Speakers
We are proud to present you a first glimpse of the fabulous speakers that will attend the 2010 symposium:
Robin P Choudhury MA, DM, FACC
Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in Clinical Science and Honorary Consultant Cardiologist
Clinical Director Oxford Acute Vascular Imaging Centre.
Main research interests:
Development and application of magnetic resonance imaging to characterize atherosclerosis and vascular disease. Interventions to retard progression and induce regression of atherosclerosis.
Prof. Dr. Andrea Brand
Herchel Smith Professor of Molecular Biology
Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience at the Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge
Main research interests:
Discovering how stem cells are maintained in a multipotent state and how their progeny differentiate into distinct cellular fates is the aim of Prof. Brand's group. These findings will be a key step in the therapeutic use of stem cells to repair tissues after damage or disease. Her group is investigating the genetic networks that regulate stem cells in the Drosophila nervous system. Her group showed that one determinant, the transcription factor Prospero, is a binary switch between self-renewal and differentiation.
Reinhard Jahn
Professor, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry
Main research interests:
Our group is interested in the mechanisms of membrane fusion, with the main emphasis on regulated exocytosis in neurons. Since recent years it is known that intracellular membrane fusion events are mediated by a set of conserved membrane proteins, termed SNAREs. For fusion to occur, complementary sets of SNAREs need to be present on both of the fusing membranes. The neuronal SNAREs are among the best characterized. They are the targets of the toxins responsible for botulism and tetanus. To understand how these proteins make membranes fuse, we studied their properties in detail using biochemical and biophysical approaches. We found that they assemble into a tight complex which ties the membrane closely together and thus probably initiates bilayer mixing.
Noel R Rose MD, PHD
Center for Autoimmune Disease Research, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Main research interests:
autoimmunity
Dr. Helmut Jonuleit
Head of the Research Unit in the Skin Clinics, University of Mainz
Main research interests:
The mayor interests of the group are the functional characterization of human dendritic cells and regulatory T cells, development of efficient dendritic cell-based cellular therapies of cancer, T cell modulatory components for treatment of imbalanced immune responses in allergy, autoimmunity and chronic inflammatory diseases and cancer.
Jost Enninga
Group "Dynamics of Host-Pathogen Interactions", Department Cell Biology and Infection, Institut Pasteur
Main research interests:
The members of the group "Dynamics of host pathogen-interactions" are developing novel approaches to investigate the interactions between pathogens and their hosts in single cells in real time. They are interested in deciphering the molecular and cellular mechanisms of bacterial invasion of host cells and therefore connect the fields of cell biology, microbial pathogenesis, and immunology by developing novel, fluorescent microscopic approaches. The aim is to establish approaches that correlate the pathogen behaviour and the host responses in single experiments at cellular and subcellular resolution.
Prof. Dame Louise Johnson
Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford
Main research interests:
Protein kinases and their regulation in health and disease with special focus on the kinases involved in the regulation of the cell cycle.
Florian Bassermann
Third Department of Medicine, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Munich Technical University
Main research interests:
The major interests of the group are molecular mechanismns of cell cycle regulation, DNA damage response and the regulation of apoptosis. In this respect they focus on ubiquitylation and subsequent degradation of proteins and how defects in this system account for tumor formation. They are especially interested in regulation of S- and G2/M cell cycle phase mediated by SCF and APC/C ubiquitin ligases, in DNA damage response induced activity of deubiquitylating enzymes and in the regulation of apoptosis via SCF ubiquitin ligases.
Florian Greten
Second Department of Medicine, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Munich Technical University
Main research interests:
The group is focussing on sporadic and colitis-associated colon carcinogenesis. Using genetic mouse models they are addressing especially the role of the IKK/NF-kappaB signal transduction pathway during different stages of tumor development in various cell types.
Ana Cumano
Immunology Department, Pasteur Institute, France
Main research interests:
Hematopoietic cell development occurs through a succession of events involving hematopoietic stem cell generation, self-renewal, lineage commitment and differentiation. The different members of the Unit for Lymphocyte Development study in an integrative manner different aspects of hematopoietic and lymphocyte development. Hematopoietic Stem Cell generation. We have identified the site where hematopoietic stem cell generation occurs, in embryogenesis. We have been analyzing the properties of the newly generated hematopoietic stem cells, their capacity of engraftment and their requirements for further maturation and expansion in fetal liver that we consider being crucial aspects for the understanding of stem cell self-renewal and lineage determination.
