10th Conference of the International PhD Program in Life Sciences

January 31st - February 2nd, 2018, Leukerbad

Program

Theme: "The next decade"

This year's conference will be devoted to current advancements and how these will shape the next decade of life sciences.

Scientific program

Day 1 – Wednesday, January 31st, 2018

07:30 Departure (bus) from Science III entrance
Session 1: chaired by Priscille Steensma
10:30 - 11:00 Opening coffee & sponsors' stands
11:00 - 11:10 Opening remarks
11:10 - 11:35 Karoline Leopold (Molecular Biology)
Molecular mechanism of the fission yeast chromatin remodeler Mit1
11:35 - 12:00 Yohan El Bali (Genetics & Evolution)
Making the iab-8ncRNA non-coding?
12:00 - 12:30 SISF (Gold sponsor)
12:30 - 14:00 Lunch
Session 2: chaired by Marta Pesquera
14:00 - 15:00 Carles Palanca (Biopolis) - Supported by iGE3
Biopolis – insights from a leading biotechnological company
15:00 - 15:25 Maeva Le Guennec (Cell Biology)
Comprehensive architecture of the centriole across species revealed by cryo-microscopy
15:25 - 15:50 Sofia Zaganelli (Cell Biology)
Identification of mitochondrial RNA granules assembly factors and regulators using an image-based siRNA screen
15:50 - 16:00 Promega (Silver sponsor)
16:00 - 16:20 Flash talks (Poster Session-1)
  1. Ilaria Di Meglio
    Epithelial cell proliferation under 3D confinement
  2. Jatinder Kaur
    Antisense transcription modulates paired sense expression by driving changes in the chromatin state at the promoter
  3. Jimit Shah
    Junctional clustering of ADAM10 and its interactor Tetraspanin33 by the PLEKHA7-PDZD11 complex promotes cytotoxicity by Staphylococcus aureus alpha-toxin
  4. Maksym Shyian
    Replication fork barrier tolerance mechanisms in budding yeast
  5. Federica Cariti
    New chloroplast phosphatases necessary for state transitions in Chlamydomonas
  6. Ayala Sela
    Characterization of a chloroplast chaperonin temperature sensitive mutant in Arabidopsis thaliana
16:20 - 16:50 Coffee break, sponsors' stands
16:50 - 18:20 Poster session-1 (Even number)
Session 3: chaired by Mateusz Mendel
18:20 - 19:20 Costas Bekas (IBM Research - Zurich)
Cognitive Discovery: How Artificial Intelligence Dramatically Changes R&D in Life Sciences
19:20 - 19:30 Excellgene (Silver sponsor)
A “young” company at the interphase of Science and Products for Human Pharmaceuticals
19:30 - 19:55 Deepikaa Menon (Biochemistry)
Regulation of membrane scission in yeast endocytosis
19:55 - 20:20 Manuel Hofmann (Botany & Plant Biology)
On the role of triphosphorylated thiamine compounds in plants
20:20 - 20:30 GE Healthcare (Silver sponsor)
20:30 - 22:00 Dinner

Day 2 – Thursday, February 1st, 2018

07:00 - 09:00 Breakfast
Session 4: chaired by Ekaterina Vasileva
09:00 - 09:25 Abhinav Joshi (Cell Biology)
An HSP90 isoform TRAP(1)ped in the Mitochondria
09:25 - 09:50 Roman Podolec (Botany & Plant Biology)
A genetic screen for components of the UV-B photoreceptor pathway in Arabidopsis thaliana
09:50 - 10:00 Witec AG (Silver sponsor)
10:00 - 10:30 Coffee break, sponsors' stands
10:30 - 11:30 José Silva (University of Cambridge) - supported by SISF
Mechanistic dissection of induced naive pluripotency
11:30 - 11:55 Alessandro Stirpe (Molecular Biology)
A novel histone H3K14ub modification regulates the enzymatic activity of the histone H3K9 methyltransferase Clr4
11:55 - 12:20 Flash talks(Poster Session-2)
  1. Anna-Katharina Pfitzner
    Behaviour of ESCRT proteins on artificial membrane neck structures
  2. Nataliia Serbyn
    Role of SUMO pathway in DNA-protein crosslink tolerance and repair
  3. Akira Ohkubo
    FASTKD4: Exploring Non-canonical Mitochondrial RNA Processing
  4. Sophie Sluysmans
    Exploring the molecular basis of hypertension: the role of PLEKHA7 in endothelial calcium homeostasis
  5. Nenad Suknovic
    A complex epithelial-interstitial crosstalk via ROS signaling and injury-induced cell death drives head regeneration in Hydra
  6. Alexis Riché
    Functional analysis of Photosystem II phosphorylation in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii
12:20 - 12:30 Group photo
12:30 - 14:00 Lunch
14:00 - 15:30 Poster session-2 (Odd number)
Session 5: chaired by Alessandro Stirpe
15:30 - 16:00 Ksenia Tugay (EasyCare Academy)
"Not Academia, nor industry - careers out of the box"
16:00 - 17:00 Panel discussion: The next decade
(moderators - Alessandro and Mateusz)
17:00 - 17:30 Coffee break, sponsors' stands
17:30 - 17:40 NCCR (Silver sponsor)
17:40 - 18:05 Anatoly Kozlov (Genetics & Evolution)
Neuronal Messenger Nitric Oxide and the Regulation of the Circadian Clock
18:05 - 18:30 Kamila Delaney (Molecular Biology)
Local inhibition of PRC2 activity by histone H3.3 K27M leads to replication defects and endomitosis in C. elegans.
18:30 - 18:45 Aurélien Roux and Marko Kaksonen
10th anniversary PhD program
18:45 - 19:30 PhD assembly
20:30 - 22:00 Gala dinner
22:00 - 03:00 Conference party

Day 3 – Friday, February 2nd, 2018

07:00 - 09:00 Breakfast
Session 6: chaired by Sagar Khavnekar
09:00 - 09:25 Ulrich Hohmann (Botany & Plant Biology)
Mechanistic basis for the activation of plant membrane receptor kinases by SERK-family co-receptors
09:25 - 09:50 Sarah Al Haddad (Genetics & Evolution)
The Hippo pathway during growth and regeneration in Hydra.
09:50 - 10:15 Pedro Machado (Genetics & Evolution)
RNAseq Analysis of Biological Rhythms in Drosophila Mushroom Body
10:15 - 10:25 Voting for posters & talks
10:25 - 11:00 Coffee break, sponsors' stands and check-out
11:00 - 12:00 Awards, closing remarks
12:00 - 13:30 Lunch
13:30 - 16:30 Social activity
16:30 Bus to Geneva