38th FEBS Congress round-up
FEBS programmes: updates
FEBS community news
FEBS publications
Scientific events calendar

CONTENTS
FEBS Congress Round-up
The 38th FEBS Congress 3
FEBS Medals and Awards 6
FEBS Young Scientists’ Forum 8
FEBS Congress Workshops 9
FEBS Congress Science and Society Lecture 12
FEBS Programmes: updates
FEBS Advanced Courses 2014 16
FEBS Education Workshops 17
FEBS–EMBO 2014 Conference, and FEBS YSF 18
FEBS Community News
Spanish (SEBBM) Society 20
Polish Biochemical Society 21
FEBS Publications
FEBS Journal 22
FEBS Letters 24
Molecular Oncology 25
FEBS Open Bio 26
Scientific Events Calendar 27
Career Opportunities 28
FEBS–EMBO 2014 Conference
30 August – 4 September 2014
Abstract submission from December 2013
Registration from January 2014 www.febs-embo2014.org
FEBS Young Scientists’ Forum
27–30 August 2014
Applications: 8 December 2013 – 31 March 2014 www.febs-embo2014.org
FEBS Advanced Courses
Applications for 2015 course funding: 1 March 2014
Applications to participate in 2014 courses: see individual course deadlines www.febs.org/index.php?id=86
FEBS Fellowships
Application deadlines:
Long-Term and Return-to-Europe Fellowships:
1 October 2013, then 1 October 2014
Summer Fellowships: 1 April 2014
Follow-up Research Fund
(for FEBS Fellows):
1 April 2014
Applications for other Fellowships can be submitted throughout the year www.febs.org/index.php?id=81
Cover: While this issue of FEBS News reports on the 2013 FEBS Congress in St Petersburg (pages 3–5), plans are already under way for next year’s big event – a joint anniversary conference with EMBO
(the FEBS–EMBO 2014 Conference), hosted by the French Society for Biochemistry and Molecular
Biology (see pages 18–19).
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The 38th FEBS Congress, held from 6th to 11th
July 2013 in St Petersburg, Russia, and organized by the Russian Biochemical Society, gathered over
2400 delegates from all over the world. As the host country, Russia was represented by over 850 attendees. Other well-represented countries included Turkey, Poland, Italy, USA, Germany, UK,
Czech Republic, France, Spain, Korea, Ukraine,
Portugal, Japan, Israel, Greece, The Netherlands,
Romania, Croatia, China, Hungary, Slovakia,
Switzerland, Austria, Serbia, Sweden, Canada and
Finland. In total, delegates from over 50 countries attended.
The cohort of invited speakers consisted of over
320 internationally renowned scientists, including
11 Nobel Laureates. We are grateful to all speakers who contributed to the event, resulting in an outstanding scientific program spanning all key areas of biochemistry, molecular biology, biotechnology, cell biology, biophysics and related fields. The motto of the Congress ‘Mechanisms in
Biology’ was well substantiated by lectures and talks delivered in almost 40 symposia and 18 plenary sessions. The number of invited speakers, and
Nobel Laureates in particular, made it possible for
Prof. Israel Pecht, FEBS Secretary General, to mention that this event could be regarded as two
Congresses!
The opening lecture was delivered by Jules
Hoffman, a 2011 Nobel Laureate, who told the story of how work on the Drosophila receptor Toll, and subsequent discovery of pathway homologues in other organisms, has reshaped understanding of innate immunity. The Congress Plenary Lectures – delivered by Geneviève Almouzni, Sidney Altman,
Aaron Ciechanover, Pavel Georgiev, Anna-Karin
Gustavsson, Jules Hoffmann, Robert Huber,
Roger Kornberg, Jean-Marie Lehn, Richard Lerner,
Susumu Mitsutake, Richard Roberts, Gottfried
Schatz, Joseph Schlessinger, Jack Szostak, Susumu
Tonegawa, Kurt Wüthrich, and Ada Yonath – should really become part of the annals of science.
All lectures were recorded and, after we receive written consent from lecturers, they will be placed on our website. Those who could not join us in
St Petersburg will then still be able to learn from these masterpieces of research.
The Congress program included many brilliant symposia, and we highlight just some here.
Congress Nobel Laureate speakers at St Petersburg:
(left to right, from top) Sidney Altman, Aaron Ciechanover,
Roger Kornberg, Jean-Marie Lehn, Jack Szostak,
Susumu Tonegawa, Kurt Wüthrich, Ada Yonath,
Robert Huber, Jules Hoffmann and Richard Roberts.
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CONGRESS ROUND-UP was delivered by Michael Sela
(Israel) whose pioneering research has contributed greatly to fighting autoimmune diseases; in addition, very informative presentations were made on targeted elimination of pathologic
B cells by new-generation compounds developed to treat autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis.
Indeed, the implications of molecular findings for understanding and treatment of disease were an interesting part of several symposia – from
‘Organization of Eukaryotic
Genomes’ (Chairs: Wendy
Bickmore and Sergey Razin; e.g. genome organization and disease development), ‘RNA
World’ (Chairs: Olga Dontsova and Eric Westhof; e.g. targeted drug design for bacterial ribosomal proteins), ‘Biocatalysis’
(Chairs: Alexander Gabibov and
Michael Blackburn; e.g. implications for future in silico metabolic pathways and applied pharmacokinetic research), and
‘Proteomics and Peptidomics’
(from top) Congress venue, Lenexpo, situated on the Gulf of Finland;
Congress poster session (photo by A. Payevsky).
(Chairs: Vadim Govorun and
Vadim Ivanov; e.g. co-existence of macro- and microorganisms and the fight between ‘self’ and ‘non self’).
Symposia on stem cells (Chairs: Clare Blackburn and
Alexey Tomilin), bioengineering (Chairs: Vladimir
Popov, Vytas Svedas and Marcel Wubbolts), neoplastic transformation (Chairs: Georgy Georgiev and Joseph Schlessinger), G protein signaling (Chairs:
Andrew B. Goryachev and Alfred Wittinghofer), molecular basis of autoimmunity (Chairs: Jean
A most important mission of FEBS Congresses is education. Despite revolutionary changes in telecommunication, modern science still requires direct contacts between scientists. Virtual communication cannot substitute for real discussion and live communication between a lecturer and
Francoise Bach and Ludvig Sollid), biochemistry of neurodegeneration (Chair: Michael Ugrumov), and biochemistry of vision (Chairs: Karl-Wilhelm Koch and Michael Ostrovsky) were well attended and attracted great interest from the audience.
A multisession symposium ‘Biochemistry for
Medicine’ (Chairs: Alexey Egorov, Oleg Kisselev,
Serhiy Komisarenko and Tomas Zima) focused on recent advances in treatment of cancer, autoimmune and metabolic diseases. One of the keynote lectures auditorium. A chance for young scientists to attend such a great event, to listen to world scientific leaders, to communicate with them in an informal atmosphere, and to widen the scope of their interests beyond their narrow field of research are excellent features of such Congresses.
FEBS supported attendance of young scientists at
St Petersburg in two ways. First, the main Congress was preceded by the Young Scientists’ Forum
(YSF), and 117 grants were awarded to talented
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CONGRESS ROUND-UP young researchers to enable them to attend not only the YSF but the main
Congress as well; second, 265 young
European scientists were awarded FEBS
Bursaries this year that covered the registration fee and hotel accommodation.
As scientists working in the country hosting the Congress are not eligible for
FEBS Bursaries, 198 grants were allocated by the Russian Foundation for Basic
Research to support young Russian scientists. Together with 529 scientists under 35 years of age who paid registration fees themselves at the young scientists’ rate (50% of the regular fee), the number of young researchers who attended the event was 1109. We consider this a real success and hope that the 38th FEBS Congress was useful for young people.
The Congress organizers received over
1900 abstracts that were published in electronic form as a Supplement to FEBS
Journal , and over 1450 abstracts were accepted for poster presentation during the Congress. As an integral part of the
Congress scientific program, we also included several satellite and companysponsored events, among them a Russia –
EMBL Symposium ‘Russia’s Cooperation with European Partners in Life Sciences’ and ‘NMR in biology’.
As many foreign visitors needed a
Russian entry visa to travel to
St Petersburg, special instructions were issued to all Russian Embassies/
“St Petersburg was a magnificent surprise – I really enjoyed it and am planning on returning at some time in the future.” Nigel Richards (USA)
“Scientifically, one should mention the fantastic plenary sessions which were mostly given by Nobel Laureates – brilliant, interesting and intensively attended. The program was intense and one had to think hard to which of all interesting sessions to go.” Elias Toubi (Israel)
Consulates, so that Congress participants could apply for an entry visa to Russia free
(from top) ‘Swan Lake’ scene from the Opening Ceremony; a Congress trip to The Hermitage; ‘White Night’ view of the River Neva; feedback quotes. of charge. We should confess, this bureaucratic procedure is not easy, but we did our best to provide help and support for all participants who needed it.
We hope that the 38th FEBS Congress will stay in the memory of all participants not only as a great scientific event but as a unique social and cultural experience. ‘Swan Lake’ ballet at the Opening participants to enjoy the beauty of world-famous art at a time when the museum was open for our guests only. We are deeply grateful to Prof. Mikhail
Piotrovsky, the Hermitage director, who provided
Congress participants with this unique chance.
Now, with the FEBS Congress flag transferred to representatives of the French Society for
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, we wish our
Ceremony, the Congress Dinner in the Peter-and-
Paul Fortress, tours in St Petersburg and to the nearby imperial palaces and parks of Peterhof and
Tsarskoye Selo in the high season of the White
Nights, and a post-Congress tour to Moscow presented the best of Russian culture. The night guided tour to The Hermitage allowed Congress colleagues in Paris every success in organizing the the FEBS – EMBO 2014 Conference and hope our experience will be helpful for them.
Alexander Gabibov
Marina Tretyak
Congress Organizing Committee
Photos, except where indicated otherwise, by Anna Novitskaya
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The Theodor Bücher Medal, the Datta Medal and the Sir Hans Krebs
Medal are awarded by FEBS for outstanding achievements in biochemistry, molecular biology or related areas. The medals are presented at the annual FEBS Congress, where the recipients deliver a plenary lecture.
This year’s medals were awarded at the 38th FEBS Congress, St
Petersburg to: Kurt Wüthrich, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla,
CA, USA (Theodor Bücher medal); Roger D. Kornberg, Stanford
University Medical School, Stanford, CA, USA (Datta Medal); and Richard J.
Roberts, New England BioLabs, Ipswich, MA, USA (Sir Hans Krebs Medal).
Kurt Wüthrich is the Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Professor of Structural Biology at The
Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA, and Professor of Biophysics at the ETH Zürich,
Zürich, Switzerland. He obtained his PhD degree in inorganic chemistry at the University of Basel, Switzerland, in 1964. In his postdoctoral training in the USA, he began to work with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, first at the University of California
Berkeley and then at the Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ. He moved to the
ETH Zürich in Switzerland in 1969, where he became Professor of Biophysics in 1980, and
Chairman of the Biology Department in 1995. Since 2001, he has shared his time between the ETH Zürich and The Scripps Research Institute. His research interests are in molecular structural biology and structural genomics. His specialty is NMR spectroscopy with biological macromolecules, where he contributed the NMR method of three-dimensional structure determination of proteins and nucleic acids in solution. Kurt Wüthrich’s achievements have been recognized by the Prix Louis Jeantet de Médecine, the Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology, the Nobel Prize in
Chemistry, and by a number of other awards and honorary degrees.
Congress plenary lecture: Structural genomics with soluble and membrane proteins
The Theodor Bücher Lecture and Medal is endowed by a generous capital gift from Frau Ingrid Bücher to the Gesellschaft für Biochemie und
Molekularbiologie (GBM) and is awarded for outstanding achievements in biochemistry and molecular biology or related sciences.
Roger Kornberg is Winzer Professor in Medicine in the Department of Structural
Biology at Stanford University, CA, USA. In his doctoral research, he demonstrated the diffusional motions of lipids in membranes, termed flip-flop and lateral diffusion. He was a postdoctoral fellow and member of the scientific staff at the Laboratory of
Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, from 1972 to 1975, where he discovered the nucleosome, the basic unit of DNA coiling in chromosomes. He moved to his present position in 1978, where his research has focused on the mechanism and regulation of eukaryotic gene transcription. Notable findings include the demonstration of the role of nucleosomes in transcriptional regulation, the establishment of a yeast RNA polymerase II transcription system and the isolation of all the proteins involved, the discovery of the Mediator of transcriptional regulation, the development of twodimensional protein crystallization and its application to transcription proteins, and the atomic structure determination of an RNA polymerase II transcribing complex. Kornberg’s closest collaborator has been his wife,
Dr Yahli Lorch. Kornberg has received many awards, including the Welch Prize (2001), the Leopold Mayer Prize
(2002) of the French Academy of Sciences, and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (unshared, 2006).
Congress plenary lecture: The molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription
The Datta Lectureship Award is provided by generous capital gifts from Elsevier Science Publishers and is awarded for outstanding achievement in the field of biochemistry and molecular biology or a related area. S. Prakash Datta was the first Managing Editor of FEBS
Letters (1968–1985) and Treasurer of FEBS (1964–1990). The Datta Medal is awarded in recognition of his many contributions.
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Sir Richard Roberts is the Chief Scientific Officer at New England Biolabs, Beverly, MA,
USA. He received a PhD in Organic Chemistry in 1968 from Sheffield University and then moved as a postdoctoral fellow to Harvard. From 1972 to 1992, he worked at Cold
Spring Harbor Laboratory, eventually becoming Assistant Director for Research under
Dr J.D. Watson. He began work on the newly discovered Type II restriction enzymes in
1972 and these enzymes have been a major research theme. Studies of transcription in
Adenovirus-2 led to the discovery of split genes and mRNA splicing in 1977, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1993. During the sequencing of the
Adenovirus-2 genome, computational tools became essential and his laboratory pioneered the application of computers in this area. DNA methyltransferases, as components of restriction-modification systems, are of great interest and the first crystal structures for the HhaI methyltransferase led to the discovery of base flipping. Bioinformatic studies of microbial genomes to find new restriction systems are a continuing interest. He is also leading an effort to improve the functional annotation of sequenced bacterial and archaeal genomes through the COMBREX project.
At present his main research focus involves using Pacific Biosciences SMRT sequencing to detect methylated sequence motifs in DNA, and bioinformatic methods to match these motifs to the DNA methyltransferase genes that produce them.
Congress plenary lecture: Bacterial methylomes
The Sir Hans Krebs Lecture and Medal was endowed by a generous gift from the Lord Rank Centre for Research and is awarded for outstanding achievements in biochemistry and molecular biology or related sciences.
The FEBS|EMBO Women in Science Award was presented at the 38th FEBS Congress,
St Petersburg to Prof. Geneviève Almouzni, Institut Curie in Paris, France. Geneviève
Almouzni’s career path and research were featured in the May 2013 of FEBS News , and her plenary lecture at the Congress is mentioned on page 11 of this issue.
Congress plenary lecture: The multifaces of chromatin assembly, a recipe that mixes new with old partners
The FEBS|EMBO Women in Science Award rewards the exceptional achievements of a female researcher in the life sciences over the previous five years. Winners of the award are role models who inspire future generations of women in science. The award is a statuette and a sum of € 10,000.
Nominations for the 2014 FEBS | EMBO Women in Science Award close on 15 October 2013.
For more information, see www.embo.org/funding-awards/women-in-science-award or www.febs.org/women-award .
The
prize for Young Scientists 2013 was awarded to Anna-Karin
Gustavsson, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The annual award is given to the graduate student or young post-doctoral research worker (no more than 3 years from the time of award of the PhD degree when the paper is submitted) who is the first author of a paper that is judged to be the best in FEBS Journal during the previous calendar year.
The
Young Group Leader Award 2013 was awarded to Dr
Susumu Mitsutake, Hokkaido University, Japan. The award is given to an independent scientist, aged 40 years or younger, who is the corresponding author of an outstanding research letter published in the previous calendar year.
Both prizewinners delivered plenary lectures at the 2013 FEBS Congress; read more on page 22 ( FEBS Journal prize) and page 24 ( FEBS Letters prize). Changes in the FEBS Publications Awards from 2015 are announced on page 23.
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This year’s FEBS Young Scientists’ Forum (YSF) took place in St Petersburg from 3rd to 6th July as a satellite meeting of the 38th FEBS Congress. The venue was the beautiful Russian Academy of
Sciences, located next to the River Neva. The presence of over 120 students and young post-docs
(~36% of the total applicants were selected) surrounded by sculptures and photographs of
Russian scientists, including Dmitri Mendeleev
(developer of the periodic table), linked the past to the present and made for an inspiring atmosphere.
FEBS provided a grant for the organization of the event, and funded the accommodation and most travel costs for YSF participants at both the YSF and the ensuing 38th FEBS Congress.
The local Organizing Committee of Alexey
Belogurov (Chair), Azad Mamedov (Co-Chair), Igor
Eliseev, Dounya Ghorab, Anna Golovina, Anna
Gonchar, Denis Ilyushin, Olga Ostroumova and
Ivan Smirnov was a pleasant and helpful group, whose problem-solving, enthusiasm and dedication turned the YSF into a very successful event. I should also mention that they were active in seeking extra financial support, in addition to the grant given by FEBS. One fun new idea this year from the Organizing Committee was a competitive game involving teamwork, solving of logical puzzles and scientific tasks, as well as a stroll in the beautiful centre of St Petersburg. The contestants were divided into several teams which had to perform four tasks with encrypted locations, such as using the single-letter amino acid code and restriction sites, building an antibody molecule from Lego, guessing different solutions, and so on.
The YSF participants showed a high level of interest and engagement in the scientific sessions of the event, exchanging ideas and asking speakers questions. Two eBook readers were awarded as prizes: for the best oral presentation and for the best poster. The first one went to Lilach Koren from the Israel Institute of Technology (Haifa), who gave a talk on ‘The role of the transcription factor ATR3 in cardiac hypertrophy’; and the poster prize went to Dani Osman (a FEBS Long-Term
Fellow from EPFL, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland) for his poster ‘An exhaustive atlas describing the morphological and functional properties of
Drosophila adult midgut compartments’.
Towards the end of the YSF, a career advice session was organized for discussion mainly of possibilities for post-doctoral funding, and this received much attention from the YSF participants.
The panel consisted of Dr Alan Craig (EU Mobility programs), Dr Andrea Hutterer (EMBO programs),
Dr Keith Elliott (how to write a CV), Prof. Vicente
Rubio (FEBS Fellowships) and myself (FEBS activities).
Next year’s YSF will take place in Paris just before the FEBS – EMBO 2014 Conference; see page 19 to find out more.
Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada
Chair, FEBS Working Group on the Careers of Young Scientists
(top) Poster session, with Alice Verchère (2014 YSF Organizer);
(middle) prizewinners Lilach Koren and Dani Osman (see main text); (bottom) speakers and organizer (see text) – Keith Elliott,
Robert Klose (EMBO plenary lecturer), Claudina Rodrigues-
Pousada, Alexey Belogurov and Vicente Rubio.
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The FEBS Science & Society session of the 38th
FEBS Congress was focused on personalized
(molecular) cancer medicine, a new approach allowing the development of therapies tailored to the patient on the basis of the genetic alterations carried by his/her cancer. The four lectures covered the scientific/medical and societal aspects of this topic, describing recent progress in approaches to prevention, diagnostics and treatment.
The first speaker, Dr Alexander Eggermont (Cancer
Center Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, Paris-Sud, France ) defined the objectives, namely providing the right drug to the right patient at the right time and at the right dose, and he said that this approach will have a strong influence on cancer prevention and diagnostics. He mentioned that success has been obtained especially in cases where a dominant (single) mutation is the main driver in a cancer. Targeted agents often produce impressive but short-lived responses that have little impact on survival. Innate as well as acquired resistance remains a problem with targeted drugs, and a rational strategy for drug combinations remains to be developed. He insisted on the fact that a very advanced bioinformatics infrastructure is needed to analyse the large amount of data generated per patient, and stressed the fact that the fundamental challenges with the development of targeted drugs with big impact on relatively small populations are far from being resolved.
Dr Serena Nik-Zainal (Wellcome Trust Sanger
Institute, Cambrige University Hospitals, UK) reported that huge progress in DNA sequencing technologies has allowed access to the entire genome of a cancer patient and has revealed ‘mutational signatures’ or imprints of the multiple mutagenic process operative in cancers, determined by the underlying sources of endogenous and exogenous
DNA damage and DNA repair. Studying the detailed architecture of cancer genomes reveals the complexity and heterogeneity between patients, and even within a single cancer patient. The detailed analysis of genomic data can provide a panoramic view of each person’s cancer and take us a step closer to tailored, individualized treatments.
Dr Anne-Lise Borresen-Dale (Institute for Cancer
Research, The Norwegian Radium Hospital, Oslo,
Norway) reminded the audience that breast cancer is a complex disease caused by accumulation of genetic alterations leading to a disturbed balance between proliferation and apoptosis, genetic instability and acquistion of an invasive and resistant phenotype.
Her team has analysed 1000 tumours using highthroughput genome-wide technologies and has generated data at several molecular levels, such as mRNA and miRNA expression, copy number alteration, DNA methylation, paired-end sequencing, protein expression and metabolic profiles. They were able to show that, by combining three or more molecular levels, patients could be classified into groups that provide the best predictive value with respect to prognosis, and they have identified key molecules and stromal signatures. By integrating data from the patient’s own phenotype with the multiple layers of data derived from the primary tumour, the different subclones within the tumour, as well as the metastases, they seek to reach a fundamental understanding of the biological dynamics of breast cancer. This should facilitate identification of risk factors, search for novel cancer diagnostics, prediction of therapeutic effects and prognosis, and identification of new targets for therapy, which should lead to a more personalized treatment of breast cancer.
Dr Cornelia Ulrich (Dept of Preventive Oncology,
National Center for Tumor Diseases, Heidelberg,
Germany) said that for a large number of cancers risk factors are well established, for instance dietary factors such as folate, which can have complex relationships to carcinogenesis and depend on genetic factors. Obesity is strongly linked to increased risks of cancers of the colon, breast (after menopause), oesophagus, liver and others. Energy imbalance and obesity can also directly lead to a chronic inflammatory status in the body, which can facilitate growth of tumours. In return, exercise, weight loss, or use of medications that reduce inflammation can inhibit carcinogenesis. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as aspirin, are protective against many cancers
(particularly of the gastro-intestinal tract), but can have side-effects, so one needs to define groups of individuals who are most likely to respond and have the least risk of adverse reactions. Therefore, developing personalized prevention strategies is important, which can be done through an assessment of lifestyle risk factors or by use of inherited genetic polymorphisms that influence
NSAID metabolism or response to these drugs
(pharmacogenetics). We are entering an era where prevention guidelines will be personalized to obtain the greatest benefits and lowest risks.
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The Congress organizers agreed to open this session not only to the registered Congress participants, but also to the public; however, it is difficult to tell how many people took advantage of this.
Jacques-Henry Weil
Chair, Science and Society Committee
See page 12 for a transcript of the FEBS Congress
Science and Society Lecture
At the 38th FEBS Congress, the FEBS Education
Committee organised a workshop entitled
‘Molecular Life Sciences Education for the Needs of Industry’ as well as a poster session on education in molecular life sciences.
The workshop looked at scientific and generic skill requirements, such as communication and commercial awareness, for career success not only within but also outside of academia. Following a brief introduction by Keith Elliott (FEBS
Education Committee), the talks of the workshop
(see box) presented three perspectives on this topic: industry’s needs (what does an industrial company look for in its recruits?); how academic research could be developed into applied science and commercialisation; and the university perspective
( how can students be prepared for the needs of industry?). At the end, there was an opportunity for open discussion between the speakers and the audience to share experiences – for example, how different countries tackle the problems and how industry and academia can work together.
Prof. Ruth Arnon’s inspiring illustration from the
Weizmann Institute of Sciences set an excellent example of how academic research could impact on industry. Prof. Detlev Riesner pointed out that the percentage of PhD holders being recruited in universities was relatively low: though figures differ between countries, in Germany, for example, only
4% of PhD graduates were finally recruited as professors, and 2.5% as permanent staff. The rest
(93.5%) pursued careers outside universities. These overwhelming figures stressed very well the need for collaboration between universities and industry.
It was also agreed that universities should plan ways of preparing students for industry, for which Prof.
Tomas Zima from Charles University First Faculty of Medicine described an excellent working model.
This workshop was very well attended, with around 100 participants at all career stages and with representatives from both industry and academia.
We hope it not only inspired university academic staff to work more on the issue of industrial collaboration, but also motivated young scientists to think more effectively about the translational potential of their research. Wiley-Blackwell (the
Lectures at the FEBS Education Congress Workshop
Detlev Riesner (Heinrich Heine University of
Düsseldorf; and Qiagen, Germany) ‘What the industry expects from molecular life sciences graduates’
Ruth Arnon (Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot,
Israel) ‘From basic research to applied science’
Tomas Zima (Prague University 1st Faculty of
Medicine, Czech Republic) ‘How medical schools prepare students for the industry’ publishing partner for F EBS Journal ) offered book chapters on subjects related to the workshop through a website linked to the FEBS education platform and the workshop participants were able to download these chapters.
The poster session involved all posters related to education in molecular life sciences and provided an interactive platform for discussion. Some of the interesting posters presented were: ‘European funding for talented life scientists from anywhere in the world’ (European Research Council, Brussels,
Belgium), ‘Careers and Research Performance of
PhD Program Graduates of Health Sciences in
Turkey’ (Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir), ‘Why
Iranian students prefer doctoral education in
Turkey’ (Hacettepe University Ankara, Turkey), and
‘Promoting deep learning in biochemistry by diversifying assessment strategies – experience at the university of Hong Kong’ (University of Hong
Kong, Pokfulam). We look forward to receiving more and more posters on education in future FEBS
Congresses.
Finally, in the traditional collaborative activity between the FEBS Education Committee and the
Young Scientists’ Forum (YSF), Keith Elliott provided CV advice to 35 YSF participants, which we hope will help the young scientists in their bright future careers.
We thank all those who contributed to the success of these FEBS education events in
St Petersburg and look forward to meeting with you in future FEBS Education workshops.
Gül Güner Akdoğan
Chair, FEBS Education Committee
For a report on the FEBS Education workshop in Gdansk in July
2013, and details of future education workshops, see page 17.
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FEBS has developed events aimed at raising awareness of gender issues in science. In general these events reinforce the need for equal work opportunities, and provide career support and motivation to young scientists. At the 38th FEBS
Congress, there was the FEBS|EMBO Award and
Plenary Lecture, the Women in Science Career
Lunch, and the Women in Science (WISE) Seminar.
FEBS | EMBO Women in Science Award 2013 and Plenary Lecture
The FEBS|EMBO Women in Science Award rewards the exceptional achievements of a female researcher in the life sciences. Winners of the award are role models who inspire women in science.
Dr Cecília M. Arraiano gave a welcome in the name of FEBS and introduced the event, and Dr
Gerlind Wallon, Deputy Director of EMBO, provided a short description of the selection procedure and historical background to the award, which is jointly sponsored by FEBS and EMBO.
Dr Olga I. Lavrik, Head of the Laboratory of
Bioorganic Chemistry of Enzymes at the Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine,
Novosibirsk, Russia, gave a few words of motivation focusing on the role of Russian women working in science.
Dr Giacomo Cavalli, Investigator at the Institute of Human Genetics in Montpellier, France, was the nominator of this year’s winner, and gave a short laudation preceding the Plenary Lecture. The awardee of the FEBS|EMBO Women in Science Award 2013 was Dr Geneviève Almouzni, Deputy Director of the Institut Curie in Paris, and the title for her talk was ‘The multifaces of chromatin assembly, a recipe that mixes new with old partners’. She gave an excellent lecture on her recent studies describing the underlying molecular mechanisms of chromatin.
Women in Science Career Lunch
A women’s career lunch was organized at the
Congress site for 50 people (registrations for the event took place at the FEBS information desk).
The participants came from a great variety of
European countries. Career-related issues were discussed in small groups, each consisting of one or two female senior scientists plus younger scientists, and p articipants even exchanged addresses.
The Women in Science (WISE) Seminar
Dr Cecília Arraiano introduced Dr Elizabeth
Pollitzer, who gave the Women in Science Seminar
(from top) Geneviève Almouzni, delivering her plenary lecture;
Cecília Arraiano and young scientists at the WISE career lunch. at this Congress. She is Director of the genSET programme ( www.genderinscience.org
), an initiative run by Portia Ltd, which builds on the achievements of the now completed FP7-funded project. Portia Ltd UK is responsible for the
European Gender Summit programme development and scientific content. The title of her talk in St Petersburg (of interest to men and women) was: ‘We need to talk about sex’. In her talk she used as an example the experience of genSET in trying to challenge scientists’ unquestioned adherence to the concept of ‘gender neutrality’. The well-attended seminar was followed by a discussion among the audience, and men and women talked about gender issues, especially in various cultural backgrounds. This event received very positive feedback from both the junior and more senior participants.
These FEBS Women in Science events at the
Congress contributed to raising awareness of gender differences. The participants were able to reflect on this matter, focusing on the position of women in science and society. Unfortunately, due to the present situation it is expected that these events still have to continue…
Cecília M. Arraiano
Chair, FEBS Working Group on Women in Science
11
FEBS News September 2013

CONGRESS ROUND-UP
One of the more exciting lectures delivered during the 38th FEBS Congress was the FEBS Science and
Society Plenary Lecture by Gottfried (Jeff) Schatz.
A transcript of this engaging and thought-provoking talk has kindly been prepared by Jeff for this FEBS
News issue and is presented below. We wish to use this opportunity to repeat our deep appreciation of his continuous support of and involvement in different FEBS activities.
Gottfried Schatz is renowned for his work on mitochondrial biogenesis and mitochondrial DNA.
His early research was carried out in Austria, but he moved in the late 1960s to Cornell University, New
York. He returned to Europe to join the newly established Biozentrum of Basel University in the
1970s, and in the 1980s chaired this centre and in parallel became
Secretary General of
EMBO. He has also presided over the Swiss
Science and Technology
Council. Alongside his research papers, he has published three volumes of scientific essays and the autobiography
Feuersucher .
Gottfried Schatz at the FEBS
Congress, St Petersburg.
Israel Pecht, FEBS Secretary General
s
Forty-five years ago, when I was about the same age as many of the young scientists here in this lecture hall, I said goodbye to Europe and left my native Austria for the
United States. My wife and I took along everything we had, because we were the proud owners of
Green Cards and free to decide whether to stay in the US for good or to come back to Europe. In fact, we were quite sure that we would never come back, but end our days as tax-paying, lawn-mowing, and hamburger-eating Americans.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with this part of the story.
Young scientists should move around and 45 years ago the dream of a strong Europe was still a dream and Austria was still a scientific backwater. What is wrong with the story is the follow-up.
When a group of students recently asked me whether I would do the same thing again if I were young now, I did not have to think long about the answer. My answer was
‘probably yes’ – in spite of all the problems our American colleagues have to put up with these days.
Why is Europe, after 45 years of political unification and economic growth, still not as attractive a place for young scientists as we had hoped? What is holding us back?
My list of complaints is long, so
I will mention only the three most important ones: antiquated universities, top-down research funding, and unwillingness to take risks.
The universities are at the top of my list. They should be places of science, but most of them are now little more than a bureaucratic collection of professional training schools. Our politicians and our society expect from them mainly one thing: to train experts for the job market. Most universities are now officially autonomous, yet do not have long-term budgets nor the freedom to define what they should and should not teach; instead, these important decisions are often made by politicians and administrators who choke us academics with a torrent of paperwork. And very few universities are allowed to select their students in order to define the level of excellence they wish to represent. During my four years as president of the Swiss Science and
Technology Council I learned firsthand just how far universities are from making science their number one priority. In those countless meetings on university reform I had to sit through, we talked about money, political governance, and organization – but never about science. In fact, the word ‘science’ never even came up. Someone accidentally stumbling into our conference room might well have thought that we were talking about the Swiss railroad system or the federal pension plan. And when our Science Council suggested specific reforms, one of the university rectors sent me a stern letter in which he admonished me that scientists should not meddle in university affairs. This letter is such a succinct summary of what is wrong with our universities that I had it framed and hung on my office wall. A good administration is important for science, but these days administrations are getting out of hand. They try to organize and coordinate everything. But we must always keep in mind that organization is the enemy of innovation – and coordination the enemy of motivation.
Science is a permanent revolutionary. If our universities want to be places of science, they should be breeding grounds of new
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FEBS News September 2013

CONGRESS ROUND-UP and even revolutionary ideas – they should be ticking intellectual time bombs. Yet, they are now among our most rigid and most conservative institutions. As long as our universities do not make science their top priority, they also cannot act as a credible voice of science for the general public. As a result, Europe lacks a strong voice of science. The course of
European science is now heavily determined by politicians and administrators, often with grave consequences. Let me quote to you what a famous scientist has said about this problem: “It is essential for men of science to take an interest in the administration of their own affairs or else the professional civil servant will step in – and then the Lord help you.” The scientist who said this was the great physicist Lord Ernest
Rutherford. And even though he said it more three-quarters of a century ago, his words ring as true today as they did then. The appointment of Ann Glover as
Chief Scientific Adviser to the
President of the European
Commission is a very welcome new development, but it does not relieve our universities from their duty to act as strong voices of science in their respective countries.
If our universities are to be places of science, they must be a steady source of new ideas. But how do new ideas come about?
Why do some of us see what everyone sees, but think what nobody has thought before? I do not know the answer, but the history of science teaches us that truly novel ideas rarely come from institutions or organized groups.
They come from talented single individuals. Perhaps these individuals have retained the naive and playful curiosity that prompts children to put a hat on backwards or to invent funny new words.
Perhaps it needs this childlike playfulness to discover intuitively that the path from A to C, which everybody is looking for, does not lead via B, but via X or Z. New ideas come from people who dare to challenge accepted dogmas and to swim against the current. And only those who swim against the current can discover new springs of knowledge. This playful and intuitive aspect of innovative research may explain why most scientists have their best ideas before they turn 40.
Mathematicians generally have them before the age of 30 – or even 25. I am convinced that this also holds for the Humanities, as long as one considers creativity and not merely productivity.
How does one recognize a truly original idea? One recognizes it by the fact that it surprises us. The more original the idea is, the greater is our surprise. This is also true of works of art, because art and science draw from the same mysterious springs deep inside us that define our individuality. New ideas grow best in flat hierarchies, which ignore age and official rank, but put a premium on talent, motivation and success. Hierarchy and power impede the free competition of ideas. That’s why they are deadly enemies of science
– and that’s why we must control them very carefully at our universities. The ideal environment for the birth of new ideas is a
‘controlled chaos’, and there are not many scientific leaders that can set up and maintain such a volatile and fragile environment. If we older professors decide what our young staff must work on, we inhibit new ideas. At the ideal university, it should be difficult to distinguish the teachers from the students. Both should do research and learn from one another. The experience and the international connections of older professors are important, but in science – as in art
– the naive optimism of youth is often wiser than the experience of age.
After this brief detour to the essence of science and innovation, let me come back to our universities. Most of them stifle their young faculty by rigid and antiquated hierarchies. That’s why returning to Europe after a postdoctoral period in the US can be a nightmare of ill-defined positions, uncertainty, and scientific dependence. Many early academic positions are for a limited term and cannot be extended.
When they run out, they leave the young scientist out in the cold.
Permanent assistantships are worse, because they trap young researchers in a state of intellectual dependence. Even the last stage in this academic hurdle race can be touch and go. Vacant professorships are often filled within the same narrow specialty through murky selection procedures, and all too often the successor – surprise, surprise – turns out to be a former student of the retiree. Young scientists also face the problem that different
European universities can have widely different career structures so that moving from one country to another can throw you back for years and endanger your career.
This state of affairs is a real shame
– not only because it is unfair to
Europe’s scientists, but also because it makes European universities lose out in the competition for the world’s best young brains. Many of America’s or Asia’s young scientific stars are reluctant to accept junior positions at European universities because these offer such uncertain career prospects.
There is no ideal academic career system, but one that has proven its worth is the American tenure track system. I have found that many young scientists, European university rectors or science bureaucrats have only a fuzzy notion of this system, so let me briefly explain it even though I may
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FEBS News September 2013

CONGRESS ROUND-UP bore some of you. ‘Tenure’ means
‘permanent appointment’, and the essence of the tenure track system is to fill all junior academic positions at the level of an independent, fixed-term assistant professor, to promise permanent appointment to those who will do well – and to fire those that won’t. It’s ‘up or out’ .
This ‘up or out’ system is tough, yet transparent and fair. American universities have been using it for decades with great success and many top European institutions have also adopted it. Like any successful product, though, the tenure track concept constantly has to fight against cheap imitations – and Europe leads the world in cooking up fake tenure track systems. The crudest fake is to hire several people and let them all compete for the same permanent position. That’s a great way to poison a department’s atmosphere
– and to kill careers. Other fake tenure track systems, such as the
German Junior Professorships, do not reward success by a permanent position. No matter how well the young professor did, at the end it’s often the famous Arnold
Schwarzenegger phrase “Hasta la vista, baby”. At the other extreme, many French junior positions offer permanence right from the start. I sometimes wonder who dreams up these bizarre schemes.
Tenure track is not a perfect system. It only works if the university works because it is, in fact, an in-house promotion system. Tenure track needs a strong and long-term academic leadership that can plan vacant positions in advance, because for every assistant professor hired today there must be a vacant permanent position five to seven years down the road. Tenure track also needs an efficient selection system for junior scientists, because choosing a young and still little known researcher is much trickier than going for an international star. Very few of our universities are good at rigorous and fair selections. Our faculties,
God bless them all, are usually too heterogeneous, too inefficient, and too political, and small university institutes are too vulnerable to influence peddling by powerful individuals. Selection and promotion of assistant professors is best handled by well-run, large departments or long-term, independent deans. Tenure track also demands that mandatory retirement function properly. If permanent professors refuse to retire, as now often happens in the
US, the system clogs up, because inflow and outflow no longer match. The same is true if tenure is being awarded too generously. A wise university leadership will always aim for a healthy mix of tenured and untenured faculty.
Another major deficiency of most European universities is the lack of genuine graduate schools.
As matters stand now, a professor is usually free to accept anybody for a PhD thesis as long as the applicant has fulfilled the formal course requirements and passed the obligatory exams. After that, professor and student are largely on their own. The graduate students have few if any obligations to attend advanced lectures on different subjects in order to broaden their scientific horizon. As a result, many of them get a very narrow training and know little outside their specialty.
In many cases, the professors use their graduate students as cheap labour with the result that the student may spend five, six or even eight years on the thesis.
Many of these problems can be addressed by an international graduate program.
In such a program, vacant PhD student positions are advertised internationally and applicants are not selected by single professors, but by a graduate selection committee. The successful applicants are then free to ask one of the professors to accept them as a graduate student. Furthermore, the progress of the thesis research is monitored at least twice per year by a graduate committee chosen by the student. The graduate committee also checks whether the student fulfils the requirement of attending advanced lectures on different topics. This system prevents a single professor from abusing a student or hiring lowquality students and makes graduate work a privilege rather than a right. Because the selected students can choose their professor, graduate schools also inject an element of healthy competition into the professorial ranks. Such graduate programs have been very successful for decades at US universities and are now slowly being adopted by many of
Europe’s top research institutions.
They should become the standard at all European universities. Many of these claim to have a graduate program, but on closer look it often turns out that these programs lack some of the key features I just mentioned; they are only cheap imitations that won’t do the job.
Europe’s research grant system has long been another hurdle for young scientists. Those who have returned to Europe from a postdoctoral period abroad want above all the freedom and the means to follow their own ideas.
Chances are that this will be the period in their career during which they will have their best ideas. But no, the European Framework
Programs force them to join a research network managed by older scientists. These network grants also demand a well-defined research goal. About a decade ago, university researchers were so fed up with the Framework Programs that they pushed for a separate agency that would fund basic research purely on scientific merit.
This agency is now in place: it is
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FEBS News September 2013

CONGRESS ROUND-UP the European Research Council. It is still underfunded, but a huge step in the right direction. Its philosophy and the way it awards grants have earned it high praise from the scientific community.
Now we must fight to expand and strengthen this program.
But changing Europe’s institutions is not enough. The young scientists – and that means you – must also change. During my years as president of the Swiss
Science Council, I toured Swiss universities and campaigned for abolition of the outmoded
Habilitation and life-long assistantships, and for a general adoption of the tenure track system. I had expected enthusiastic support from the young academics, but was shocked and dismayed to learn that many of them were against me. Tenure track scared them because it does not guarantee them a permanent job. And the fact that unsuccessful assistant professors would have to leave the university seemed to them completely unacceptable. After one of my presentations on tenure track, a young assistant came up to me and said: “I am not interested in becoming a professor and worrying about research grants; I only want a permanent job so that I can work in peace”. I replied that if that’s what he wanted, a university was no place for him. Universities need ambitious and dynamic people that want to discover new things and shake the world. And after one of my talks on international postdoctoral programs, a young woman was infuriated by my assertion that scientists should go abroad after their PhD degree. “Who are you to tell me that I should pack up my kids and leave my home?” she shouted. My reply was that nobody had forced her to go into science or to have children and that I knew many scientists, both male and female, who did have children and still managed to have a successful postdoctoral stay abroad.
In the end, scientific talent is a matter of character – and the most important qualities of a successful scientist are courage, passion and patience. It takes courage and passion to challenge dogmas and to take on a risky project. And it takes patience to see a project through when it keeps stalling for months or even years. Science is no place for the timid. Young scientists should venture abroad in order to learn new ways of doing things and to prove to themselves and others that they can also succeed in an unfamiliar environment. Our international postdoc system is the bird migration that selects those that can stand up to the tough demands of academic research. It keeps our science system healthy.
That’s why I have always opposed postdoc fellowships that include a guarantee of return plus the corresponding salary for a position back home. Instead of such a guarantee, there should be ample independent junior positions, preferably with tenure track, which are open to international competition. The American scholar
John A. Shedd has said it as follows:
“A ship in harbor is safe; but that’s not what ships are made for”.
Even though new scientific ideas nearly always come from individuals and not from groups, science as a whole is very much a communal effort. It needs the generous sharing of ideas and the willingness to help others. And it very much needs the understanding, the goodwill, and the support of the general public. Unfortunately, our science system now selects for the overambitious, the selfcentered, and the overly aggressive.
I cringe every time I read an ad for an open position that says ‘We are seeking an aggressive young individual who can do this or that’.
This attitude flies in the face of science and weakens our profession. We scientists also have an obligation to explain to the public what we do with their money, and why we do it. If you refuse to participate in visits to high schools, in public discussions on science, or in organizing your institute’s annual Day of the Open
Door, you endanger science and, in the long run, your own future. And if you look down on colleagues who go into science politics or run scientific organizations, you are not only a snob, but also short-sighted.
Europe’s science is often so badly run because so few of Europe’s best scientists are willing to run it.
Science needs courage, passion and patience; but it also needs selflessness, modesty and generosity.
If you are one of the young scientists for whom I am giving this talk, you are now at a stage where academia may confront you with all kinds of injustice, unfairness, arrogance, and plain stupidity. Do get angry, and do keep your anger alive until the time when you can improve matters. Too many of us forget what made us angry in our youth and then lose interest in doing something about it when we could. Remember that science hates people who are content with the way things are. And remember also that new rights and new freedoms are never offered for free, but that one must fight for them. If you want Europe’s science to be as good as it should be, you must fight to improve it – but not with noisy street parades or by breaking institute windows, but by astute and patient political lobbying. There is much Europe and our universities must do for you, but there is also much you must do for yourself.
Gottfried Schatz
Gottfried.Schatz@unibas.ch
PS. Many of the ideas discussed here can be found in the book Jeff’s View on
Science and Scientists (2005) Elsevier,
Amsterdam.
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FEBS News September 2013

FEBS PROGRAMMES: UPDATES
Continuing the tradition of FEBS, here we provide you with a first announcement of FEBS-funded
Advanced Courses for 2014. Please also keep an eye on the Advanced Courses section of the FEBS website, where further details about these events are gradually being added, and where a few more courses will be announced later in the year. Science is a truly international endeavour – the courses reflect this by taking place at interesting locations in very different regions of Europe, and bringing together scientists from many countries.
The FEBS 2014 Advanced Courses encompass topics of much current interest and we sincerely hope they will serve the scientific community with education of young scientists and will also provide a forum for discussions and for forming new contacts and collaborations. To assist participation of early-career postdoctoral scientists and PhD students in the events, a limited number of FEBS
Youth Travel Fund (YTF) grants are available for most courses. Further details on this will be available from the individual course websites or course organizers, and please also refer to the YTF section of the FEBS website.
Applications to organize future FEBS Advanced
Courses are invited from scientists who have an international reputation and commitment to teaching, and who are keen to share knowledge of their field. Full guidelines about submitting an application can be found on the FEBS website.
Note there will be only one call for applications for funding of courses that will take place in 2015: the applications deadline for 2015 course funding is
1 March 2014 .
Beáta G. Vértessy
Acting Chair, FEBS Advanced Courses Committee
Advanced Proteomics
Varna, Italy
3–9 August 2014
Course Organizer: Bernhard Kuster kuster@tum.de
360° Lysosome: from Structure to Genomics, from Function to Disease
Izmir, Turkey
23–28 October 2014
Course Organizer: Eser Sozmen eser.sozmen@ege.edu.tr
Advanced Methods in Macromolecular Crystallization VI
Nove Hrady, Czech Republic
20–27 June 2014
Course Organizer: Ivana Kuta-Smatanova ivanaks@seznam.cz
Microspectroscopy: Functional Imaging of Biological
Systems
Wageningen, The Netherlands
2–11 September 2014
Course Organizer: Jan Willem Borst janwillem.borst@wur.nl
Ligand-binding Theory and Practice
Nove Hrady, Czech Republic
29 June – 6 July 2014
Course Organizer: Rudiger H. Ettrich ettrich@nh.cas.cz
Fundamentals of Modern Methods of Biocrystallography
Oeiras, Portugal
20–27 September 2014
Course Organizer Maria Arménia Carrondo carrondo@itqb.unl.pt
Biology of RNA in Host–Pathogen Interactions
Tenerife, Spain
26–29 January 2014
Course Organizer: Francisco Garcia-del Portillo fgportillo@cnb.csic.es
Lipids as Molecular Switches
Spetses, Greece
25–30 August 2014
Course Organizer: Bernd Helms j.b.helms@uu.nl
Decoding Non-coding RNAs in Development and Cancer
Capri, Italy
12–15 October 2014
Course Organizer: Sandro De Falco sandro.defalco@igb.cnr.it
ABC Proteins: From Multidrug Resistance to Genetic Disease
Innsbruck, Austria
8–14 March 2014
Course Organizer: Karl Kuchler karl.kuchler@meduniwien.ac.at
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FEBS News September 2013

FEBS PROGRAMMES: UPDATES
For several years now,
FEBS has been organizing
Biochemistry and Molecular
Biology Education
Workshops throughout the
FEBS area, in collaboration with Constituent Societies of FEBS. The latest workshop was agreed between the FEBS
Education Committee and the Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology, Gdańsk
(a joint centre of the
University of Gdańsk and
Medical University of
Gdańsk), with support from the Polish Biochemical
Society. It was run on the first day of an extended four-day event of scientific and training activities
(13 – 16 July 2013).
The target audience comprised PhD students, young scientists and academics involved in biochemistry and related biosciences, with an interest in understanding and teaching molecular evolution. Fifty people attended the event, mostly from Poland, 52% of them being graduate or masters students and 38% PhD students.
Speakers/facilitators at this workshop were Angel
Herráez (Alcalá University, Spain; and FEBS
Education Committee), Jarosław Marszałek
(Gdansk University, Poland), Juli Peretó (Valencia
University, Spain) and Dan Tawfik (Weizmann
Institute of Science, Israel). The lectures covered topics such as ‘Evolution: from modern to functional synthesis’, ‘Laboratory molecular evolution’, ‘Discussing the origin of life as an educational tool in biochemistry’ and ‘Teaching metabolism with an evolutionary flavour’. There was also a practical activity on ‘Molecular evolution illustrated using protein structure’ which was run in silico in a computer lab (see photo).
As is usual with FEBS Education Workshops, supporting documents, reading material and a discussion forum were made available to the participants via the online FEBS Education
Platform, both during and after the event.
Feedback was collected from the attendants using a short questionnaire, which denoted a high degree of satisfaction with the workshop (average level of overall satisfaction rated 4.4 out of 5).
A more detailed report can be accessed from the
Education section of the FEBS website, and the full program of the four-day event is available at http:// www.bss.ug.edu.pl/?tpl=schedule&lang=en .
Angel Herráez
FEBS Education Committee Member
Molecular Life Sciences Education: Tbilisi, Georgia; 8–9 October 2013
Topics include post-graduate education, problem-based learning, designing laboratory practicals, and skills for young scientists. The workshop will be preceded by a celebration of the reconstitution of the Georgian Society of Biochemistry.
Molecular Life Sciences Education: Sofia, Bulgaria; 22 November 2013
Topics include post-graduate education and scientific skills for young scientists (how to read and write a scientific article, how to write a research project proposal, how to write a CV). This is an opportunity to assess progress since an earlier FEBS education event with the Bulgarian Society of Biochemistry, in 2008.
For more details on both workshops, please visit the Education section of the FEBS website; for enquiries on education events, please contact Gül Güner Akdoğan ( gul.guner@deu.edu.tr
), Chair, FEBS Education Committee.
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FEBS News September 2013

FEBS PROGRAMMES: UPDATES
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FEBS News September 2013

FEBS PROGRAMMES: UPDATES
Next year’s FEBS Congress will take place as a joint anniversary event with the European Molecular
Biology Organization (EMBO) – as the FEBS – EMBO
2014 Conference . The event will be hosted by the
French Society for Biochemistry and Molecular
Biology (SFBBM), one of the oldest Constituent
Societies of FEBS, from Saturday 30th August to
Thursday 4th September 2014 at the Palais des
Congrès, Paris, France.
This exciting event will bring together scientists from across the world working on all aspects of the molecular life sciences. The unique collaboration will celebrate the 50th anniversaries of FEBS and
EMBO and the 100th anniversary of the French
Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. In a press release earlier in the year, Israel Pecht,
Secretary General of FEBS, commented: “It gives me great pleasure to welcome EMBO and the
French Society for Biochemistry and Molecular
Biology as partners for this life sciences conference that will take place in 2014. I believe the strengths of each organization will contribute to an outstanding event for all life scientists. It will also be an ideal opportunity to celebrate the achievements of all three organizations over the past decades.”
An enriching and topical scientific programme with depth and breadth is currently being built by the conference’s distinguished Programme Committee.
In addition to the core scientific lectures, there will be sessions on science policy, publishing, careers and education, as well as activities tailored specifically for scientists in the early stages of their careers. Abstract submission will start in December
2013, and registration will open in January 2014.
To explore all aspects of the conference, do visit its website, www.febs-embo2014.org
, which as well as providing general information includes links to speaker videos and conference social media. The next FEBS News issue will cover plans for the event in more detail, but we start here by introducing the preconference FEBS Young Scientists’ Forum
(YSF), whose application deadlines come first.
Since 2001, FEBS has held a Forum for pre- and post-doctoral scientists immediately preceding its annual Congress. Usually more than 100 young scientists are selected to take part in the event, where they can present their research work to an international audience, make friends, and exchange ideas in an informal atmosphere. FEBS financially supports the selected participants to take part in not only the YSF but also the ensuing Congress, so they can benefit from the different experiences that the
YSF and a large bioscience conference can offer.
The YSF a lso gives young scientists in the host country the opportunity to be responsible for local organisation of the event, which, while building on a proven format, keeps the event youthful and fresh. To read about the most recent FEBS YSF, in
St Petersburg, see page 8 of this issue.
Next year, the 14th FEBS YSF will take place from 27th to 30th August 2014 at CISP Maurice
Ravel in the beautiful city of Paris. Successful applicants will receive financial support for accommodation and travel for both the YSF and the FEBS – EMBO 2014 Conference. Applicants should be registered as a PhD student or be within
5 years of having completed a PhD, should submit an abstract to both the YSF and FEBS – EMBO
2014 Conference as first author, and be a member of a FEBS Constituent Society. Please refer to the
YSF section of the FEBS – EMBO 2014 Conference website for full eligibility criteria and other details.
The application period will open on 8th December
2013 and close on 31st March 2014.
With FEBS celebrating its 50th anniversary in
2014, and with an important focus of FEBS from its early days being the support of the next generation of scientists, this will be a very special
YSF for FEBS. I am firmly convinced that the Paris organizing committee led by Alice Verchère will put all their energy, know-how and imagination at the service of their colleagues in what should be a remarkable gathering of young scientists.
Claudina Rodrigues-Pousada
Chair, FEBS Working Group on the Careers of Young Scientists
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FEBS News September 2013

FEBS COMMUNITY NEWS
The XXXVI meeting of the
Spanish Society for Biochemistry and Molecular
Biology (SEBBM) gathered over 1000 participants in Madrid from 3rd to 6th September 2013 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of its foundation.
The Organizing Committee, chaired by Prof.
Margarita Salas, put together an exciting scientific programme, consisting of seven plenary lectures and three parallel symposia running in parallel across three days (focusing on ‘Structure and function of genes’, ‘Cell communication’ and
‘Molecular biomedicine’) and involving 36 speakers.
In addition, more than 100 oral communications were presented at the specific sessions organized by the thematic SEBBM scientific groups in the afternoons, and the lively poster sessions reached a record of 650 presentations. Topics covered in the different symposia and scientific group meetings were at the forefront of biomedicine and biotechnology, including: the relationship between cancer and metabolism; novel therapeutic targets; communication between cells; aging; plant adaptation to the environment; epigenetics; immune response and tolerance to disease; obesity; and cell reprogramming and therapy. It is worth noting that
SEBBM kept registration fees at very affordable prices ( € 150 for members) and provided a significant number of travel grants to encourage the participation of young researchers.
In addition to SEBBM, several foundations, companies and scientific societies supported the meeting by sponsoring plenary lectures, specific symposia and awards for young scientists.
Plenary speakers included Nobel Laureates Prof.
Brian K. Kobilka (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2012), who delivered the opening ‘Alberto Sols’ plenary lecture entitled ‘Structural insights into G -proteincoupled receptor signalling’, funded by Fundación
BBVA; and Prof. Sydney Brenner (Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine 2002), who recapitulated ‘60 years of molecular biology’ at the closing plenary lecture, funded by Fundación Ramón Areces.
FEBS was actively involved in the support of this meeting. A FEBS National Lecture entitled ‘Regulation of epidermal stem cell fate by intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms’ was given by Prof. Fiona Watt (Centre
(from left) Miguel Angel de la Rosa, Fiona Watt (showing
FEBS National Lecturer certificate) and Federico Mayor Jr. for Stem cells and Regenerative Medicine, King’s
College London), who was introduced by Prof.
Miguel Angel de la Rosa, past SEBBM President and current Vice Chair of FEBS. A FEBSsponsored Symposium session on ‘Pathogens and cell response’, coordinated by Prof. J.M Bautista, involved speakers from The Netherlands,
Switzerland, Portugal and Spain. Prof. Israel Pecht,
FEBS Secretary General, also addressed the participants before a plenary session to congratulate
SEBBM on this special occasion.
The inaugural session of the Congress was attended by Dr Carmen Vela, Secretary of State for
Research, Development and Innovation, and other top Spanish officials. This was followed by the
SEBBM 50th Anniversary Commemorative Session, in which the current SEBBM President, Prof.
Federico Mayor Jr, was joined by eight SEBBM past-Presidents to bring to mind the long journey initiated by a few pioneer scientists in 1963, which allowed consolidation and expansion of biochemistry and molecular biology in Spain.
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FEBS News September 2013

FEBS COMMUNITY NEWS
The SEBBM currently comprises nearly 4000 members from all major universities and research institutions, and is fully committed, particularly in these difficult times for science in Spain, to encourage top-level research, the careers of young scientists and dialogue between Science and Society, so our fellow citizens can ask our political leaders and representatives to support scientific activities as a priority. In this regard, the SEBBM organized satellite activities of the meeting throughout the city, such as the Entrepreneurship Forum, an
‘Introduction to Research’ workshop for undergraduate students, dissemination conferences for the general public in downtown Madrid, and an exhibition entitled ‘Molecules of life’ addressed to the young, in collaboration with the National
Museum of Natural History.
José Manuel Bautista (Universidad Complutense,
Madrid), Treasurer of the Organizing Committee
The 48th Annual Meeting of the
Polish Biochemical Society –
From DNA Structure to
Molecular Medicine – was held at
Nicolaus Copernicus University in
Toruń from 2nd to 5th
September. More than 460 scientists participated in three plenary sessions and 12 platform sessions, which covered a broad range of topics in biochemistry, bioenergetics, cell biology and biotechnology. The Keynote Speaker, Prof. Jan
Barciszewski from the Institute of Bioorganic
Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, gave an overview of catalytic nucleic acids applications in biology and medicine. A vivid discussion was evoked by the lecture ‘Legal and moral regulations in scientific studies’, by Prof. Andrzej Zoll, the former
Polish Ombudsmen, who was a special guest of the
Meeting.
Prof. Pekka Lappalainen from the Institute of
Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, Finland, received the FEBS National Lecture Award at the meeting. Prof. Lappalainen is an outstanding scientist in the field of actin cytoskeleton dynamics.
His studies concentrate on actin-binding proteins, which regulate actin assembly – disassembly, interactions of actin filaments with the plasma membrane and formation of supramolecular contractile structures in muscle and non-muscle cells.
(from left) Joanna Moraczewska, Pekka Lappalainen (showing
FEBS National Lecturer certificate) and Adam Szewczyk.
Prof. Lappalainen was introduced to the audience by the Chair of the Scientific Committee, Dr Joanna
Moraczewska. In his National Lecture, entitled
‘Assembly of contractile actomyosin bundles in motile cells’, he described his recent studies on localization and function of cofilin isoforms 1 and 2 in cardiac cells. He spoke about effects of cofilin 2 knockout on sarcomere formation and mentioned the correlation between congenital myopathies and mutations in cofilin. The FEBS National Lecture certificate was presented to the Lecturer by Prof.
Adam Szewczyk, FEBS Congress Counsellor.
Joanna Moraczewska
Chair of the Scientific Committee
FEBS celebrates its 50th Anniversary in 2014. One way FEBS is marking the occasion is by preparing an illustrated
’coffee-table’ book covering not just the history of FEBS but also plans for its future development. It is hoped that publication will coincide with the FEBS–EMBO 2014 Conference in Paris (30 August – 4 September).
Richard Perham, Chair of the Editorial Board of FEBS Journal , is editing this book in association with Mary Purton,
Executive Editor of FEBS Open Bio . Chapters are being written by current and past officers of FEBS and others closely associated with its various activities. We are also keen to hear from any members of the FEBS community who are interested in contributing short anecdotes, reflections or memoirs (up to 500 words) recalling any aspect of FEBS or participation in its events. Images (photographs, Congress posters, etc.) will be particularly welcome. If you do have a contribution, please contact Mary Purton at purton@camfebs.co.uk
.
21
FEBS News September 2013

FEBS PUBLICATIONS
FEBS Journal has published some outstanding Special Issues this year, and there are more in the pipeline for
2013. Special Issues include both reviews and regular research papers on a broad range of topics and we hope you enjoy reading them. Most recently, we have published:
Proteoglycans: signalling, targeting and therapeutics (May
2013) compiled by Nikos
Karamanos (University of
Patras, Greece) and Robert
Linhardt (Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute, New
York, USA)
Catalytic Mechanisms by
Biological Systems (June 2013) compiled by Marco Fraaije
(University of Groningen,
The Netherlands) and
Nigel Scrutton (University of Manchester, UK)
Myogenesis (September 2013) compiled by Pura Muñoz-
Cánoves (Pompeu Fabra
University, ICREA and
CIBERNED, Barcelona,
Spain) and Daniel Michele
(University of Michigan,
USA)
Look out for our Special Issue on Signalling , coming soon!
FEBS Journal does not chase an Impact Factor. We prefer to rely on the intrinsic interest and merit of the papers we publish. Nonetheless, we are delighted to announce a new Impact Factor of 4.250 for FEBS Journal this year. The rising Impact Factor and the extremely healthy readership of the Journal
(increasing year-on-year and exceeding 3 million downloads in 2012 alone) are public recognition of the interest and high quality of papers we are publishing.
We thank all authors, referees and Editors for their support and contributions to the journal.
It is with pleasure that we announce the appointment of a new member of the Editorial
Board of FEBS Journal : Dr
Sathees Raghavan, Indian
Institute of Science (IISc),
Bangalore, India. Dr Raghavan heads a team at the IISc working on areas of DNA double-strand break repair, non-B DNA structures, genomic instability, cancer biology and cancer therapeutics. More information about Dr Raghavan can be found on the FEBS Journal website .
The winner of this year’s FEBS Journal Prize for
Young Scientists is Anna-Karin Gustavsson of the
Department of Physics, University of Gothenburg,
Sweden for her outstanding paper: Gustavsson, A.-K., van Niekerk, D.D., Adiels, C.B., du Preez, F.B.,
Goksör, M. & Snoep, J.L. (2012) Sustained glycolytic oscillations in individual isolated yeast cells . FEBS J. 279: 2837 – 2847
Presentation of the F EBS Journal Prize for Young
Scientists to Anna-Karin Gustavsson by
Prof. Richard Perham, FEBS Journal Editor-in-Chief.
22
FEBS News September 2013

FEBS PUBLICATIONS
Anna-Karin Gustavsson described her prizewinning work in the FEBS Publications Awards plenary session at this year’s FEBS Congress in St
Petersburg, where she was awarded the prize of
€ 10,000 by Editor-in-Chief of FEBS Journal ,
Professor Richard Perham. We warmly congratulate her not only on her prize but on the excellent plenary lecture she delivered.
The latest FEBS Journal
Virtual Issue, on microRNA , published in
August 2013, was compiled by our Editor
Gunter Meister
(University of
Regensburg). It can be accessed via the Wiley
Online Library . It comprises a collection of papers on specific roles of miRNAs in different forms of cancer, stem cell biology, neuronal function or adipogenesis. In addition, the issue includes several publications that identified important mechanistic aspects of miRNA function, and review articles that discuss the fundamental roles of miRNAs in fibrosis and epigenetics.
Reviews and minireviews published in FEBS Journal cover a diverse range of topics. Review topics in recent issues are:
● FEBS J . 280, Issue 16: Engineering RNA-binding proteins; AMPK β in AMPK complex
● FEBS J . 280, Issue 15: ADP-ribosylation
(minireview series)
● FEBS J . 280, Issue 14: Telomere and telomerase
(minireview series); Heterochromatin during development
Reviews and minireviews can be read online and downloaded free of charge on the FEBS Journal website from the time of publication .
With best wishes from us all at FEBS Journal ,
Richard Perham, Editor-in-Chief
Vanessa Wilkinson, Editorial Manager
Malika Ahras, Deputy Editorial Manager
Giannina Bartlett, Editorial Assistant
Juanita Goossens-Roach, Editorial Assistant
FEBS Journal
FEBS Letters
FEBS has given careful consideration to the way in which it supports younger scientists through the prizes awarded to the authors of the papers judged to be the best of their kind published in FEBS Journal and FEBS
Letters each year. It has decided to adopt a new scheme from 2015 that will better complement the overall objectives of FEBS as a charitable organization dedicated to fostering biochemical research, education and scientific cooperation. In 2014, prizes will be awarded in the same way as now (with the recipients selected from papers published during 2013).
From 2015 , FEBS Journal will continue to award a prize every year to the paper judged by the Editors to be the most meritorious with a first author who is a post-graduate student or post-doctoral scientist of no more than three years standing since the award of the PhD Degree. The prize will consist of a personal gift of €1000 plus an invitation to present the work in a plenary lecture at the annual FEBS Congress.
FEBS Letters , on the other hand, will open its prize of €10,000 to the senior authors of all papers published in
FEBS Letters , regardless of the age or standing of the authors. The FEBS Letters prize will be awarded every other year, also with an invitation to present a plenary lecture at the corresponding FEBS Congress.
FEBS believes that this is a timely adaptation of its policy, taking into account an ever-growing financial need to care for the long-term support of the core activities of FEBS.
23
FEBS News September 2013

FEBS PUBLICATIONS
We hope you all had a great summer and managed to recharge your batteries for the second half of the year. As usual for this time of the year, July brought the FEBS Congress, this year in St Petersburg,
Russia. The highlight of the Congress for the journal was the FEBS Letters Young Group Leader
Award plenary lecture session. As you probably know by now, the prize was awarded to Dr Susumu
Mitsutake, Hokkaido University, Japan for his paper: Mitsutake, S., Date, T., Yokota, H., Sugiura,
M., Kohama, T. & Igarashi, Y. (2012) Ceramide kinase deficiency improves diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance . FEBS Lett . 586(9): 1300 – 1305 biochemical and biophysical mechanisms of vesicle budding and fusion, cellular regulation of vesicle fusion in exocytosis and synaptic transmission, and structural and functional organization of the Golgi apparatus. James is one of the most prominent researchers in cellular transport and we are looking forward to a productive and successful collaboration in the future.
Presentation of the FEBS Letters Young Group Leader Award:
(from left) Prof. Laszlo Nagy, chairman of the prize selection committee and a FEBS Letters Editor; Dr Susumu Mitsutake;
Prof. Felix Wieland, Managing Editor of FEBS Letters .
Susumu gave an enthusiastic plenary lecture about his work in front of a full plenary hall. The award was endowed with € 10,000 prize money and an invitation to give a plenary lecture at the FEBS
Congress.
We are also pleased to welcome a new Academic
Editor, James E. Rothman, to FEBS Letters . James is a Professor at Yale University in the Department of Chemistry. His main areas of expertise are the
Finally, we would like to draw your attention to three recent Special Issues:
● The Many Faces of Proteins ; edited by Wilhelm Just,
FEBS Lett.
587 (8)
● St Petersburg Special Issue: Mechanisms in Biology ; edited by Alexander Gabibov, Vladimir Skulachev,
Felix Wieland and Wilhelm Just, FEBS Lett . 587 (13)
● A century of Michaelis–Menten kinetics ; edited by
Athel Cornish-Bowden and Christian P. Whitman,
FEBS Lett.
587 (17)
As always, we look forward to receiving your manuscripts.
Best wishes,
Felix Wieland, Managing Editor
Aleksander Benjak, Editorial Manager
Daniela Ruffell, Editor
Anne Rougeaux, Editorial Assistant
24
FEBS News September 2013

FEBS PUBLICATIONS
FEBS Letters
(retrieved 5 September 2013)
Inflammation and insulin resistance
Carl de Luca and Jerrold M. Olefsky
FEBS Lett.
2008, 582(1), 97–105
Longevity of lobsters is linked to ubiquitous telomerase expression
Wolfram Klapper, Karen Kühne, Kumud K Singh, Klaus
Heidorn, Reza Parwaresch, Guido Krupp
FEBS Lett.
1998, 439(1-2), 143–46
Regulation of EMT by TGF β in cancer
Carl-Henrik Heldin, Michael Vanlandewijck and Aristidis
Moustakas
FEBS Lett.
2012, 586(14), 1959–70 mTOR regulation of autophagy
Chang Hwa Jung, Seung-Hyun Ro, Jing Cao, Neil Michael Otto and Do-Hyung Kim
FEBS Lett.
2010, 584(7), 1287–95
Structure and assembly of the influenza A virus ribonucleoprotein complex
Wenjie Zheng, Yizhi Jane Tao
FEBS Lett.
2013, 587(8), 1206–14
For complete and up-to-date lists, go to the FEBS Letters website Recent articles and Most cited articles links.
Molecular Oncology
( www.moloncol.org
) highlights new discoveries, approaches and technical developments in basic, clinical and discovery-driven translational research, and one of the main features of the journal is to provide an international forum for debating cancer issues. Through this we intend to encourage and support a coordinated approach to cancer research, with a societal dimension that goes beyond the purely scientific aspects. Molecular Oncology aims to influence the political agenda in translational cancer research by promoting current and near-future political news and debate. Hence, we are delighted to report that the Journal Citation Reports (Thomas
Reuters) impact factor for Molecular Oncology increased to 6.701 in 2012, from 5.082 in 2011. We believe that this steady rise in impact factor since the journal was first indexed reflects an increasing visibility of the journal among scientists, which we hope will translate into our reaching a broader audience and a greater interest in the journal from all cancer stakeholders.
Since its inception, Molecular Oncology has provided the scientific community with a coherent body of reviews, combined into thematic issues that address timely topics that we believe will have a significant structuring impact in the field, ultimately for the benefit of cancer patients. In line with these aims, we would like to highlight here our most recent thematic issue ‘Mouse models of cancer: Essential tools for better therapies’, edited by Drs Anton
Special Issue:
Mouse models of cancer:
Essential tools for better therapies edited by Anton Berns and
Mariano Barbacid
Mol. Oncol. (2013) Vol.7, Issue 2
Contents:
Mouse models of cancer
Anton Berns, Mariano Barbacid
Genetically engineered mouse models of PI3K signaling in breast cancer
Sjoerd Klarenbeek, Martine H. van Miltenburg, Jos Jonkers
Mouse models for lung cancer
Min-chul Kwon, Anton Berns
What are the best routes to effectively model human colorectal cancer?
Madeleine Young, Liliana Ordonez, Alan R. Clarke
Genetically engineered mouse models of prostate cancer
Maxime Parisotto, Daniel Metzger
Mouse models for liver cancer
Latifa Bakiri, Erwin F. Wagner
How animal models of leukaemias have already benefited patients
Julien Ablain, Rihab Nasr, Jun Zhu, Ali Bazarbachi, Valérie
Lallemand-Breittenbach, Hugues de Thé et al.
Genetically engineered mouse models of pancreatic adenocarcinoma
Carmen Guerra, Mariano Barbacid
MYC-y mice: From tumour initiation to therapeutic targeting of endogenous MYC
Jennifer P. Morton, Owen J. Sansom
Mouse models for studying angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis in cancer
Lauri Eklund, Maija Bry, Kari Alitalo
Rebuilding cancer metastasis in the mouse
Meera Saxena, Gerhard Christofori
25
FEBS News September 2013

Berns and Mariano Barbacid, who introduce the collection of articles in their foreword:
In this thematic issue of Molecular Oncology you will find a compendium of reviews on mouse models of cancer written by experts in the field. The various chapters deal with mouse models engineered to gain deeper insight into what drives tumor initiation and tumor progression, an aspect that is difficult to study in human tumors. The reviews primarily focus on modeling studies of frequently occurring human tumors. Each review highlights what they have taught us and also how this knowledge has already contributed or can contribute to the treatment of cancer patients...We hope that the information contained in this monographic issue of
FEBS PUBLICATIONS
Molecular Oncology will be useful not only to academic scientists interested in understanding the molecular intricacies of tumor initiation and progression, but also to pharma scientists and executives actively engaged in identifying effective therapeutic strategies and to science policy makers...responsible for assuring that we make the most effective use of public funds to fight cancer.
As always, we look forward to receiving your manuscripts.
Best wishes,
Julio E. Celis, Editor-in-Chief
José Moreira, Managing Editor
Dorte Perdersen, Editorial Assistant
FEBS Open Bio celebrated the publication of its 100th article in June, 18 months after the launch of the journal:
Lavergne, M., Jourdan, M.-L., Blechet, C., Guyetant,
S., Le Pape, A., HeuzeVourc’h, N., Courty, Y.,
Lerondel, S., Sobilo, J., Iochmann, S. & Reverdiau,
P. (2013) Beneficial role of overexpression of TFPI-2 on tumour progression in human small cell lung cancer . FEBS Open Bio 3, 291 – 301
The rate of submissions to the journal is now increasing, and so we hope to reach the 200th article well before the end of 2014.
Open Access is about making an author’s work as widely accessible as possible. All articles published in FEBS Open Bio are now included in the repositories PubMedCentral ( PMC ) and Europe
PubMed Central ( Europe PMC ) and indexed in
PubMed. Authors can also post the final published
PDF in any other repository. Inclusion of the
CrossMark logo on these multiple versions will alert readers if and when any changes are made to the
‘parent’ version on ScienceDirect.
Download requests for FEBS Open Bio articles on
ScienceDirect have been building steadily since the journal was launched in November 2011. A list of the five most downloaded articles from the 56 articles published in 2011 – 2012 appears in the box to the right. The first article, by Acuña et al., is still featured in the Most Downloaded Articles list in the past 90 days.
Downloads are one measure of the attention an article gets, but what matters most is citations. As a new journal, FEBS Open Bio won’t be eligible for an
Impact Factor until it has been publishing for over
FEBS Open Bio
*Articles published Nov 2011 – Dec 2012; total full-text downloads Nov 2011 – Jul 2013
A new hybrid bacteriocin, Ent35–MccV, displays antimicrobial activity against pathogenic Gram-positive and
Gram-negative bacteria
Leonardo Acuña, Gianluca Picariello, Fernando Sesma,
Roberto D. Morero, Augusto Bellomio (2012) FEBS Open Bio
2, 12–19
IGF-1 receptor is down-regulated by sunitinib induces MDM2
-dependent ubiquitination
Hongchang Shen, Yan Fang, Wei Dong, Xueru Mu, Qi Liu,
Jiajun Du (2012) FEBS Open Bio 2, 1–5
The role of substrate specificity and metal binding in defining the activity and structure of an intracellular subtilisin
Michael Gamble, Georg Künze, Andrea Brancale, Keith S.
Wilson, D. Dafydd Jones (2012) FEBS Open Bio 2, 209–215
The Wnt pathway destabilizes adherens junctions and promotes cell migration via β catenin and its target gene cyclin D1
Annica Vlad-Fiegen, Anette Langerak, Sonja Eberth, Oliver
Müller (2012) FEBS Open Bio 2, 26–31
Inhibitory effects of choline-O-sulfate on amyloid formation of human islet amyloid polypeptide
Mamoru Hagihara, Ayaka Takei, Takeshi Ishii, Fumio
Hayashi, Kenji Kubota, Kaori Wakamatsu, Nobukazu Nameki
(2012) FEBS Open Bio 2, 20–25
3 years (citations are counted in Year 3 to papers published in Years 1 and 2). However, from data collected by Scopus and Google Scholar, the number of citations to FEBS Open Bio articles is growing at a steady rate (see graph on next page). A list of the five most cited articles in the journal is also given in the box on the next page.
We look forward to receiving your manuscripts.
With best wishes
Mary Purton
Executive Editor
26
FEBS News September 2013

FEBS PUBLICATIONS
FEBS Open Bio
FEBS Open Bio
*Data from Scopus collected 21 August 2013
GeneSetDB: A comprehensive meta-database, statistical and visualisation framework for gene set analysis
Araki H., Knapp C., Tsai P., Print C. (2012) FEBS Open Bio 2,
76–82
In silico prediction of a disease-associated STIL mutant and its affect on the recruitment of centromere protein J (CENPJ)
Ambuj Kumar, Vidya Rajendran, Rao Sethumadhavan, Rituraj
Purohit (2012) FEBS Open Bio 2, 285–293
The manner in which DNA is packaged with TFAM has an impact on transcription activation and inhibition
Ryo Furukawa, Yuma Yamada, Yuichi Matsushima, Yu-ichi
Goto, Hideyoshi Harashima (2012) FEBS Open Bio 2, 145–150
Tespa1 is a novel inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor binding protein in T and B lymphocytes
Hiroshi Matsuzaki, Takahiro Fujimoto, Takeharu Ota,
Masahiro Ogawa, Toshiyuki Tsunoda, Keiko Doi, Masato
Hamabashiri, Masatoshi Tanaka, Senji Shirasawa (2012) FEBS
Open Bio 2, 255–259
Exploring potassium-dependent GTP hydrolysis in TEES family
GTPases
Abu Rafay, Soneya Majumdar, Balaji Prakash (2012) FEBS
Open Bio 2, 173–177
FEBS Open Bio
Molecular Life Sciences 2013 (German
Society for Biochemistry and Molecular
Biology)
3–6 October 2013
Frankfurt, Germany www.molecular-life-sciences.de
A joint FEBS / Biochemical Society
Lecture Course
Cell-penetrating peptides: design, synthesis and applications
7–10 October 2013; London, UK www.biochemistry.org/Conferences/
AllConferences/tabid/379/View/
Conference/MeetingNo/IND106/
Default.aspx
38th Symposium on Hormones and Cell
Regulation: Development, Diseases and
Evolution of Endocrine Organs
10–13 October 2013
Mont Ste Odile, France www.hormones-cell-regulation.eu
FEBS Workshop
Translating epigenomes into function: a next-generation challenge for human disease
13–16 October 2013
Capri (Napoli), Italy workshop.igb.cnr.it
Principles, Parameters and Applications of PCR
21 October 2013
Breda, The Netherlands www.alsavans.nl/avans-training-
2545.htm
Real-time PCR in Molecular Diagnostics
22–24 October 2013
Breda, The Netherlands www.alsavans.nl/avans-training-
2548.htm
14th IUBMB Conference
Host–Microbe Interactions
16–20 November 2013
Marrakech, Morocco www.iubmb-2013.org/
Regional European Biomedical
Laboratory Science Congress and the
4th Greek Medical Laboratory
Technologists Conference
5–8 December 2013
Athens, Greece www.ebsc2013.com
European Biotechnology Conference
15–18 May 2014
Lecce, Italy www.eurobiotech2014.eu
20th Microsomes and Drug Oxidations
Symposium
18–22 May 2014
Stuttgart, Germany www.mdo2014.de
The FEBS–EMBO 2014 Conference
30 August – 4 September 2014
Paris, France www.febs-embo2014.org
25th tRNA Conference
21–25 September 2014
Kyllini, Greece www.trna2014.gr
See also the list of FEBS Advanced
Courses 2014 on page 16 of this issue of FEBS News .
To announce a scientific event in FEBS News and on the FEBS website, please email brief details to elliss@febs.org
. Priority will be given to events within biochemistry, molecular biology and related disciplines, and taking place within the FEBS area.
27
FEBS News September 2013

POSITIONS AVAILABLE
(M2B-PhD Programme – www.m2b-phd.pt
)
The “M2B-PhD – Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics” is an international PhD Programme that aims to train six candidates in scientific research environments of high quality, with tailored curricula for future professional careers in academia, industry or clinical practice. Each candidate will be integrated in a research group and enrol a research project. Training will also be composed of a curricular part with a focus on non-transferable skills. There will be research projects available from the universities of Lisbon, Coimbra, and Porto (Portugal). The projects will be available on September 15th so that the candidates can indicate their preference for specific research projects.
We look for candidates with a strong motivation to work in medical biochemistry or biophysics. Candidates need to have a masters degree (or equivalent), preferably in Biochemistry, Medicine, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Physiology, Chemistry, Physics or related areas.
Other information:
Duration – 48 months
Tentative starting date – 1st January 2014
Approximate monthly allowance – 980 euros
How and when to apply – Fill the form at www.m2b-phd.pt (from 15 to 30 September 2013 )
Selection – A selection committee will meet and decide on the best candidates for the projects available based on their background training, academic marks, and eventual publications and/or other scientific activities.
Programme director – Prof. Miguel Castanho (University of Lisbon, School of Medicine, Portugal), www.biochemistry-imm.org/article.php
Contact – Send us an email at http://www.m2b-phd.pt/cat.php?catid=7
Webportal – www.m2b-phd.pt
Funding – The M2B-PhD is funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Portuguese Ministry of Science and Education)
Signalling to and from IP
3
receptors
Applications are invited for three postdoctoral posts funded by the Wellcome Trust and BBSRC for initial periods of up to
3 years. The lab combines diverse approaches to examine the structural basis of intracellular Ca
2+
signalling ( Nature 458,
655–; Nature 483, 108–; J Cell Biol 202, 699–) and it enjoys collaborations with labs in other disciplines.
Candidates must have, or soon expect to have, a PhD. The appointees will contribute to work addressing the roles of
IP
3
receptors in cell migration, signalling from the plasma membrane to IP
3
receptors, and the roles of dynamic organelles in generating intracellular Ca
2+
signals. Experience with gene-editing, cell migration, and/or advanced optical imaging methods, and an interest in cell signalling are essential. Starting salary, depending on experience, will be in the range £27,854-£36,298.
A more senior appointment may be available for an exceptionally experienced candidate.
Informal enquiries to Prof. Colin W. Taylor: cwt1000@cam.ac.uk
.
Candidates should submit a CV, a coversheet CHRIS 6 (from http://www.phar.cam.ac.uk/department/vacancies ) including the email addresses of two academic referees, and a description of your experience as it relates to the job specifications to
Ms J. Dunne at: recruitment@phar.cam.ac.uk
. The reference CWT/RA2013 should be included in the subject heading.
The closing date is 31 October 2013.
Interviews of short-listed candidates will take place soon afterwards.
Further information available at: http://www.phar.cam.ac.uk/research/taylor
FEBS offers free advertisement of academic positions on the FEBS website, and selected entries are also included in FEBS News .
For more information, see the ’Post a Vacancy’ link on the Career Opportunities page.
28
FEBS News September 2013