Home game – the 2013 Awardees Meeting in Strasbourg
Always think of the next innings!
by Prof. Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker,
Secretary General of HFSPO
June 11th, 2013 marked another climax
in the history of HFSP. In its 24th year,
members not only decided to continue
their support of HFSP but also to
increase their contributions by 2% to
4% annually for the next three years.
Japan, which still provides more than
one-third of the HFSP budget of about
58 Mio USD, generously retained its
contribution close to current levels.
Thanks to its impeccable funding
record, HFSP succeeded in
consolidating its financial framework,
providing stability for the next three
years. I would like to thank the
members of our Board of Trustees for
their support and our colleagues in
the Directorate-General for Research
and Innovation of the European
Commission in Brussels who organized
the triennial Intergovernmental
Conference (IGC) on June 11th, 2013.
In particular, I’d like to thank DirectorGeneral Robert-Jan Smits who chaired
the IGC for his support and optimism
in difficult times.
There was little time to rest on the
“IGC laurels”, because in early July
2013 the 13th Awardees Meeting took
place, for the first time, in the city of
the HFSP office and it was also the
first time that it was organized entirely
by HFSP staff. All members of the
Secretariat were engaged during the
meeting and preparations rested mainly
on the shoulders of Rosalyn Huie,
Isabelle Heidt-Coquard and Guntram
Bauer. They did a marvelous job, as
testified by the numerous comments we
received from participants. The keynote
lectures by Stephen Quake, Ulrich
Hartl, Yigong Shi and Jack Szostak
were stellar, as was the weather, the
food and the support from the City and
its officials.
Continued on back page
Clockwise from left: bird's eye view of the reception hosted by the Région Alsace, Stephen Quake and family following
the presentation of the 2013 Nakasone Award, a poster session.
After visiting many of the HFSP member countries in the previous 12 years, the 2013
Awardees Meeting took place in our home town of Strasbourg. The historic center
of the town provided the scenic backdrop, which was much appreciated by awardees
who took time out to visit Petite France and the famous Cathedral.
The meeting venue, Palais de la Musique et des Congrès, offered ample space for
the lectures, poster sessions and for general networking. The meeting started with
the Nakasone Award ceremony, followed by the lecture from this year’s Nakasone
awardee, Stephen Quake of Stanford University. Other invited speakers were Ulrich
Hartl (Germany), Yigong Shi (China), and Jack Szostak (USA) who gave interesting
plenary lectures that ended each day on a high note. A special lecture was given by
Martin Fenner from ORCID, providing first rate information on the Open Researcher
and Contributor ID – a new principle that HFSP adheres to.
In all, 241 guests attended including HFSP awardees from around the world and
scientists from the University of Strasbourg and other local institutions.
We want to thank all participants and supporters of the Strasbourg meeting and
look forward to the 2014 HFSP Awardees Meeting on the shores of Lake Lugano in
southern Switzerland (6-9 July).
2014 HFSP Nakasone Award
The 2014 HFSP Nakasone Award has been conferred upon
Uri Alon of the Weizmann Institute for his pioneering work
in discovering network motifs, which provided the single
most important foundation of the field of systems biology. Uri
Alon’s work opened up the previously impenetrable complexity
of genetic circuits to systematic analysis and understanding.
Uri Alon will give the Nakasone Lecture during the 14th annual meeting
of HFSP awardees to be held in Lugano, Switzerland in 2014.
Issue N° 2 | September 2013
In this issue
Editor’s choice: spotlight on the 2013 awards
By Guntram Bauer, Director of Scientific Affairs and Communications
2013 Awardees Meeting .................... 1
Spotlight on the 2013 awards............. 2
OpenSPIM: light sheet microscopy... 4
Secretariat news................................. 6
Still green after all these years........... 7
The HFSP Alumni Network............... 8
Snippets.............................................. 9
Alumni News..................................... 10
Prizes & Awards ................................ 10
Impressum
The HFSP Newsletter is issued
on behalf of the Human Frontier
Science Program by the International
Human Frontier Science Program
Organization. It contains
announcements of HFSP-related
matters and other information of
interest to the support of young
scientists and to interdisciplinary
research in general. Please tell your
friends, colleagues, students, etc. about
this mailing list. They can subscribe
via a link on the HFSP home page.
Please address any suggestions or
comments to: www.communications.org
HFSP Matters issue n° 2
September 2013
The International Human Frontier
Science Program Organization
(HFSPO)
12 Quai St Jean - BP 10034
67080 Strasbourg CEDEX
France
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.hfsp.org
Japanese website : http://jhfsp.jsf.
HFSP at your fingertips
Quick link to
www.hfsp.org
2
The onset of spring is always a very
exciting time for HFSP because
the Secretariat is preparing for the
announcement of new awards. It is
always rewarding for us to receive
enthusiastic messages from scientists
responding to the news following the
Board of Trustees meeting at the end of
March. It is reassuring and indicative
of the high quality and rigor of our
selection procedure that the Review
Committees, year after year, succeed in
picking very original projects, a few of
which are highlighted below.
Visual control of flight modes
and transitions in birds
For several years, HFSP has established
a record for funding research on the
flight of birds, bats and insects. Often
these grant applications excite the
reviewers because they assemble
truly interdisciplinary teams. Newly
awarded grantees Douglas Altshuler
(UBC Vancouver, Canada), David
Lentink (Stanford University, USA)
and Mandyam Srinivasan (Queensland
Brain Institute, Brisbane, Australia) look
into the “Visual control of flight modes
and transitions in birds”. The project
integrates the expertise of a visual
neuroscientist, an avian biomechanist
and an aerospace engineer to examine
how visual information guides
different modes of flight using a newly
engineered virtual reality flight corridor
to quantify how neural processing
algorithms differ across flight modes
and taxa. Key questions that the team
has set out to answer are:
1) Are there distinct flight control
modes as birds transition from take-off
to slow forward flight and from forward
flight to landing?
2) How are the flight modes and
transitions controlled visually?
3) How do flight control algorithms
differ between hummingbirds,
which are hovering specialists, and
budgerigars, which are specialized for
cruising flight?
HFSP Matters Issue N° 2 | September 2013
Magnetic sense receptors in
the avian inner ear
In addition to control during flight,
the ability to navigate is just as
important. The study of orientation
and navigation during bird flight has
brought together a new team led by
systems neurobiologist David Dickman
(Baylor College of Medicine, USA)
and Michael Winklhofer (Munich
University, Germany), a biophysicist
specialized in biomagnetics. Their
grant on “Magnetic sense receptors
in the avian inner ear” addresses the
fundamental question on how animals
can detect and use the Earth’s magnetic
field for orientation and navigation.
A receptor for magnetoreception in
vertebrates remains unknown. The team
will study recently discovered cells
in the vestibular brainstem of pigeons
that encode the direction, intensity, and
polarity of the magnetic field, as well
as a magnetic sense neural pathway that
includes regions in the brain known to
be involved with spatial orientation and
navigation tasks.
Microscale fluid dynamics
of active transport processes
around coral surfaces
The dynamics of biological surfaces is
another aspect that has made frequent
appearances, often in combination with
a material science approach, in HFSP
projects. The importance of corals for
marine diversity and ocean circulation
is undisputed. However, functional
aspects of coral assemblies remain
doubtful. Newly awarded HFSP CrossDisciplinary Fellow Douglas Brumley
has set out to investigate “Microscale
fluid dynamics of active transport
processes around coral surfaces”
in his new host laboratory at MIT
together with his host Roman Stocker
(Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering). The fundamental physical
processes determining microscale
transport of constituents to and from
a coral’s ciliated surface are largely
uncharted and their exploration will
strongly benefit from an interdisciplinary
effort, integrating quantitative modeling
of ciliary flows at microscale resolution.
Douglas hopes to track bacterial pathogens
as they target their coral host, yielding
unprecedented access to investigate the
physical mechanisms responsible for
the emergence of the collective ciliary
motion, the spatiotemporal nature of these
flows, and their effect on mass transport
and bacterial motility. His study centres on
the coral pathogen Vibrio coralliilyticus,
which is most favored in locating and
reaching the surface of its coral host,
Pocillopora damicornis.
Mechanical properties of tiled
composites – lessons from
shark skeletons
Animals in deeper waters have also
attracted the attention of HFSP grant
teams. The Young Investigator Grant
team led by Mason Dean (Max Planck
Institute for Colloids & Interfaces,
Potsdam, Germany) together with
James Weaver (Wyss Institute for
Biologically Inspired Engineering,
Cambridge,USA) seems to be the perfect
fit to investigate “Mechanical properties
of tiled composites – lessons from shark
skeletons”. Why sharks? Because sharks
belong to the so-called elasmobranch
fishes whose cartilaginous skeletons are
“deposition-only” and are thus incapable
of the healing and remodeling processes
that define the growth and repair responses
of bony skeletons. Despite this, these fish
have long and extremely dynamic lives.
The likely key to this counterintuitive high
level of performance is the impressive
natural patterning that characterizes this
tissue’s morphology: the surfaces of the
uncalcified cartilaginous skeletal elements
are covered with mats of thousands of
abutting mineralized tiles (tesserae), in
a variety of simple geometric shapes,
resulting in a skeletal system that is both
impact-tolerant and flexible, but also still
capable of growth (by deposition at the
margins of the tiles). Based on 3D models
of the skeleton tiles the team intends to
create digital prototypes for further testing
their mechanical properties. The aim is to
provide insights on tissue morphology and
functional relationships of these kinds of
biological tiles.
You can read more about the science that
HFSP supports in the Newly awarded
section and Awards archive on the HFSP
web site.
The mineralized cartilage of elasmobranch fishes (sharks, rays
and relatives) shown on the skeleton of Haller’s stingray (Urobatis
halleri). The outer surface of the skeleton is covered in abutting,
mineralized tiles called “tesserae”, which exhibit complex
mineral density variation, visible as regions of lighter color in
the bottom two inset images. The circular insets show closer and
closer views of the skeletal surface and its "tiling", magnification
is increased moving clockwise between images (upper right
inset: a micro-CT image, bottom two insets: backscatter SEM
imaging). The team will use high-resolution material science
and imaging techniques to examine the ultrastructure of this
unique tiled skeleton and, via a variety of physical and digital
modeling methods, the consequences of this surface tiling
to the mechanical behavior of the skeletons of these fishes.
Figure by Mason Dean and James Weaver.
HFSP Matters Issue N° 2 | September 2013
3
An HFSP success story from HFSP Young Investigator Grant holder Pavel Tomancak and HFSP CDA holder Jan Huisken
OpenSPIM: an open access light sheet microscopy platform
By Pavel Tomancak
Light sheet microscopy is an emerging technique that allows
developmental and cell biologists to record entire living
systems with minimal photo-damage over extended periods
of time. The technology has thus far been applied to produce
spectacular proof of principle recordings of model organism
embryos which capture the developing specimen at cellular
resolution throughout early development. True biological
discoveries using this technology are, however, yet to be
realized and will require that the microscopes move from the
optical technology development labs to practicing cell and
developmental biologists. To facilitate this transition the HFSP
Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy
(SPIM) has resurrected an old light
sheet illumination idea of the 1925
Nobel Prize winner Richard Adolf
Zsigmondy and brought it into the 21st
century. SPIM illuminates a single plane
in a fluorescently labeled specimen
with a laser light sheet and collects the
fluorescence with a CCD camera oriented
perpendicularly to the illuminated plane.
Additionally, SPIM introduces a new
sample mounting principle, where the
living biological specimen is embedded
in a rigid and transparent mounting
medium (such as agarose) and suspended
by gravity in a water filled chamber
surrounded by the illumination and
detection lenses. This arrangement allows
funded Tomancak and Huisken labs at the Max Planck Institute
of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Dresden
developed in collaboration with the Laboratory for Optical and
Computational Instrumentation (LOCI) in Madison an open
access realization of the light sheet microscopy paradigm called
OpenSPIM. The unique feature of the OpenSPIM platform is
the publicly accessible wiki site (http://openspim.org) that
documents in great detail how to assemble an affordable light
sheet set-up. The authors aim to establish an interdisciplinary
community that will collaboratively adapt and improve the
OpenSPIM design to address specific biological questions.
sample rotation and imaging of relatively
large specimens such as embryos from
multiple angles.
An interesting feature of the SPIM
technology is that it is relatively easy
to build. All one needs is a laser, a
CCD camera, off the shelf objectives,
readily available optical components
and a sample positioning system.
We have exploited this feature to put
together an affordable OpenSPIM
system that realizes single sided light
sheet illumination and detection using
commercially available components
centered on a custom made sample
chamber (see figure). The sample is
mounted in a glass capillary inserted in
a regular plastic syringe and positioned
using a monolithic 4D positioning system
developed specifically for OpenSPIM
by Picard Industries (www.picardindustries.com). The system can be put
together in 14 simple steps in about one
hour.
"We are really hopeful that
many researchers will build
the set-up, tweak it to their
needs, add cutting edge
features or even completely
redesign it...Time will tell
whether this idea will truly
take off."
The OpenSPIM hardware comes to
life thanks to open source software
that extends microscopy control plugin
microManager to include SPIM specific
functionalities such as sample rotation.
All software is tightly incorporated into
Fiji (http://fiji.sc) – an open source
platform for biological image analysis,
which uniquely offers advanced
algorithms necessary to process the SPIM
image data.
3D rendering of the OpenSPIM set-up (by Michael Weber)
4
The wiki site documents the assembly
and operation of the OpenSPIM in
meticulous and even beginner-level
detail. Rumor has it that IKEA instruction
manuals seem opaque in comparison.
There are exhaustive parts lists,
countless pictures, CAD schematics
HFSP Matters Issue N° 2 | September 2013
Pavel Tomancak received his education at the Masaryk University
of Brno in the Czech Republic. After completing his PhD at EMBL
on Drosophila developmental genetics, he started a post-doc at UC
Berkeley where he became interested in using genomics approaches
to study development. Since 2005 he has led an independent
research group at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell
Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Dresden, Germany, working
on the evolution of gene regulation in development using a
diverse set of molecular, imaging and image analysis approaches.
The lab is known for their contributions to the understanding
of the hourglass model of morphological evolution, genome wide Drosophila
resources and open access software and hardware projects - Fiji and OpenSPIM.
http://www.mpi-cbg.de/research/research-groups/pavel-tomancak.html
Jan Huisken received his PhD in physics in 2004 working on
“Multi-view microscopy and multi-beam manipulation for highresolution optical imaging” at EMBL with Prof. Stelzer. After an
additional year as a postdoc at EMBL, having been awarded an
HFSP Cross-Disciplinary Fellowship, he moved to the laboratory
of Didier Stainier at UC San Francisco, expanding his optical
work into a biological context. His latter work at UCSF was
further supported by a Fellowship of the Cardiovascular Research
Institute (CVRI). In 2010, he moved to the Max-Planck-Institute
of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden where he started working with
his own team, supported by an HFSP Career Development Award. His interest in
noninvasive biomedical imaging remains at the center of his research, which is now
fully devoted to organogenesis in zebrafish using advanced imaging technology.
http://www.mpi-cbg.de/research/research-groups/jan-huisken/home.html
for the production of custom parts, 3D
renderings of all assembly steps as well
as the corresponding real pictures of
assembly intermediates and narrated
videos of the assembly and alignment
process. Description of sample mounting
is very detailed, hopefully allowing even
engineers with no prior experience in
biology to put together a living sample
for recording under the microscope. The
software is documented for any user with
minimal programming experience, but
it also provides the nitty-gritty details
necessary for experienced developers
to extend it. We have spent a lot of time
putting together cookbook style recipes
describing the Fiji mediated image
processing of the SPIM data (http://
openspim.org/Operation#Data_
processing). Together these resources
provide a complete integrated solution for
SPIM imaging, merging the ideas of open
access software and hardware.
We have used OpenSPIM to image
large specimens (zebra fish larvae), fast
biological processes (beating fish heart);
we recorded the developmental anatomy
and gene expression dynamics in toto
over time (using Drosophila embryo as
a model) and imaged various marine
organisms in 3D. Thus the OpenSPIM
set-up offers a broad range of applications
that span multiple disciplines and all that
is just a beginning.
The OpenSPIM set-up is relatively
affordable and therefore it is possible
to build many such set-ups (OpenSPIM
"Cell migration and invasion in physiology
and pathology"
Nijmegen, the Netherlands
13th - 17th October, 2013
http://www.ncmls.eu/new-frontiers/invadosomes-2013
farms) allowing parallel long-term
time-lapse imaging of multiple samples.
OpenSPIM is an excellent teaching and
outreach tool. It has thus far traveled (in a
suitcase) to two EMBO courses in South
Africa (Imaging Infection and Immunity)
and Sweden (Marine Animal Models in
Evolution and Development). OpenSPIM
is kept simple on purpose, representing
the very basic realization of light-sheet
microscopy. It is meant to be a starting
point for prototyping more advanced
light sheet microscopy paradigms and
for incorporating innovative engineering
ideas such as open access electronics
(Arduino) and 3D printing technology.
We are really hopeful that many
researchers will build the set-up, tweak
it to their needs, add cutting edge
features or even completely redesign it.
Everybody is welcome to do so and to
contribute their experience and expertise
back to the community by editing and
further enhancing the wiki. Time will tell
whether this idea will truly take off.
Reference
OpenSPIM - an open access platform
for light sheet microscopy. Pitrone P.,
Schindelin J., Stuyvenberg L., Preibisch
S., Weber M., Eliceiri K.W., Huisken J.,
Tomancak P. (2013). Nature Methods,
10, 598–599.
A longer pre-print version of the article
has been deposited on arXiv
http://arxiv.org/abs/1302.1987
You can read more HFSP Success Stories
on the HFSP web site at: www.hfsp.org/
frontier-science/hfsp-success-stories
HFSP Program Grant holder Alessandra Cambi is one of
the organizers of the meeting “Cell migration and invasion in
physiology and pathology”, which will take place in Nijmegen,
The Netherlands, from October 13th-17th. The meeting will
focus on cell adhesion, cell motility and invasion in health and
pathology. It is the fifth of a series of bi-annual, well-attended
meetings initiated by members of the international "Invadosome"
consortium.
The aim is to attract leading scientists in the field who will
discuss cellular adhesion and migration along with different
migratory adhesive structures and strategies of motility during
pathological conditions such as cancer and inflammation. Special
emphasis will be on three-dimensional invasion strategies and in
vivo invasion models. A unique “out of the box” session will
deal with novel quantitative imaging technologies (including
automated approaches and advanced microscopy techniques).
Younger scientists are particularly encouraged to attend.
For info on previous meetings see: http://www.invadosomes.org
HFSP Matters Issue N° 2 | September 2013
5
Secretariat news: change of guard
Goodbye from Akihiko Tanaka
opportunity, as this was my first longterm assignment abroad. At the beginning
I was a bit worried but the support of
my colleagues in the HFSP Secretariat
provided a very smooth transition into
my new role.
As administrative officer, I was involved
in all kinds of administrative and
accounting tasks as they occur on a day
to day basis at HFSP. In Japan, some
administrative procedures are rather strict
and I was afraid that I was considered
to be too "bureaucratic". However,
after three years I felt that I contributed
significantly to help run this well oiled
machine called HFSP.
Personally, I very much enjoyed life
outside of the office. Needless to say,
Strasbourg is one of the most beautiful
cities in Europe and I have visited many
during my time in France. I tried a lot
of the local food, wines and sweets. On
my trips throughout Europe, I truly came
to appreciate the spectacular landscapes
(vineyards in particular) and the variety
Akihiko Tanaka
In May 2010 I came to HFSP, seconded
from RIKEN in Japan, to gain
experience in science management in an
international environment. A challenging
of delicious food. It all established a
lifetime of memories!
I was deeply impressed by the many
kind words of sympathy following
the big earthquake in Japan, not only
from colleagues in the office but also
from many people whom I got to know
in Strasbourg. For me, this was great
encouragement and I would like to
express my sincere appreciation for their
kindness.
I returned to Japan in May 2013, and
moved to an administrative position in
RIKEN. My HFSP experience is of great
help in my new position in Japan.
At the same time, my successor Takashi
Arai, continuing the tradition of the
administrative officer seconded from
Japan, replaced me at HFSPO and I am
sure he will contribute a lot.
Finally, I want to express my deepest
appreciation for your support and my best
wishes for HFSP’s continued success.
and introducing Takashi Arai
My name is Takashi Arai and I started
working at HFSP as administrative
officer in May 2013. Up until now, I
have been mainly engaged in accounting
and auditing, supporting researchers
and projects from within the Ministry
of Education, Culture, Sports, Science
and Technology (MEXT) in Japan. This
experience provides a useful basis for
my work in the HFSP Secretariat.
topics in the life sciences. It is a great
pleasure for me to be in such an exciting
environment.
I think HFSP is a wonderful opportunity
to meet the top scientists in the world
and to become familiar with cutting-edge
6
I appreciate traveling overseas. Until
now, I have mainly been in Asian
countries. Therefore, I am very happy
to have the opportunity to live in
Strasbourg and hope that I will have a
chance to visit other European countries
so as to get familiar with different
cultures and life styles. So far I am
really enjoying working with the HFSP
community.
HFSP Matters Issue N° 2 | September 2013
Takashi Arai
Still green after all these years - plant science in HFSP programs
By Guntram Bauer, Director of Scientific Affairs and Communications
HFSP has always had a soft spot for
plant science - whether by training the
next generation through fellowships or
by enabling international collaborations.
The April 2013 issue of the German
based “Labtimes” published a citation
analysis for plant science publications
from 2005 to 2011. Surprisingly, most
of the publications were contributed
by European research laboratories
(55,103 articles) as opposed to US
research laboratories (35,388). Many
of the leading European plant science
centers referred to in the article are
home to HFSP awardees. At the top of
the list of the 30 most cited European
authors is multiple HFSP grant recipient
Detlef Weigel from the Max Planck
Institute for Developmental Biology in
Tübingen, Germany. He is followed in
third place by Jonathan D.G. Jones from
the Sainsbury Lab in Norwich, UK.
There are also many scientists in the list
who have hosted HFSP fellows in their
laboratories over the years.
Okada (Kyoto University) and Klaus
Palme (Albert-Ludwigs University
Freiburg). Perhaps this is surprising, as
at the outset HFSP funded research in
two priority areas: molecular biology
and neuroscience and at the time plant
models were not widely recognized.
There is a common belief that HFSP only
funds “red biology”. Indeed, I was told,
when preparing to approach HFSP for
the very first time, that the Program will
most likely not employ a plant biologist
as Director of Fellowships. As we all
know, that story turned out differently.
The initial plant science grant was
followed in subsequent years with grants
for flower development, molecular
analysis of gametogenesis, a functional
study into type I and II phytochromes,
analysis of photoreceptor mutants, and
a functional study on photosynthetic
reaction center complexes. These grants
involved scientists from around the
world – many of whom have influenced
the field significantly such as Eberhard
Schäfer (Albert-Ludwigs University
Freiburg), Masaki Furuya (University
of Tokyo), Nam-Hai Chua (Rockefeller
University), Elliot Meyerowitz
(CalTech), Enrico Coen (John Innes
Centre), Christian Dumas (ENS Lyon),
Joanne Chory (Salk Institute), Akira
Nagatani (Kyoto University), and JeanDavid Rochaix (University of Geneva).
Since then plant scientists have regularly
received HFSP awards, with one of the
most recently funded projects aiming to
elucidate the basis of light perception
networks in higher plants.
What many science pundits do not know
(perhaps because they never looked)
is that already in 1990, its very first
year of operation, HFSP funded an
intercontinental team of plant scientists
trying to elucidate the role of auxin
in plant cell communication. The
research grant was led by Dieter Söll
(Yale University) and included Kotaka
The younger generation of HFSP funded
plant scientists is equally successful. For
example, HFSP fellow Javier Palatnik
(Argentina) was recognized by Science
magazine with the Breakthrough of
the Year Award 2003 for his work on
establishing a role for siRNAs in leaf
morphogenesis. The research was
carried out in the lab of Detlef Weigel.
HFSP considers plant science on a par
with other research fields, which is not
always the case in other organizations.
Fortunately, leading foundations in the
USA and UK recently announced new
initiatives and now provide a welcome
boost through increased financial
support for plant scientists and new
laboratories. In 2011, the Howard
Hughes Medical Institute and the Gordon
and Betty Moore Foundation announced
a joint initiative of flexible support
for 15 selected US plant scientists – 7
of whom are HFSP grant awardees
and/or fellowship host supervisors
(Philip Benfey, Dominique Bergmann,
Jeff Dangl, Xinnian Dong, Joseph
Ecker, Robert Martienssen and Elliot
Meyerowitz). The Sainsbury Laboratory
Cambridge University is a new plant
science institute funded by the Gatsby
Foundation and is headed by Ottoline
Leyser who has already hosted HFSP
fellows in her lab. This is good news
for the research field and will hopefully
stimulate action in other countries.
In the meantime, our soft spot for plant
science remains. Indeed, we launched the
HFSP alumni initiative with a meeting in
the Montreal Botanical Garden – hosted
and organized by plant biologist Anja
Geitmann. Go figure!
To conclude, from an HFSP point of
view, original and innovative plant
science proposals are always welcome.
For more information on the citation
analysis in Labtimes go to
www.labtimes.org.
Atomic insights into plant growth
Understanding how plants grow requires analysis of the
chemical machinery in its molecular detail.
HFSP CDA awardee, Michael Hothorn, from the FriedrichMiescher-Laboratory of the Max Planck Society in Tuebingen
and his team are doing just that. Their latest work, published
recently in Science, reveals that a plant membrane receptor
requires a helper protein for sensing a growth-promoting
steroid hormone and for transducing this signal across the cell
membrane.
To read more visit the Awardees' Articles section of the HFSP
web site: http://www.hfsp.org/frontier-science/awardeesarticles
HFSP Matters Issue N° 2 | September 2013
7
Meet & Greet
The HFSP Alumni Network
By Guntram Bauer, Director of Scientific Affairs and Communications
Once a year, the HFSP community
meets during the Awardees Meeting for
scientific exchange and to reconnect with
colleagues from around the world. Since
the very first meeting in Turin (2001),
awardees have expressed an interest to
stay in contact with each other and with
HFSP beyond the lifetime of a grant
or a fellowship. At the Secretariat in
Strasbourg, we were thinking for some
time that this genuine interest could
offer a basis for advanced networking
possibilities among awardees, past and
present. During the 2006 Awardees
Meeting in Paris we sat with a few
participants to discuss the first ideas of
how to connect the community of HFSP
grantees, fellows and CDA recipients in a
scientifically rich but informal context.
Where do we go from
here? In the early phases
of the HFSP alumni
network there was never
a shortage of suggestions
for additional activities
(a web portal for job
opportunities, equipment
exchange, a discussion
forum...). Yet, the alumni
were unanimous that
a space on the HFSP
website dedicated to
searching for HFSP
alumni based on scientific
interests was the best idea.
The Paris brainstorming confirmed our
assumption that further networking in
the form of alumni meetings ranked high
on the awardees wish list. But it was not
until 3 years later when, during a dinner
boat cruise in Tokyo Bay, Anja Geitmann
from the University of Montreal asked
if HFSP would consider organizing a
meeting for its Canadian alumni. From
the final “kampai” that evening, less
than a year passed by and in July 2010
the Montreal Botanical Garden offered a
blossoming surrounding for the first gettogether of HFSP alumni in that region.
In October 2010, we followed up with a
meeting in Tokyo that reunited alumni
well beyond the Tokyo city limits. The
following September, European alumni
enjoyed their first reunion at the Institute
of Molecular Pathology in Vienna. Apart
from renewing old acquaintances, the
meetings showed immediate results
in that some participants either found
collaborators on their campus and others
finally met their undergraduate professors
in a different context. The most recent
meeting took place in Cambridge (MA)
ahead of the 2013 AAAS Meeting in
Boston. Severe winter conditions did not
prevent some 40 alumni from attending
the meeting hosted by Phil Sharp from
the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer
Research and to present their research
and discuss their work and future plans.
As with previous meetings, the HFSP
spirit was present from the beginning as
participants embraced this
opportunity for informal exchange.
8
University of Tokyo Medical School
For those hooked on social
media, it is possible to follow
HFSP news or connect with
‘friends’ via our accounts on
Facebook and Twitter.
The Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
The launch of the new HFSP
website in February 2011
provided the ideal platform
to start the HFSP alumni
database. Since its inception,
there have been almost 900
registrations and many of them
have used the opportunity to
add scientific keywords.
The fact that the alumni
discussion forum is dormant
tells us that the HFSP alumni
network is about meeting in
person to talk science much
more than blogs, discussion
forums or any other virtual
playground.
HFSP Matters Issue N° 2 | September 2013
As the HFSP alumni network
grows out of its infancy there
will be further opportunities
for it to develop into a unique
platform as we continue
to seed the HFSP spirit in
other regions of the world.
In preparation for future
meetings we will consider
organizing HFSP alumni
events alongside international
conferences and try to
accommodate more alumni at
our Awardees Meeting.
The Montreal Botanical Garden
Snippets...
Boston in February
January at HFSP
For the first time HFSP exhibited
at the AAAS Annual Meeting. This
year's meeting took place at the Hynes
Convention Center in Boston. The
feedback from participants was very
positive, ranging from “I am surprised to
find out that such an organization exists”
to “Keep up the good work”.
We even had a visit from R2D2, pictured
opposite with HFSP Cross-Disciplinary
Fellow, Shalin Mehta.
Living and working in the USA
The HFSPO offices in Strasbourg
The HFSP Review Committees
bring together experts in a variety
of research areas from more than a
dozen different countries. They also
often have to put up with very large
variations in temperature coming
to Strasbourg in January This year
the range extended from -13° C in
Norway to +46° C in Australia!
The winter issue of the POSTDOCket
published an article about visas for
working and living in the United States.
You can download it from the website of
the National Postdoc Associate (NPA)
at http://www.nationalpostdoc.org/
publications-5/postdocket. There is a
corresponding overview for European
countries available in the menu item
“Rights” on the EURAXESS portal at
http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/.
Did you know that in 2012 a total
of 708 reviewers from 34 different
countries were involved in reviewing
applications and selecting HFSP
awards?
Japan Career Day
In May, HFSP Secretary General,
Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker attended
the EU/Japan Career Day in Tokyo
which brought together representatives
of different funding organizations
to inform Japanese students about
opportunities abroad.
http://www.euinjapan.jp/en/media/
news/news2013/20130502/102037/
Our thanks and appreciation go to all
our reviewers in recognition of their
time and effort.
HFSP Annual Report 2012
International Symposium
“Frontiers in Neurophotonics”
Bordeaux, France
October 1st – 4th, 2013
The latest Annual Report for
the fiscal year 2012 summarizes
the application and award statistics
from the previous year. The report is
available for download on the HFSP
web site at:
HFSP grant awardee, Valentin Nägerl
and HFSP Council member, Paul De
Koninck are co-organizers of the 3rd
International Symposium “Frontiers in
Neurophotonics” that is taking place
in Bordeaux, France, from October 1st
– 4th, 2013. The deadline for abstract
submission was extended to Sept. 10,
2013. More information is available at
www.frontiersneurophotonics.org.
http://www.hfsp.org/about-us/annualreports.
HFSP Matters Issue N° 2 | September 2013
9
Awardees' Articles
Bacteria on a surface grow like a continuous culture
HFSP Long-Term Fellow Daniel Koster and HFSP Program
Grant holder Uri Alon and colleagues
Bacteria are usually studied in well-mixed environments such as
in shaken tubes or chemostats. However, bacteria often live on
surfaces and migrate in space while they grow. The growth laws
of such planar bacterial populations have been less studied. Here
we employ a novel method for quantifying growth and gene
expression in space and time
and find that motile bacteria
expand outward and
continuously leave a portion
of the population behind.
The advancing bacteria
grow and keep their density
constant, similar to growth
in a chemostat.
Read more here
Behavioural motifs connect related mutant worms
- by HFSP Long-Term Fellow Andre Brown and colleagues
Computational predictions and an experimental test on proteins
that link biological functions
- by HFSP Young Investigator Grant holders Attila Csikász-Nagy,
Rafael Carazo-Salas and Masamitsu Sato and colleagues
Remote controlling the behavior of the worm
- by HFSP Cross-Disciplinary Fellow Askin Kocabas and colleagues
You can read more awardees' articles on the HFSP web site
Always think of the next innings!
Continued from front cover
We are now looking forward to the
14th Awardees Meeting in Lugano
(Switzerland) which will coincide
with HFSP’s 25th anniversary. We are
confident that the Lugano meeting will
be equally successful since the Swiss
have a great scientific tradition and
know how to celebrate.
The Strasbourg Awardees Meeting once
more confirmed that there is not only an
HFSP mission but also an HFSP spirit
for research at the frontiers of science,
which characterizes the growing HFSP
community. After all, excellence
connects.
10
Alumni News
Former HFSP Program Grant awardee
(2005) and member of the Review
Committee for research grants Erin
O’SHEA was elected as the new Vice
President and Chief Scientific Officer of the
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).
Previously Erin was studying functional
and dynamic aspects of information
processing in yeast regulatory networks
by high-throughput experiments. She
is currently the Director of the Harvard
Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ (FAS) Center
for Systems Biology and the Paul C.
Mangelsdorf Professor of Molecular and
Cellular Biology and of Chemistry and
Chemical Biology at Harvard University.
HFSP Matters Issue N° 2 | September 2013
Prizes & Awards
 Immunologist and former
Council of Scientists’ member Hans
Georg RAMMENSEE from the
University of Tübingen was awarded
the 2013 Familie Hansen Prize
of the Bayer AG for his seminal
contributions to the field of cancer
therapy by means of vaccines.
http://bit.ly/XTZu2Q
 Cornelia BARGMANN, Titia
DE LANGE and Hans CLEVERS,
all previous HFSP grant awardees
and fellowship host supervisors,
are among the inaugural winners
of the Breakthrough Prize. The
Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences
recognizes excellence in research
aimed at curing intractable diseases
and extending human life. The prize
is awarded by the Breakthrough
Prize in Life Sciences Foundation, a
not-for-profit corporation dedicated
to advancing breakthrough research,
celebrating scientists and generating
excitement about the pursuit of
science as a career.
 Former HFSP Council member
Reiko KURODA of the University
of Tokyo is the 2013 recipient of the
L’Oreal-UNESCO Prize for AsiaPacific.
 EMBO has selected the 2013
class of full and associated members
to its organization. Among the
scientists selected are 21 eminent
HFSP alumni. For full list see: www.
embo.org/news/press-releases/
press-releases-2013/emboannounces-new-members-for-2013
 James POULET, a 2005
HFSP Long-Term Fellow, has
been awarded the Paul Ehrlich and
Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize for
Young Researchers. The 60 000
euro prize recognises the advances
made in understanding the neuronal
basis of behaviour. Dr. Poulet of the
Max Delbrück Center for Molecular
Medicine (MDC) works in the
NeuroCure Cluster of Excellence at
the Charité in Berlin. Your can read
more on the Neurocure web site
(www.neurocure.de)