Ninth Enzyme Mechanisms Conference

The ninth biennial conference on enzyme mechanisms, organized by E. H. Cordes (Chairman), S. J. Benkovic, J. W. Kozarich, J. R. Knowles, and D. Silverman, was held on January 3–5, 1985, at the Innisbrook Resort in Tarpon Springs, Florida. Three formal talks were given in each of six sessions on the general topics: 1, Peptide Chemistry; 2, Redox Chemistry; 3, Mechanisms; 4, Cofactors; 5, Complex Structures; and 6, Biosynthesis at the Enzyme Level. In addition, two poster sessions were held with a total of over 50 posters being presented. In the following, a brief synopsis of each of the major talks, as well as a few select references to recent work in the area of the talk, are given. Also, the titles and authors of the posters are listed along with a few references to material related to some of the posters. It is hoped that this brief summary of the meeting not only will indicate the types of studies currently of interest to mechanism oriented bioorganic chemists, but also will serve as a starting point for those who wish to delve more deeply into the topics that were discussed.     

DNA repair, damage signaling and carcinogenesis

The First joint meeting of the German DGDR (German Society for Research on DNA Repair) and the French SFTG (French Society of Genotoxicology) on DNA Repair was held in Toulouse, France, from September 15 to 19, 2007. It was organized by Lisa Wiesmüller and Bernard Salles together with the scientific committee consisting of Gilbert de Murcia, Jean-Marc Egly, Frank Grosse, Karl-Peter Hopfner, Georges Iliakis, Bernd Kaina, Markus Löbrich, Bernard Lopez, Daniel Marzin and Alain Sarasin. This report summarizes information presented by the speakers (invited lectures and oral communications) during the seven plenary sessions, which include (1) excision repair, (2) DNA repair and carcinogenesis, (3) double-strand break repair, (4) replication in repair and lesion bypass, (5) cellular responses to genotoxic stress, (6) DNA repair machinery within the chromatin context and (7) genotoxicology and testing. A total of 23 plenary lectures, 32 oral communications and 66 posters were presented in this rather intense 4 days meeting, which stimulated extensive discussions and highly interdisciplinary scientific exchanges among the ∼250 participants.     

Meeting report for the 4th Annual Complex Trait Consortium Meeting: From QTLs to Systems Genetics

The fourth annual meeting of the Complex Trait Consortium (CTC) was held in Groningen, the Netherlands on June 26–29, 2005. This meeting, which set a new attendance record, followed three previous and highly successful meetings. The focus at this meeting was on continued resource development and the exiting new field of systems genetics, the integration and anchoring of multi-dimensional data-types to underlying genetic variation. A new aspect at the meeting was the three-minute, ‘come see my poster’ presentations that generated significant interaction at the poster sessions. If the 2005 meeting is an indicator of things to come, future meetings promise to offer even more exciting research efforts to integrate high-throughput biological measurements with genetic variation to unravel the mechanisms responsible for inter-individual variation.     

Barrels XXII meeting report: Barrels blow into the Windy City

The 22nd Annual Barrels Meeting blew into Evanston, near the Windy City, in November 2009 as the meeting was hosted on the Evanston, IL campus of Northwestern University. The longest running satellite meeting to the Society for Neuroscience Meeting annually brings together researchers from around the world focused on the development, function, behavior, and physiology of the rodent whisker-to-barrel system and other associated cortical and subcortical areas. The 2009 edition of the meeting was focused on three central themes: the molecular development and developmental plasticity in barrel cortex, optical analysis of barrel cortex function, and the coding of touch. The main symposia were complemented by short talks, data blitz sessions, and a poster session.     

Tenth Enzyme Mechanisms Conference

The tenth biennial conference on enzyme mechanisms was organized by T. Fink (chairman), R. Abeles, W. Cleland, B. Metcalf, and N. Oppenheimer. It was held at the Asilomar Conference center in Pacific Grove, California. Session topics included: 1, Bioorganic mechanisms; 2, structural mechanisms; 3, mechanisms through mutagenesis; 4, mechanism-based inhibition; 5, mechanisms—general; and 6, bioinorganic mechanisms. In addition to the lectures, two poster sessions were held which included topics from several areas of mechanistic enzymology. A brief summary of the lectures and a few references are presented below. As in the past, the authors and titles of the posters will also be listed.     

Evaluation of the effectiveness of posters to provide information to patients about a DNA database and their opportunity to opt out

Objective Vanderbilt University Medical Center is implementing a DNA Databank to facilitate genomic research. This study describes the use of informational posters to communicate to patients about the Databank and their option to not participate. Methods Informational posters were displayed in two phlebotomy areas prior to the implementation of the DNA Databank project. Patients leaving the phlebotomy areas were interviewed by non-medical personnel about the posters and the Databank using a structured interview guide. Results Completed interviews with patients (n = 192) show that only 32% recalled seeing the posters (memory of the image only, or of the image and the content of the text). The majority of participants (93%) either recalled the poster or reported that they were comfortable with the DNA Databank concept after they had been read a brief statement about the program. A significant relationship (p = 0.001) appeared between respondents’ awareness of research practices concerning anonymous discarded tissues and their level of comfort with the DNA Databank. Conclusions Individuals who report feeling uncomfortable with the Databank are an important population to inform about the Databank and opting out. Since there were no statistically significant demographic differences between those who recalled the poster and those who did not, there is no way to prospectively identify which patients will not be reached by the posters or who may feel uncomfortable with the program. Additional mechanisms to promote widespread notification are needed.     

Meeting Report: "Metagenomics, Metadata and Meta-analysis" (M3) Special Interest Group at ISMB 2009

This report summarizes the proceedings of the "Metagenomics, Metadata and Meta-analysis" (M3) Special Interest Group (SIG) meeting held at the Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology 2009 conference. The Genomic Standards Consortium (GSC) hosted this meeting to explore the bottlenecks and emerging solutions for obtaining biological insights through large-scale comparative analysis of metagenomic datasets. The M3 SIG included 16 talks, half of which were selected from submitted abstracts, a poster session and a panel discussion involving members of the GSC Board. This report summarizes this one-day SIG, attempts to identify shared themes and recapitulates community recommendations for the future of this field. The GSC will also host an M3 workshop at the Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing (PSB) in January 2010. Further information about the GSC and its range of activities can be found at http://gensc.org/.     

Proteomics for everyday use: activities of the HUPO Brain Proteome Project during the 5th HUPO World Congress

Long Beach hosted this year's annual congress of the Human Proteome Organisation (HUPO). In addition to the numerous sessions, talks and poster presentations organized by HUPO itself, several events were arranged by the HUPO initiatives. The Brain Proteome Project (HUPO BPP) was very active, initiating three pre-congress workshops: (i) the kick-off meeting of the EU-funded ProDaC consortium (Proteomics Data Collection) that is aiming at the bioinformatics Standardization in the proteomics field; (ii) the workshop "Standardization Issues in Proteomics: Perspectives from Vendors" giving an overview about the lessons learned by proteomics industrial partners; (iii) the 6th HUPO BPP Workshop "New Proteomics Approaches for further HUPO BPP Studies" offering new concepts for brain-related proteomics studies.     

Highlights from the 2010 BAS/BSCR spring meeting: New Frontiers in Cardiovascular Research

The British Atherosclerosis Society (BAS)/British Society for Cardiovascular Research (BSCR) spring meeting was held in Manchester, UK, on 7–8 June 2010. Experts in the field of systems biology, proteomics, metabolomics and miRNAs presented how these techniques can be used to discover ‘New Frontiers in Cardiovascular Research’. The conference was attended by over 150 participants, mainly from the UK. A total of 2 days of presentations and a poster session with 55 posters provided the possibility to discuss the latest research results and showed the opportunities that new techniques can offer in cardiovascular research.     

Highlights from the 2010 BAS/BSCR spring meeting: New Frontiers in Cardiovascular Research

The British Atherosclerosis Society (BAS)/British Society for Cardiovascular Research (BSCR) spring meeting was held in Manchester, UK, on 7-8 June 2010. Experts in the field of systems biology, proteomics, metabolomics and miRNAs presented how these techniques can be used to discover 'New Frontiers in Cardiovascular Research'. The conference was attended by over 150 participants, mainly from the UK. A total of 2 days of presentations and a poster session with 55 posters provided the possibility to discuss the latest research results and showed the opportunities that new techniques can offer in cardiovascular research.     

Third EU-US workshop on “Nucleotide excision repair and crosslink repair—From molecules to mankind”, Smolenice Castle,Slovak Republic,May 7th–11th 2017

The purpose of this workshop was to bring together scientists from the EU and US to discuss our current understanding of how protein machines assemble and sort through genomic DNA to identify specific damaged sites which are repaired through the two critical repair pathways: nucleotide excision repair or interstrand crosslink repair. Several of the enzymes perform dual functions in both pathways, thus combining these two topics in one meeting provided tremendous synergy and was a unique feature of this workshop. Many endogenous agents, environmental toxicants and chemotherapeutic agents cause a spectrum of DNA lesions that are repaired through these two mechanisms. The importance of the repair pathways acting on these forms of DNA damage is underscored by the fact that their loss or dysregulation is associated with a variety of devastating heritable human conditions including cancer, neurodegeneration, premature aging and severe developmental abnormalities. The workshop covered research conducted on molecules to mankind, and included discussions of disease syndromes associated with poor repair of these forms of damage. The meeting also provided an unparalleled opportunity to interact with scientists from the EU, US, and throughout the world, who are driving the field.     

Keystone microbiome meeting 2012: a mountain top experience

The joint Keystone Symposia on ‘Innate Immunity and the Microbiome’ took place in March 2012 in Keystone, Colorado. Gabriel Nunez (U. Michigan, USA) and Akiko Iwasaki (Yale U., USA) organized sessions focused on innate immune sensing of microbe and damage signals, whilst Andrew Gewirtz (Georgia State U., USA), Fergus Shanahan (National U. Ireland, Ireland) and Ruth Ley (Cornell U., USA) organized the microbiome‐focused session. Joint and concurrent talks, and poster sessions between the groups, made for a sensational meeting with active exchange between participants. This meeting point is focused on the microbiome meeting talks and joint sessions.     

The 5th annual European League Against Rheumatism congress in Berlin: a personal perspective

The 5th annual European League Against Rheumatism congress, held in Berlin, 9–12 June 2004, was attended by a record number of delegates from all continents and offered a large choice of education, state-of-the-art and original research presentations in up to 15 parallel sessions. Some of these were poorly attended, although featuring top-ranked abstracts. The poster sessions remain a problem child. They were not well attended by viewers and largely neglected by presenters, mainly because of the general structure of the meeting. Ways to improve this could be to provide lunch packages and to appoint poster session chairmen. Other changes would involve moving morning hour satellites to other slots. However, in general it was an enjoyable meeting showing important progress in various fields of rheumatology and meeting the expectations of most delegates.     

Barrels XXIII: Barrels by the shore

The 23rd annual Barrels meeting was held on the University of California, San Diego campus and highlighted the latest advances in the whisker-to-barrel pathway and beyond. The annual meeting brought together investigators from a dozen countries to present their data in posters and short talks. The meeting focused on several themes, first the barrel system was used as a model to study the consequences that result from alterations in the normal pattern(s) of development. A second session focused on what happens to whisker information once it leaves the layer IV barrel. A third session addressed issues of coding within the barrel system and a final session highlighted the latest advances in the engineering of transgenic mouse lines. The meeting highlighted the utility of the barrel system to study cortical circuitry in the normal and pathological state.     

An ocean full of BARRELS: Barrels XXVI meeting report

The 26th annual Barrels meeting was convened on the campus of the University of California San Diego, not far from the shores of the Pacific Ocean. The meeting focused on three main themes: the structure and function of the thalamic reticular nucleus, the neurovasculature system and its role in brain metabolism, and the origins and functions of cortical GABAergic interneurons. In addition to the major themes, there were short talks, a data blitz, and a poster session which highlighted the diversity and quality of the research ongoing in the rodent whisker-to-barrel system.     

Abstracts of the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Willi Hennig Society

The 22nd annual meeting of the Willi Hennig Society was held at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, New York from July 20–24. There were 154 participants representing 15 countries and a total of 65 talks, 16 posters, and four software presentations. There were five symposia ranging from sequence alignment to worm biology to biogeography. As with Hennig 21 at Helsinki, there was strong student participation. Student posters represented 13 of the total 16 posters and 23 of 65 oral presentations were by students. Student presentations were part of all symposia. The strength and future of the Willi Hennig Society resides in the students and recent meetings indicate a healthy society for the future.
The Student Awards Committee consisted of Jonathan A. Coddington, Arnold G. Kluge and Gunilla Ståhls. The winners were Taran Grant, the Hennig Prize ($1000) for "Insertions and deletions in the evolution of equal-length DNA fragments"; Johannes Bergsten, the Brundin Prize ($500) for " Acilius Phylogeny (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae), Problems with Long-branch attraction and Morphological Intersexual Coevolution"; and A. R. Lindgren, the Rosen Prize ($250) for "A New Phylogeny of the Cephalopoda Using Total Evidence".     

14th International Workshop on Ataxia-Telangiectasia ATW2012

The fourteenth international Ataxia-Telangiectasia Workshop 2012 (ATW2012) (www.atw2012.com) on ataxia-telangiectasia (AT) and the role of the ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) gene in DNA repair, neurological disease, cancer and related topics was held from February 07 to 11, 2012 in Delhi, India. The international ATW2012 meeting reported the latest advances in ATM research as well as potential therapeutic treatments for A-T. The meeting was attended by a productive mix of scientists, ranging from those prominent in the initial characterization of the underlying genetic defect to young scientists just entering the field. In broad terms, three main themes were discussed at the meeting: first, a wealth of new details emerged on DNA damage signaling/repair mechanisms for which ATM is a critical element; secondly, important functions for ATM in previously unrelated cellular pathways were identified; and thirdly, new physiological effects and potential therapeutic treatments related to A-T were presented. This report summarizes below a sampling of the many interesting results from the meeting.     

The 22nd Ion Channel Meeting,September 2011, France

The 22nd Ion Channel Meeting was organized by the French Ion Channel Society (Association Canaux Ioniques) from the 25th to the 28th of September 2011 on the French Riviera (Giens). This year again, more than one hundred researchers from France, Europe and extra-European countries gathered to present and discuss their recent advances and future challenges in the ion channels and transporters field. The scientific committee organized a plenary lecture and five thematic symposia by inviting international researchers to present their recent outstanding work on themes as diverse as muscular channelopathies, regulation of channels by extracellular matrix, receptor-channels interactions, localization and distribution of ion channels, their involvement in the cell life and death, and finally how they participate in the evolution and adaptability of cellular excitability. These presentations are summarized in this meeting report. Two sessions of oral communications selected from submitted abstracts and two poster sessions were also organized to present the ongoing work of young researchers worldwide.     

The 2nd US–Japan DNA Repair Meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii, June 4–8, 2004

The 2nd US–Japan DNA Repair Meeting convened at the JW Marriott Ihilani Hotel, outside Honolulu, Hawaii, from June 4–8, 2004. In keeping with the tradition of US–Japan conferences the meeting was modest in size comprising 25 participants from each country. The program featured platform presentations from each participant, with lots of time devoted to discussion of groups of related talks. A novel feature of the meeting was the absence of formally designated and previously announced titles for sessions and talks, providing a level of informality that promoted relaxed interactions. Discussion was gratifyingly brisk and informative throughout and was considered to be a highlight of the meeting. All sessions were chaired by the program planners Errol Friedberg and Sam Wilson, who did not present formal talks. The following pages comprise summations of the talks presented, organized into primary topic themes.