Events EMBO MEMBERS EMBO Member Sydney Brenner of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, US, is one of the speakers at the Conference on Systems Biology of Mammalian Cells 2012 from 9 – 11 July 2012 at the Gewandhaus zu Leipzig, Germany. More information at: www.conventus.de/sbmc2012 A good read – Publications from the EMBO Community Awards of excellence EMBO MEMBERS Cozzarelli Prize US National Academy of Sciences Roland Kanaar and colleagues have been awarded the 2011 Cozzarelli Prize for the paper Mild hyperthermia inhibits homologous recombination, induces BRCA2 degradation, and sensitizes cancer cells to poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 inhibition. In total, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Editorial Board has selected six papers published by PNAS in 2011 to receive the Cozzarelli Prize. Royal Medal Royal Society of London Robin Holliday has been awarded a Royal Medal for his influential discoveries of the ‘Holliday junction’ molecular structure and the function of DNA methylation. The Royal Medal is awarded for important contribu- tions in the physical, biological and applied sciences. German Cancer Aid Award German Cancer Aid Peter Krammer of the German Cancer Research (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) is awarded the 2011 German Cancer Aid Award (Deutscher Krebshilfe Preis) jointly with Professor Dr. Klaus-Michael Debatin of Ulm University Hospitals. The award is given to the two scientists in recognition of their pioneering research into signaling pathways that lead to cell death and can slow down cancer growth. Ernst Jung Prize Ernst Jung Foundation for Science and Research The 2012 Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine is shared by Elisa Izaurralde of the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, Germany, and Peter Walter from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in San Francisco, US. Elisa Izaurralde is recognized for her contributions to the field of RNA-mediated gene regulation. Walter receives the prize for his work on the mechanisms of production and quality control of secretory proteins. Both winners share the 300,000 Euros prize money. Senior Scientist Award International Society For Computational Biology (ISCB) Gunnar von Heijne, director of the Stockholm Center for Biomembrane Research in Sweden, has been recognized with the Accomplishment By a Senior Scientist Award for his contribution to the field of computational biology. “He is one of the few who completely changed the field using computational methods and also had an experimental lab running,” commented Burkhard Rost, president of the ISCB. Appointments EMBO MEMBER EMBO Member Hans Clevers, director of the Hubrecht Institute for Developmental Biology and Stem Cell Research (Utrecht, the Netherlands), succeeded Robbert Dijkgraaf as President of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) on 1 June 2012. InBev-Baillet Latour Health Prize Artois-Baillet Latour Foundation Gero Miesenböck from the University of Oxford, UK, was awarded this prize for his work in neurosciences. He has pioneered the field of optogenetics, which uses genetic strategies for imaging nerve cell activity and for controlling with light the function of brain cells and animal behavior. Worth 250,000 Euros, this is one of the most important science prizes in Belgium. Teva Prize Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Founders Karen B. Avraham of the Tel Aviv University, Israel, was awarded the 2011 Teva Prize for groundbreaking research in the field of rare diseases. The jury recognized her as “one of the leading researchers in the world in inherited hearing loss.” E.C. Stakman Award University of Minnesota Jonathan Jones of the Sainsbury Laboratory at the Norwich Research Park, UK, has received the 2012 E.C. Stakman Award for his outstanding achievements in the field of plant pathology. YOUNG INVESTIGATORS Friedrich Miescher Award Swiss Society for Biochemistry Richard Benton of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, received this prize considered Switzerland’s highest honour for upcoming researchers in the field of biochemistry. Benton also received the Young Investigator Award for Research in Olfaction from the Association for Chemoreception Sciences this year. Göran Gustafsson Prize for Chemistry Göran Gustafsson Foundation Luca Jovine of the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, is awarded this prize for his crystallographic studies of fertilization. The award is considered the most important prize for young researchers in Sweden. Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship Rob Klose of the University of Oxford has been selected as a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow this year. This highly competitive fellowship lasts five years and provides core support for postdoctoral scientists based in academic institutions in the UK and Republic of Ireland. EMBO FELLOW EMBO Fellow Jan Tuckermann started a full professorship at the University of Ulm, Germany, to lead the Institute of General Zoology and Endocrinology in April. The institute deals with mechanisms of the hormonal control of developmental and ageing processes. Changes in exon – intron structure during vertebrate evolution affect the splicing pattern of exons Gil Ast (EMBO Member) et al. Genome Research | January 2012 doi:10.1101/gr.119834.110 Unsupervised modeling of cell morphol- ogy dynamics for time-lapse microscopy Daniel W. Gerlich (EMBO Young Investigator), Juan P Fededa (EMBO Fellow) et al. Nature Methods | 27 May 2012 doi: 10.1038/nmeth.2046 Site-specific DICER and DROSHA RNA products control the DNA-damage response Fabrizio d’Adda di Fagagna (EMBO Member) et al. Nature | 23 May 2012 doi: 10.1038/nature11179 Rab5 is necessary for the biogenesis of the endolysosomal system in vivo Jerome Gilleron (EMBO Fellow) et al. Nature | 24 May 2012 doi: 10.1038/nature11133 Peroxiredoxins are conserved markers of circadian rhythms Akhilesh B. Reddy (EMBO Young Investigator) et al. Nature | 16 May 2012 doi: 10.1038/nature11088 Atomic model of the type III secretion system needle Antoine Loquet (EMBO Fellow) et al. Nature | 20 May 2012 doi:10.1038/nature11079 Functional metabolic screen identifies 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose- 2,6-biphosphatase 4 as an important regulator of prostate cancer cell survival Almut Schulze (EMBO Young Investigator) et al. Cancer Discovery | April 2012 doi:10.1158/2159-8290.CD-11-0234 Spatial partitioning of the regulatory landscape of the X-inactivation center Nils Blüthgen (EMBO Fellow) et al. Nature | 17 May 2012 doi: 10.1038/nature11049 Insights into hominid evolution from the gorilla genome sequence Richard Durbin (EMBO Member), Duncan T. Odom (EMBO Young Investigator) et al. Nature | 8 March 2012 doi:10.1038/nature10842 ESCRT-III governs the Aurora B-mediated abscission checkpoint through CHMP4C Juan Martin-Serrano (EMBO Young Investigator) et al. Science | 13 April 2012 doi: 10.1126/science.1217180 The GATA2 transcriptional network is requisite for Ras oncogene-driven non- small cell lung cancer Axel Behrens (EMBO Member), Madhu S. Kumar (EMBO Fellow) et al. Cell | 27 April 2012 doi:10.1016/j.cell.2012.02.059 Mutations in ISPD cause Walker-Warburg syndrome and defective glycosylation of α-dystroglycan Karen Buysse (EMBO Fellow) et al. Nature Genetics | 22 April 2012 doi: 10.1038/ng.2253 SUMOylation and phosphorylation of GluK2 regulate kainate receptor traffick- ing and synaptic plasticity Inmaculada M González-González (EMBO Fellow) et al. Nature Neuroscience | 22 April 2012 doi: 10.1038/nn.3089 DBIR complex integrates alternative mRNA splicing with RNA polymerase II transcript elongation Pierre Close (EMBO Fellow) et al. Nature | 19 April 2012 doi: 10.1038/nature10925 Telomeric DNA damage is irreparable and causes persistent DNA-damage-response activation Maria Pia Longhese, Fabrizio d’Adda di Fagagna (EMBO Members) et al. Nature Cell Biology | 18 March 2012 doi: 10.1038/ncb2466 Synchronization of secretory protein traf- fic in populations of cells Valentina Mercanti (EMBO Fellow) et al. Nature Methods | 11 March 2012 doi: 10.1038/nmeth.1928 Tonic signaling from O2 sensors sets neural circuit activity and behavioral state Karl Emanuel Busch (EMBO Fellow) et al. Nature Neuroscience | 4 March 2012 doi: 10.1038/nn.3061 Long-term, efficient inhibition of micro- RNA function in mice using rAAV vectors Stefan L. Ameres (EMBO Fellow) et al. Nature Methods | 4 March 2012 10.1038/nmeth.1903 Grants European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grants Forty-two EMBO Members and Young Investigators were awarded European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grants in 2012. The list of the latest awardees is downloadable at: http://erc.europa.eu/erc-funded-projects ©2012 EMBO EMBOencounters | Summer 2012 | communications@embo.org 19 AWARDS – A GOOD READ – APPOINTMENTS