AWARds – A gOOd REAd – AppOINTMENTs A good read – Publications from the EMBO Community Events EMBO MEMBERS EMBO Member George Thomas is one of the organizers of the IDIBELL Cancer Conference on Personalized Cancer Medicine that is to take place in Barcelona from 3 – 4 December 2012. Special focus will be on epigenetics and DNA repair and metabolism and cell signal- ling with the latest clinical applications. More at: http://bocemtium.com/icc2012/index.php/icc/2012/index.html.var Awards of excellence CLIP-seq of eIF4AIII reveals transcriptome-wide mapping of the human exon junction complex Zhen Wang (EMBO Fellow) et al. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology | 21 October 2012 doi: 10.1038/nsmb.2420 A bimodular mechanism of calcium control in eukaryotes Henning Tidow (EMBO Fellow), Poul Nissen (EMBO Member) et al. Nature | 21 October 2012 doi: 10.1038/nature11539 DAxx envelops an H3.3–H4 dimer for H3.3-specific recognition Simon J. Elsässer (EMBO Fellow) et al. Nature | 17 October 2012 doi: 10.1038/nature11608 The IL-22 – IL-22BP axis is regulated by the inflammasome and modulates tumorigenesis in the intestine Nicola Gagliani (EMBO Fellow) et al. Nature | 17 October 2012 doi: 10.1038/nature11535 Epistasis as the primary factor in molecular evolution Fyodor A. Kondrashov (EMBO Young Investigator) et al. Nature | 14 October 2012 doi:10.1038/nature11510 The p110d isoform of the kinase PI(3) K controls the subcellular compartmen- talization of TLR4 signaling and protects from endotoxic shock Ezra Aksoy (EMBO Fellow) , Bart Vanhaesebroeck (EMBO Member) et al. Nature Immunology | 30 September 2012 doi:10.1038/ni.2426 Positive modulation of a Cys-loop acetylcholine receptor by an auxiliary transmembrane subunit Thomas Boulin, Christian Stigloher (EMBO Fellows) et al. Nature Neuroscience | 26 August 2012 doi:10.1038/nn.3197 A PML – PPAR-δ pathway for fatty acid oxidation regulates hematopoietic stem cell maintenance Arkaitz Carracedo (EMBO Fellow), Pier Paolo Pandolfi (EMBO Member) et al. Nature Medicine | 19 August 2012 doi:10.1038/nm.2882 Distinct contribution of stem and progen- itor cells to epidermal maintenance Cédric Blanpain (EMBO Young Investigator) et al. Nature | 2 September 2012 doi:10.1038/nature11393 Structural basis for RNA duplex recognition and unwinding by the DEAD-box helicase Mss116p Anna L. Mallam (EMBO Fellow) et al. Nature | 2 September 2012 doi:10.1038/nature11402 Dopamine neurons modulate pheromone responses in Drosophila courtship learning Eleftetheria Vrontou (EMBO Fellow), Barry J. Dickson (EMBO Member) et al. Nature | 19 August 2012 doi:10.1038/nature11345 Scl represses cardiomyogenesis in prospective hemogenic endothelium and endocardium Amélie Montel-Hagen (EMBO Fellow) et al. Cell | 3 August 2012 doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2012.06.026 BLD10/CEP135 is a microtubule- associated protein that controls the formation of the flagellum central microtubule pair Monica Bettencourt-Dias (EMBO Young Investigator) et al. Developmental Cell | August 2012 doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2012.06.001 Defining the mode of tumour growth by clonal analysis Cédric Blanpain (EMBO Young Investigator) et al. Nature | 1 August 2012 doi: 10.1038/nature11344 The toxin–antitoxin proteins RelBE2Spn of Streptococcus pneumoniae: Characterization and association to their DNA target Manuel Espinosa (EMBO Member) et al. PROTEINS: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics | July 2012 doi: 10.1002/prot.24081 Chromatin organization is a major influ- ence on regional mutation rates in human cancer cells Ben Lehner (EMBO Young Investigator) et al. Nature | 22 July 2012 doi: 10.1038/nature11273 Viral immune modulators perturb the human molecular network by common and unique strategies Andreas Pichlmair (EMBO Fellow), Giulio Superti-Furga (EMBO Member) et al. Nature | 18 July 2012 doi: 10.1038/nature11289 Tandem fluorescent protein timers for in vivo analysis of protein dynamics Anton Khmelinskii (EMBO Fellow) et al. Nature Biotechnology | 24 June 2012 doi: 10.1038/nbt.2281 EMBO MEMBERS Körber European Science Prize Körber Foundation Matthias Mann, a physicist and bioinfor- matician at the Max-Planck-Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany, won the 2012 Körber European Science Prize for his ground-breaking work on the proteome, the entire complement of proteins in a living organism. The prize comes with an award of 750,000 euros. The proteomics pioneer also received the 2012 Ernst Schering Prize worth 50,000 euros and awarded by the Schering Foundation Berlin. US National Academy of Sciences George Coupland from the Max-Planck- Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, Germany, was elected a foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences this year. Millennium Technology Prize Technology Academy Finland EMBO Member Shinya Yamanaka and Linus Torvalds are joint Grand Winners of the 2012 Millennium Technology Prize, one of the world’s major technology prizes. The Japanese scientist received it in recognition of his discovery of a new method to develop induced pluripotent stem cells for medical research. The prize worth 1,2 million euros was split between the two researchers and presented by the president of the Republic of Finland last June. EMBO YOUNG INVESTIGATORS ASCB Women in Cell Biology award American Society of Cell Biology Sophie Martin from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, is the winner of the 2012 ASCB Women in Cell Biology Junior award. The prize recognizes female scien- tists in an early stage of their careers who make exceptional scientific contributions to cell biology, develop a strong independent research program, and exhibit the potential for continuing a high level of scientific endeavour and leadership. She will receive the award at the ASCB annual meeting in San Francisco, United States, in December 2012. Appointments EMBO MEMBER The Gulbenkian Science Institute in Oeiras, Portugal, announced the appointment of EMBO Member Jonathan Howard as its new director as of 1 October 2012. He succeeds António Coutinho, who stepped Balzan Prize International Balzan Prize Foundation David Baulcombe of the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, received the prize for his work on the epigenetic effects of stress on plant cells and tissue. Baulcombe says the prize of 750,000 Swiss Francs (approximately 620,000 euros) will help start a new line of epigenetic research into algae. The Italy-based International Balzan Prize Foundation annually funds research awards for scholars, scientists, and artists who it considers to have been overlooked by other prestigious awards. Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award Lasker Foundation This year’s Lasker Award for basic medical research goes to EMBO Associate Member Ronald Vale and his colleagues Michael Sheetz and James Spudich for discoveries concerning cytoskeletal motor proteins, machines that move cargoes within cells, contract muscles, and enable cell move- ments. The Lasker Awards, which carry an honorarium of 250,000 US dollars for each category, were presented at a ceremony in New York City last September. ASBMB-Merck Award American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology / Merck Vivek Malhotra of the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona, Spain, received the ASBMB-Merck Award for Studies on the mechanism of secretory cargo sorting and transport carrier biogenesis during conventional and unconventional protein secretion. EACR Cancer Researcher Award Lecture European Association for Cancer Research / Pezcoller Foundation Eric So from King’s College London, United Kingdom, is the winner of this award that recognizes academic excellence in the field of cancer research. He is the first recipient of this award worth 10.000 euros. He gave the Pezcoller Foundation – EACR Award Lecture at the biennial congress of EACR, which this year was held in Barcelona. The primary goal of Eric So’s research is to char- acterize the mechanisms of transcriptional regulation that are corrupted in leukemia. down after 14 years as the institute’s direc- tor. Howard, a prominent British immu- nologist, is also a professor at the Institute of Genetics of the University of Cologne. Editorial Managing Editor Barry Whyte Editor Yvonne Kaul proofreading Meryl Schneider print layout Uta Mackensen Web version Aditya Kusuma Jati E-newsletter Sandra Krahl, Katja Linssen ©2012 EMBO EMBOencounters | Autumn 2012 | communications@embo.org 19