The Joint FEBS/EMBO Lecture Course ‘Molecular mechanisms of ageing and regeneration: from hydra to humans’ is part of a series of Summer Schools with a 50-year tradition on the wonderful island of Spetses, Greece. It brings together leaders in the fields of ageing and regeneration with early-stage researchers, i.e. PhD students and postdocs. The meeting combines lectures, discussion groups, poster sessions, tutorials under the olive trees or on the beach, and common dinners. The intense nature of the course creates a familiar and inspiring atmosphere and fosters interactions between participants and speakers. It thus creates a unique training and networking opportunity.

Organizers: Christoph Englert, Tatjana Piotrowski

Cancer research is still pushing scientific boundaries and new developments and insights are entering the clinic at increasing pace. Most of the clinical successes come from our understanding of basic processes that govern cancer initiation and progression, including signal transduction. Consequently, we see that especially inhibitors to signaling molecules, in particular kinases, are entering the clinic very rapidly. Therefore, the molecular mechanisms by which signals are received by cells, transduced towards the proper targets and integrated into a biological response are amongst the most-studied areas in modern biology. In this Joint FEBS/EMBO Lecture Course on Spetses, we are bringing together a number of true experts in the field from basic and translational oncology. This course will cover signaling by various pathways (PI3K, WNT, RAS/RAF) but also DNA damage and protein degradation signaling. We will also cover the consequences of pathway deregulation for cellular processes like metabolism and damage repair. Finally, the application or translation of this knowledge into the clinic will be discussed by the speakers.

Registration and abstract submission: April 1, 2024

Organizers: Boudewijn Burgering, with Co-organizer René Medema

This Joint FEBS/EMBO Lecture Course is an excellent platform and opportunity for graduate students and young postdoctoral scientists from academia (and possibly industry) to acquire an integrated overview of the structure, function and biogenesis of biological membranes and their components, to gain more insight in the possibilities offered by different disciplines and to discuss and learn about the multiple approaches, techniques and specialties in membrane research as well as to discuss modern-day challenges of the academic world with different experts in these fields. The past (18) courses have learned that the convivial atmosphere of this course stimulates excellent interactions between all course participants, also in part thanks to the location of the course.

Image: Artistic adaptation of the transferrin receptor localized in the ER and Golgi. This picture is a single time point of a spatial 3D high resolution movie obtained using the lattice light sheet microscope (yellow is closest and purple is farthest). Courtesy of the Kirchhausen lab.

Organizers: Eefjan Breukink