LS2 Life Sciences Switzerland: Life Sciences Switzerland

Zusammenfassung

• LS2 Annual Meeting 2019 "Cell Biology from Tissue to Nucleus"

14-15 February 2019, University of Zurich, Irchel Campus (389 participants)

The LS2 Annual Meeting is mostly financed by the participants, sponsors and exhibitors. However, some key activities have been made possible with the support of SCNAT, including the support to BSc/MSc students to attend the meeting and support of the extremely successful "PIs of Tomorrow ? The Future of Swiss Research" Postdoc competition.

These SCNAT-funded activities have been well received and were very much appreciated again.

• Two LS2 Satellite meetings accompanying the EMBO Workshop on DNA Topology & Topoisomerases in Genome Dynamics (Les Diablerets) & to the Louis-Jeantet Symposium (Geneva)

• Proteomics, Cardiovascular Biology and Physiology section meetings with again increasing participant numbers.

• Two events for the public: Public Panel discussion on "Is merit (gender) biased?" & a jointly organized symposium with SGV on "Animal Research Today"

Tagungen / Kurse

• LS2 Annual Meeting 2019, 14-15 February 2019, University of Zurich, Irchel Campus ?Cell Biology from Tissue to Nucleus"

- Four plenary speakers: Anna Akhmanova, Utrecht University (NL); Anne Bertolotti, Cambridge (UK); Jody Rosenblatt, University of Utah (US); Leonie Ringrose, Berlin (DE)

- 7 scientific symposia: The Proteome in 3D - Live-cell imaging approaches in Cell Biology - Regeneration and pathology of skeletal muscle - Chromatin, epigenetics and the transmission of acquired states across generation - Bacterial Cell Biology - Chemical Biology & Drug Development - Sweet molecules in inflammation and cancer: Novel insights and therapeutic options offered by glycosciences

- Public Panel discussion: "Is merit (gender) biased? Advancement in academia." Chair: Gerlind Wallon (EMBO Deputy Director & Program Manager)

- Career Lunch Session by Career Services at the University of Zurich

- The popular Postdoc contest "PIs of Tomorrow" where the best future projects from diverse disciplines were being showcased

- Two dedicated poster sessions with 120+ posters presented by promising young scientists who can enter the competition for various poster prizes

- A large industry exhibition with 30+ industry partners

- The award ceremonies of the Friedrich-Miescher Award (to Prof. Bernd Bodenmiller (UZH) and the Lelio Orci Award to Jean-Claude Martinou (UNIGE) and poster prize.

• Section Meetings:

- Cardiovascular Research Meeting (2^ndAnnual Meeting of the new LS2 intersection Cardiovascular Biology), 14-15 March 2019, Fribourg, 86 participants, https://meetings.ls2.ch/cardiovascular2019

- Swiss Proteomics Meeting (Annual Meeting of the LS2 section Proteomics), 23-14 May April 2019, Eurotel Montreux, 137 participants, https://meetings.ls2.ch/proteomics-2019

- Annual Swiss Physiology Meeting, 3 September 2019, University of Bern, 61 participants, https://meetings.ls2.ch/physiology2019

• LS2 Satellite Meetings for young scientists preceding or following the conferences below, with kind support from SCNAT:

- Satellite Meeting to EMBO Workshop DNA Topology and Topoisomerases in Genome Dynamics on 15-16 September 2019, Les Disblerets.

• Chairs: Stephan Gruber (University of Lausanne, Switzerland) and Carlos Gómez Marín (CABIMER, Spain) will be the chairs of this meeting.
• The meeting also included a Q&A session with the chairs and early-arriving plenary speakers about Academic Careers.
• 26 participants
• https://meetings.ls2.ch/topo2019

- Symposium Louis-Jeantet, 15 October 2019, CMU Geneva:

• Satellite Meeting 16 October 2019 on RNA Biology, https://meetings.ls2.ch/jeantet-2019
• 24 participants.
• Chair: Witold Filipowicz (FMI Basel).
• Participating plenary speakers: Elena Conti, Max-Planck-Institute of Biochemistry (GE) Venki Ramakrishnan (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009), MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (UK).
• Both the chair and the plenary speaker gave Career advice talks.
• Q&A session on Careers with the young scientists

• Co-organized meetings:

- Cytomeet, 22 January 2019, Haus der Universität, Bern

• The meeting for scientists working on cell migration
•  in collaboration with the section "Molecular & Cellular Biosciences", with kind support from SCNAT

- Autophagy workshop, 13 September 2019, Fribourg, one-event with two guest speakers and lots of possibilities to discuss autophagy, exchange autophagy protocols and networkingJoint

- SGV/LS2 public symposium on "Animal Research Today", 13 September 2019, Zurich (see ?Dialog mit der Gesellschaft? below)

Internationale Aktivitäten

• Francois Karch (University of Geneva), delegate LS2 section MCB, FEBS Congress Council Meeting - Como, 06-11 July 2019
• Zhihong Yang (University of Fribourg), delegate LS2 section Physiology, co-organized Austrian-Swiss-German 98^th Joined Physiology meeting (Sept 30 to October 2, 2019), Ulm, Germany

Nachwuchsförderung

• LS2 PhD travel grants to visit conferences abroad. Total grants given in 2019: 24, supported by SCNAT, https://www.ls2.ch/funding/travel-grant-reports

• 20 travel grants for Bachelor and Master students to attend the LS2 Annual Meeting (50 CHF each), supported by SCNAT

• Two free satellite symposia for PhD and master students (see above), incl. accommodation and travels, supported by SCNAT

• Reduced costs or free attendance to Cardiovascular, Physiology, and Proteomics Annual Meetings (see above)

• LS2 sponsored events (https://www.ls2.ch/events/sponsored-events):
  • SSPT Spring Meeting 2019, 11 April 2019, Inselspital Bern
  • Basel Postdoc Netweok Retreat 2019, Hotel Victoria, Kanderteg, Switzerland
  • UNIGE Science PostDoc Day 2019, 6 June 2019, Faculty of Sciences, University of Geneva,

• Participation as invited speaker at the Geneva Postdoc Day and the Basel Postdoc Network Retreat to promote our activities for young scientists

• Career Lunch Session by Career Services at the University of Zurich as part of the LS2 Annual Meeting 2019

Forschungsunterstützende Informations- und Koordinationsaufgaben

• Mailchimp-based newsletter with all relevant info on LS2 and general life sciences events and activities, newsletter archive at: https://www.ls2.ch/more/ls2-newsletter-archive
• Supporting calendar on website: https://www.ls2.ch/events/other-events with a focus on scientific conferences in Switzerland
• Member database, open to all members, allows to enter areas of expertise and fosters exchange
• Active social media channels and groups on Facebook, twitter, and LinkedIn
• Science Policy news ticker from ScienceGeist onto the ls2.ch homepage (http://www.sciencegeist.com) ScienceGeist is a curated collection of over 3500 constantly updated science policy issues, and supported by SNSF (subscription possible for everybody). As a result, our members and the public have constant access to the latest Science Policy issues via our homepage.

Früherkennung

1. Free Public Panel Discussion: Joint SGV/LS2 public symposium on "Animal Research Today"/"Tierversuche im Dialog", 13 September 2019, Zurich

*In German and English language*

Das gemeinsame LS²/SGV Symposium

• Das gut besuchte Symposium ?Tierversuche im Dialog? wurde von Birgit Ledermann (Präsidentin SGV) und Urs Greber (Präsident LS2) eingeführt. Es begann mit grundlegenden Ausführungen von Michael Hengartner (ehem. Präsident UZH, amtierender Präsident des ETH Rats) zur Wichtigkeit von sorgfältigen und gut geplanten Tierversuchen. Marcel Falk (ScNat) zeigte politische und gesellschaftliche Komponenten von Tierversuchen.
• hat Wissenschaftern und Mitarbeitern im Bereich der Tierpflege die Möglichkeit geboten, mit der interessierten Öffentlichkeit in einen Dialog über Tierversuche zu treten
• lieferte objektive Informationen über die gängige Praxis mit Versuchstieren und zeigte Beispiele zu Tierversuchen in der Schweiz
• Das Ziel war es, den Dialog zwischen Fachpersonen und der Öffentlichkeit zu fördern
• Anschliessend führte Birgit Ledermann durch die Diskussion mit zehn verschiedenen Referenten, die ausbildungstechnische und wissenschaftliche Beiträge erläuterten. Die Vorträge illustrierten eine beeindruckende wissenschaftliche Palette breit abgestützter Tierversuche, mit präziser Fragestellung und Planung sowie umfassender Interpretation. Die abschliessende Plenardiskussion unter Einbezug des Publikums wurde von Servan Grueninger (reatch) geleitet.
• Rückmeldungen von Teilnehmern bestätigten, dass ein grosser Informationsbedarf zum Thema ?Tierversuche? besteht. Aehnliche Veranstaltungen wurden für die Deutschschweiz wie auch die Romandie und das Tessin gewünscht.

2. Free Public Panel Discussion as part of the LS2 Annual Meeting 2019 in Zurich

15.02.2019, 14:00-16:00, University of Zurich

Chair: Gerlind Wallon (EMBO Deputy Director & Program Manager) Is merit (gender) biased? Advancement in academia.

Invited panelists:

• Dr. Britt Dahmen (Head of Department for Gender Equality and Diversity |  University of Cologne/DE). E-Quality in selection processes: promising frameworks in practice? 
• Prof. Dr. Marieke van den Brink (Radboud Gender & Diversity Studies | Radboud University, Nijmegen/NL). Gender practices in recruitment and selection in academia?

How do (gender) biases influence the evaluation and selection of scientists? How can we address (gender) biases and reduce their influence on selection processes?

In this session we explored how gender biases influence the evaluation of merit and thereby the outcome of selection processes in academia and elsewhere and how these could be addressed. Gerlind Wallon summarised the current status of the representation of women in academia. Marieke van den Brink reported on her studies that reveal how recruitment in academia is influenced by (gender) biases. Britt Dahmen presented how the cascading model, a quota system required by law, is implemented at Cologne University. This was followed by a panel discussion.