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ELSO 2005
ELSO continues to draw world-leaders of science as it returns to Dresden
for its 2005 meeting
The European Life Scientist Organization (ELSO) returned to Dresden, in the
heart of the former German Democratic Republic, for its fifth major European
congress, which took place in the city’s spanking new International Congress
Centre. ELSO draws leading players from the world stage to its meetings of
molecular life scientists including, this year, Dr. Rick Klausner, Executive
Director for Global Health of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. ELSO not
only organized a great scientific programme for the European and international
researchers gathering in Dresden, but also it is working year-round to improve
scientific job opportunities especially for young researchers. This year it
offered coaching sessions on careers outside academia, and it launched its
online Database of Expert Women in the Molecular Life Sciences, aimed at giving
more visibility to Europe’s excellent women scientists.
The brand new International Congress Centre on the banks of the river Elbe,
which opened last year, epitomises the renaissance of the 800 year-old city of
Dresden since German reunification. Science and high-tech industry are a crucial
part of the revitalisation of this elegant Baroque city, which boasts over
28,000 students at the Dresden University of Technology (Technische Universität
Dresden – TU Dresden), not to mention the University College of Applied Sciences.
There are around 30 scientific institutions and establishments in Dresden,
including the new Max Planck Institute of Cell Biology and Genetics, as well as
around 2,000 people working in the research and development departments of
various companies.
Four full days of cutting-edge molecular life science research were on display
in Dresden this week as ELSO returned to the city for its fifth major European
congress. With around 200 speakers in plenary sessions, minisymposia and
specialist subgroup meetings, 600 poster presentations, and 60 commercial
exhibitors’ booths, the ELSO meetings are by far the largest annual venue for
any of the molecular life sciences in Europe. That’s why it pulls the top
scientists not only from Europe but also from the rest of the world.
This year, two opening lectures on Saturday evening, 3 September, were given by
Dr. Rick Klausner, Executive Director for Global Health of the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation in Seattle (WA, USA) and Dr. Peter Agre, Nobel laureate and
currently Vice Chancellor of Science and Technology at Duke University Medical
Center (NC, USA).
Klausner, a cell biologist of international renown, was Director of the USA’s
National Cancer Institute before taking responsibility for improving global
health equality through the Gates Foundation, which is investing over $700
million annually in what he describes as, “the emerging field of global health:
applying the best of 21st century technology to the moral and ethical priorities
of developing-world health.” At ELSO, Klausner described the vision and strategy
of the Gates Foundation and challenged European researchers to develop
deliverable solutions to health problems in countries that lack basic
infrastructures. “A lot of our grants go to Europe where there has traditionally
been more attention to developing-world health than in the US,” Klausner
explained.
Agre won the 2003 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his discovery of the protein
channels that transport water through biological membranes, while working on red
blood cell membranes at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in
Baltimore (MD, USA). He talked about this discovery and its consequences for
understanding physiology and disease in his lecture on Saturday evening.
At the opening session also, ELSO President Kai Simons unveiled ELSO’s new
Database of Expert Women in the Molecular Life Sciences, its new device to
improve the visibility of European women researchers in this field. "Our
objective is to promote gender equality in Europe, by improving the visibility
of women accomplished in their fields, from senior postdocs to senior
independent scientists," said Karla Neugebauer, a Group Leader at the Dresden
Max Planck Institute of Cell Biology and Genetics, and creator of the new
database.
ELSO hopes the database will help organizations identify appropriately qualified
women scientists as candidates for professorships and other positions; to speak
at conferences and in seminar programmes; to participate in advisory groups, on
monitoring panels, committees and commissions; to review manuscripts, to write
commissioned reviews and to serve on the editorial boards of journals. The
database already has over 200 of Europe’s top female molecular cell biologists
listed and it is now open for further applications from qualified women. “From
my point of view, it is extremely useful for identifying women from outside my
field as speakers and to serve on committees,” comments Susan Gasser, Director
of the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel (Switzerland), about the new
database, “It’s going to open the eyes of young women to just how many women are
active in research – women who are sometimes invisible – and it will help us to
build a community spirit among women researchers who are often too few and far
between,” she adds.
This year’s ELSO Early Career Award also recognised the contribution of an
excellent young woman scientist. Italian-born Elena Conti, a protein X-ray
crystallographer at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg
(Germany), was selected by ELSO’s Career Development Committee as this year’s
winner for her work on the mechanisms of protein and mRNA transport into and out
of the nucleus. Conti is the third woman to win this prize, and also the third
scientist from the prestigious European laboratory. The Award was made at the
ELSO congress on Sunday when Conti also presented a lecture on her work.
The Early Career Award and the Database of Expert Women are just two of the
activities of the Career Development Committee, which provides helpful
information for young researchers through its web pages on the ELSO site.
Complementing the activities of this committee, ELSO has also been involved over
several years in the discussions about creating a European Research Council to
finance fundamental research in all disciplines of knowledge at a European level.
These discussions now seem to be nearing fruition as the European Commission has
proposed to include such an independent funding agency as part of its seventh
Framework Programme for research, which will begin in 2007. The Commission has
just announced the 22 members of the ERC’s first Scientific Council, which
include Carl-Henrick Heldin, Fotis Kafatos, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Leena
Peltonen-Palotie and Rolf Zinkernagel, all pre-eminent members of the life
science community. “Everything is on track for establishing the ERC in 2007,”
comments ELSO President, Kai Simons, “This will be a fantastic step towards
improving the attractiveness of the European research scene. ELSO is fighting
hard to ensure that the first funding phase will be focused on young
investigators throughout Europe. They need the money most!”
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ELSO 2005