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Epigenetics,
2010]
This report summarizes the information presented at the 2009 Keystone Conference on MicroRNAs and Cancer, held in Keystone, Colorado, USA, June 10th to 15th 2009. Soon after microRNAs (miRNAs) emerged as an abundant new class of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), evidence started to mount supporting important roles for these regulatory RNAs in human health and disease. Mis-regulation of specific miRNA pathways has been linked to diverse cancers. The recent Keystone meeting highlighted progress in understanding the role of miRNAs in normal development and oncogenesis. Recurring themes included the complexities associated with miRNA biogenesis, target recognition, elucidation of genetic networks where miRNAs play pivotal roles often within feedback loops, and the promise of small RNAs as diagnostics and therapeutics in combating cancer.
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New Biol,
1991]
The biennial meeting on the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, which has been held at Cold Spring Harbor on six previous occasions, this year grew too big for the motels of Long Island and moved westward to Madison, where over 500 participants spent 4 packed days discussing recent discoveries and future prospects. Gone are the days when research on this tiny worm seemed like a cottage industry, pursued only by a small group of devotees. However, the holistic approach to the nematode still prevails, as demonstrated by the absence of parallel sessions at the meeting. Genomics, genetics, neurobiology, cell biology, biochemistry, and development remain inextricably interwoven for most of the scientists studying C. elegans. Appropriately enough, biological interactions proved to be a leitmotiv of the 1991 meeting.
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Invert Neurosci,
2010]
Against the backdrop of the scenic Lake Mendota, the C. elegans Neurobiology Meeting came to a head. Expertly organised by Brian Ackley and Bruce Bamber and hosted at the accommodating University of Wisconsin, the meeting brought together recent contributions from many of the major research groups working on the neurobiology of C. elegans. With seven keynote speakers, 57 verbal presentations and hundreds of posters, this exciting event spanned a fascinating 3days from 27 June to 30 June 2010. In keeping with the tradition of this conference, the event on the whole was spearheaded by young investigators from several research institutions. The meeting served to emphasise the gains enjoyed by taking advantage of the genetic tractability of the worm. A thread that ran through the meeting was the importance of integrating data across different levels of biological organisation to permit delineation of the physiology underpinning discrete behavioural states. Recent advances in optogenetics and microfluidics were at the forefront of refining these analyses. The presentations discussed in this meeting report are a selection which reflects this overarching theme.
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Nat Genet,
2003]
In the year that the Nobel Prize was awarded to Sydney Brenner, Bob Horvitz and Sir John Suslton, the 14th International C. elegans meeting was bound to be a celebration as well as a scientific meeting and social get-together. The celebratory mood reached its high point during the keynote address by Sydney Brenner, the 'Father of the Worm'. The address was classic Brenner, at once provocative and Delphic, with incisive analogies, witty anecdotes and sweeping dismissals (systems biology did not fare well), all delivered with his usual flair.
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EMBO Rep,
2012]
The Cold Spring Harbour Asia conference on 'Assembly, Plasticity, Dysfunction and Repair of Neural Circuits' took place in Suzhou, China, in October 2011. Developmental, cell, molecular and systems neuroscientists convened to discuss the establishment, function and plasticity of neural circuits in diverse organisms.
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Mech Ageing Dev,
2007]
Nearly 20 years ago, researchers discovered that lifespan can be extended by single-gene mutations in the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans. Further studies revealed that the mechanisms governing aging in the smallest organisms have been evolutionarily conserved and may operate in human beings. Since then, the field of biogerontology has expanded considerably, learning from - and contributing to - such disparate fields as cell signaling, metabolism, endocrinology, and a wide range of human diseases including cancer. To date, newly discovered connections and novel interdisciplinary approaches gradually unify what once seemed unrelated observations between seemingly disparate research areas. While this unification is far from complete, several overlapping themes have clearly emerged. At the 95th International Titisee Conference, devoted to "The Molecular Basis of Aging," 60 of the world''s pre-eminent biogerontologists shared their most recent findings in the biology of aging, and discussed interdisciplinary connections between diverse fields.
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Science,
1996]
The one-cell animal embryo, or zygote, faces a daunting engineering task: implementing the architectural plans inscribed in its DNS for building a complex, multicelled body. So, like any sensible construction supervisor, the zygote swiftly divides the project into manageable chunks, assigning some of its progeny to build only gut, for example, and other to make only muscle or skin. Just how each early embryonic cell gets its orders is understood only for the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster-an achievement that helped win 1995's Nobel Prize in medicine for three developmental biologists. Now, however, the communication lines governing embryonic development are emerging in another animal beloved of developmental researchers: the tiny worm known as Caenorhabditis elegans.
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RNA Biol,
2010]
Since the discovery of the first microRNA (miRNA) family member
lin-4 in Caenorhabditis elegans by Lee et al. and RNA interference (RNAi) by Andrew Fire and his colleagues in the 1990s, the new field of regulatory non-coding RNAs has enormously gained momentum and importance. Small regulatory RNAs comprise small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), miRNAs and Piwi-associated small RNAs (piRNAs). Generated from double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs), siRNAs trigger sequence-specific mRNA decay also known as RNA interference (RNAi). miRNAs in association with Argonaute (AGO ) and GW182 proteins, forming the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC), mediate fine tuning of gene expression and are involved in various biological key processes. An estimate of 500-1,000 miRNA genes exist in vertebrates and plants and about 100 in invertebrates. Each miRNA is predicted to target hundreds of mRNAs thus influencing key regulatory mechanisms of the cell. Consequently, deregulated miRNA expression has been suggested to contribute to the initiation and progression of human cancer and other diseases. piRNAs associated with Piwi proteins protect the animal germline from mobile genetic elements, thereby acting as a small RNA-based immune system.
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EMBO Rep,
2010]
The town of Ascona in Switzerland, nestled on the northern shore of Lago Maggiore, hosted the 112 participants in the first systems biology meeting focused on developmental biology. The EMBO workshop was held between 16 and 20 August and brought together a multidisciplinary group of scientists who use systems approaches to understand how the size and shape of multicellular organisms and organs are determined.
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Fuellen G, Priebe S, Dengjel J, Stolzing A, Rebholz-Schuhmann D, Hoeflich A, Kestler HA, Hoeijemakers J, Kowald A, Schmitz U, Suhnel J, Wuttke D, Schmeck B, Vera J
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Rejuvenation Res,
2012]
In an "aging society," health span extension is most important. As in 2010, talks in this series of meetings in Rostock-Warnemunde demonstrated that aging is an apparently very complex process, where computational work is most useful for gaining insights and to find interventions that counter aging and prevent or counteract aging-related diseases. The specific topics of this year's meeting entitled, "RoSyBA: Rostock Symposium on Systems Biology and Bioinformatics in Ageing Research," were primarily related to "Cancer and Aging" and also had a focus on work funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The next meeting in the series, scheduled for September 20-21, 2013, will focus on the use of ontologies for computational research into aging, stem cells, and cancer. Promoting knowledge formalization is also at the core of the set of proposed action items concluding this report.