettlingen, ELLS ran a variety of hands-on activities

about DNA and protein. Hoards of young visitors

jumped at the chance to be like real scientists,

extracting DNA from bananas or protein from nuts.

Predocs’ choice

Repetitive biological phenomena from the molecular

to the macroscopic scale were the focus of the

9th International EMBL PhD Student Symposium,

‘Patterns in Biology: Organisation of Life in Space

and Time’ on 25-27 October at EMBL Heidelberg.

During the symposium, 18 leading scientists offered

insights into the ‘organisation of life in space and

time’ to participants from over 40 countries, among

them chemists, physicists and physicians.



January

Putting out feelers

In a trip to Turkey at the beginning of the year, EMBL

DG Iain Mattaj came a step closer to securing the

country’s official involvement with EMBL. His visit to

Izmir included meetings with representatives from

Dokuz Eylül University in Izmir and the Sabanci and

Bogaziçi universities in Istanbul. The group discussed

potential research and training collaborations

between Turkish scientists and EMBL.

PETRA III gets her top on

On a freezing 26 November, DESY, EMBL

Hamburg and a select group of VIPs braved the

cold to witness the ‘topping out’ of the experi-

mental hall of PETRA III, Hamburg’s new source

of brilliant X-ray light. The traditional Richtfest

welcomed German Research Minister Dr Annette

Schavan and Hamburg’s First Mayor Ole von

Beust to the DESY campus. The spectacular

synchrotron radiation facility opens in 2010/2011.

A night full of experiments

Isolating DNA from bananas and folding coloured

paper into an origami double helix were only two

activities that EMBL offered on its stand during

the first Long Night of Sciences in Heidelberg on

10 November. The response was overwhelming.

Several hundreds of people stopped at the EMBL

stand to puree the banana, assemble colourful

bracelets and ask countless questions about the

function of DNA, amino acids and the transcrip-

tion process. The experiments went on until

almost 2 am.

Physics meets biology

A workshop on Physical Biology on 17-18 January

was the result of EMBL teaming up with a group

of European laboratories to promote the interface

between physics and biology. Scientists from

Dresden and Paris got together with EMBL’s

François Nédélec at the Physical Biology Circle to

organise the informal two-day event, which encour-

aged students to present and discuss their work

with talks and posters, with minimum involvement

from senior scientists.



February

Haggis, whisky and more

Guests at the 2008 Burns Night celebration on

16 February had a good time with traditional Scottish

neeps, tatties and haggis. George Reid and Joe Lewis

(pictured) performed the address to the Haggis and

fellow Scot Iain Mattaj donned his nightshirt for a ren-

dition of ‘Holy Wullie’s Prayer’, before the assembled

throng was treated to some rousing numbers by the

Heidelberg & District Pipes and Drums bagpipe band.

After dinner, everyone got up for a spin around the

canteen in the ceilidh.

The EMBL stand attracted many visitors at the

annual meeting of the American Association

for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) on

14-18 February. It was also situated directly

opposite the European Commission’s booth

and received a lot of compli ments from the

European Commissioner for Science and

Research, Janez Potočnik, on its presentation.

EMBL has also attended several careers fairs

in a continuing drive to make itself better

known in Europe.

2008

EMBL at the Olympics of science conferences



EMBL-EBI opens its doors

March

April

EMBL-EBI held its annual Masters’ Open Day on

3 March in Hinxton. Open Days are designed for

bioinformatics-related Masters students from all

over Europe to come and learn more about the

institute and sample some of its services and

research. The day consisted of a series of lec-

tures providing the 83 visitors with an overview

of our activities, a brief summary of the EMBL

International PhD Programme and presentations

focusing on the various research areas. In future,

the Masters’ Open day will be held in November

to synchronise more closely with applications to

the EMBL International PhD Programme.

Prokofiev instead of PowerPoint

2008In a second cooperation with the International Music

Festival, Heidelberger Frühling, EMBL Heidelberg

hosted the violinist Arabella Steinbacher and pianist

Robert Kulek on 9 April with a recital comprising

works by Ravel, Prokofiev, Fauré and Poulenc. The

concert was initiated by EMBL’s Klaus Scheffzek.

More than 200 music lovers came to EMBL’s Operon

to listen to the prize-winning young artist.



City council inspects ATC

Heidelberg’s Oberbürgermeister

(Mayor), Dr Eckart Würzner, and

some representatives of the city

council visited EMBL on 27 March

to learn about the lab and the

progress at the Advanced Training

Centre (ATC). Iain Mattaj outlined

the current status of EMBL, and

the city council was given a tour of

the institute.

Train the teacher

An enthusiastic group of 17 high-

school teachers from Austria, Belgium,

Germany and Sweden took part in the

first ELLS LearningLAB ever held in

Hamburg. The course, entitled

‘Structural Biology: Deciphering the

Chemistry of Life’, included lectures

by EMBL structural biologists and a

scientist from Bayer-Schering Pharma

who gave a seminar on the use of

structural biology in the drug-design

process.

Girls take the initiative

Twenty girls and one boy between the ages of 10 and 16 came to

EMBL Heidelberg on 24 April to get an insight into what it is like

to work in a scientific institute. The young visitors spent time in

different EMBL sections, where they helped with experiments in

the labs, processed pictures in the Photo Lab, or prepared salads

in the canteen. The initiative was part of Girls’ Day, a Germany-

wide action to discover professions in which women are currently

underrepresented.


arcompressed

Documents