LS2 Life Sciences Switzerland: Life Sciences Switzerland
· New section in LS2: Ion Channels and Membrane Transporters.
The LS2 section Ion Channels and Membrane Transporters is a spin-off of two SNSF-funded National Centers of Competence in Research (NCCR) -TransCure and Kidney.CH- active between 2010 and 2022. For the first time, researchers working in Switzerland on ion channels and membrane transporters get together to establish a community under the umbrella of Life Sciences Switzerland (LS2). https://www.ls2.ch/sections/ion-channels-and-membrane-transporters.
· 35 prizes were given in LS2 conferences to young researchers.
· 27 travel grants to PhD students supported by SCNAT.
· 10 scientific conferences organized by our sections and collaborators, including the Physiology Section Meeting with the Young Investigator Award (Supported by “Stiftung für Physiologie”).
· 3 LS2 webinar series
· 2 National Awards were given under the umbrella of LS2: Friedrich Miescher Award 2022 (supported by FMI and Novartis Foundation) to Prof. Paul Guichard (University of Geneva) and Lelio Orci Award 2022 (supported by Lelio Orci Found and UNIGE) to Prof. Susan M. Gasser (ISREC Foundation)
· We gave our first Honorary Membership Award to Prof. Marcus Thelen (IRB, USI, Bellinzona)
· New collaborations with: Swiss 3R Competence Centre and Biotechnet Switzerland.
· LS2 Annual Meeting 2022: “Life Sciences in the 2020s: quantitation, integration and prediction” and Young Scientists’ Satellite (YSS) – Zurich 20, 21 and 22 April 2022.
The chair of the meeting was Dr. Lydie Lane (University of Geneva and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics). The LS2 Annual Meeting brings together scientists from all nationality and backgrounds to explore the large spectrum united under the umbrella of Life Sciences. The 2022 edition was organized on-site in Zurich, campus Irchel of the University of Zurich. with all safety measures in place. The conference and its satellite gathered more than 300 participants and included 3 keynote lectures and more than 30 invited speakers. The LS2 Annual Meeting is mostly financed by the participants, sponsors and exhibitors with the support from Platform Biology of SCNAT.
Co-organized meeting with the Section Molecular & Cellular Biosciences. The objective of Cytomeet was always to connect the Swiss community interested in the cytoskeleton and cell migration. The conference has been organized for more than 30 years and it is still a success and an important point of networking and career develop for young researchers in the field. This activity received support from SCNAT.
The workshop was organized by Hubert Hilbi (SSM section Molecular Microbiology), Urs Greber (LS2, SSM section Virology) and the Platform Biology of the Swiss Academies of Sciences, SCNAT.
The meeting was initially planned to take place in presence mode, in Ascona, over a week. Due to uncertainties related to increasing number of COVID-19 cases in autumn 2021, we decided to switch to an online-only mode. The Biophysics of the Brain conference brought together 90 scientists from Switzerland, Europe, North America, and Asia, working on brain research utilizing biophysical methods. The focus was put on protein folding and aggregation, endocytosis and exocytosis, advances in imaging and electrophysiology, diffusion and gene expression, and membrane protein structure and function. Top-notch international speakers gave exciting talks, which were followed by lively discussions. This event was supported by SCNAT.
The LS2 Annual Meeting brings together scientists from all nationality and backgrounds to explore the large spectrum united under the umbrella of Life Sciences. The 2022 edition was organized on-site with all safety measures in place. The chair of the meeting was Dr. Lydie Lane (Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics. Lydie is board member of our sections Proteomics and Bioinformatics.
The meeting included as novelty an online platform for e-posters, with the concept “online posters, on-site networking”. Additionally, we had short talks selected from abstracts in plenary session and the competition “LS2 Research Slam”. Those actions increased the options of participation of young researchers.
The meeting had 2 plenary lectures, a symposium organized by and for young scientists (https://annual-meeting.ls2.ch/2022/specials/young-scientists-satellite) with a discussion panel and short talks selected from abstracts, our already famous PIs of Tomorrow session (https://annual-meeting.ls2.ch/2022/specials/pis-of-tomorrow, the lectures from 3 Swiss awards (Prix Schläfli, Lelio Orci Award and Friedrich Miescher Award), a special plenary short talk "Personalized Health" from the Forum of Genetic Research-SCNAT (https://annual-meeting.ls2.ch/2022/specials/personalized-health) and Research Slam competition in plenary session (https://annual-meeting.ls2.ch/2022/specials/ls2-research-slam), 10 scientific symposia with 22 international invited speakers (https://annual-meeting.ls2.ch/2022/program/symposia) organized by our sections and partners and 102 e-posters.
The conference and its satellite gathered more than 300 participants and exhibitors. More details can be read on its website: https://annual-meeting.ls2.ch/2022
Annual meeting of our Proteomics Section. 89 participants. 2 Keynote speakers and 30 selected talks from abstracts. 2 awards to best short/flash talk. https://meetings.ls2.ch/proteomics-2022
75 registered participants. 8 invited speakers, talks selected and 25 posters. We gave 4 prizes for young researchers. With the support of the Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Kardiologie. All details on https://meetings.ls2.ch/cardiovascular2022
Co-organized meeting with the Section Molecular & Cellular Biosciences. The conference was organized by Britta Engelhardt (UniBE), Marcus Thelen (IRB) and Daniel F. Legler (BITg). The meeting is intended as a network for the Swiss scientific community working on molecular mechanisms of cell migration from immune cells, lymphomas but also mesenchymal tumors (metastases). The Cell Migration Retreat is unique in Switzerland, both thematically and in terms of its schedule. In particular, PhD students and young postdocs will have the opportunity to present their latest research results. It had the support of SCNAT.
Annual Meeting of our Physiology Section. 76 participants. Two Keynote speakers. The female speaker was sponsored by NCCR-Transcure, talks for the Young Investigator Award supported by the "Stiftung Physiology" (former Oetliker Foundation) and 31 posters. With the support from SCNAT. https://meetings.ls2.ch/physiology2022
Event organized by Beat Suter, board member of the LS2 Section MCB. The conference brought together biophysicists and neuroscientists to discuss the concepts that underlie brain function, such as membrane biophysics, synaptic vesicle diffusion, ions and neurotransmitters, chromatin architecture and the function of the receptors of neurotransmitters and ion channels. This event was supported by SCNAT.
Biannual workshop organized by our Autophagy Section. 80 participants. 7 invited speakers, talks selected from abstracts and poster sessions. 3 prizes for best talk/poster. With the support of SCNAT for the participation of young researchers. https://meetings.ls2.ch/autophagy-workshop-2022
The SCS Seminar on Intellectual property 2022 was a workshop co-organized with the Swiss Chemical Society. The target audience was researchers, technology transfer managers, and others which are required to deal with life science related intellectual property, in particular patents, and enhance their capabilities to assess and manage patent related novelty, inventive step and freedom-to-operate risks. https://ipsem22.scg.ch/
o The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology - IUBMB. Representative: Prof. Daniel Legler (Biotechnologie Institut Thurgau an der Universität Konstanz), president oft he LS2 MCB Section.
o International Union of Physiological Sciences – IUPS. Representative: Prof. Christine Peinelt (University of Bern), president of LS2 Physiology Section.
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· EuPA General Council Meetings. 2 by zoom and 1 in person during EuPA conference in Leipzig. April 3rd, June 11th, October 27th, 2022. Dr. Loïc Dayon, Prof. Bernd Wollscheid (for face-to-face meeting in Leipzig and Dr. Lydie Lane (who is part of the board of EuPA) attended as representatives of LS2 and Section Proteomics.
· EuPA Thematic Meetings. Online meetings. March 30th, September 12th, October 26th, November 11th, 2022. Dr. Loïc Dayon, Dr. Maria Pavlou and Dr. Lydie Lane attended different of those thematic meetings as representatives of LS2 and Section Proteomics. The themes that were discussed were: Mentoring, Interaction with neighboring societies, Organization of educational actions and Organization of transnational events.
· IUPS General Assembly. May 6th, 2022. Prof. Christine Peinelt attended the meeting as representative of LS2 and president of the LS2 Section Physiology.
· FEPS Regional Meeting. Zoom meeting on June 29th, 2022. Prof. Christine Peinelt attended the meeting as representative of LS2 and president of the LS2 Section Physiology.
· FEPS Council Meeting. Zoom meeting on September 16th, 2022. Prof. Maud Frieden attended as representative of LS2 and board member of the LS2 Section Physiology.
· Extraordinary FEBS Council Meeting. Online on July 4th, 2022. Prof. Daniel Legler and Prof. Marcus Thelen as the Swiss delegates of the MCB section of LS2 attended the online extraordinary FEBS Council Meeting.
· FEBS Council Meeting. Lisbon, Portugal on July 14th, 2022. Prof. Daniel Legler as the Swiss delegates and president of the MCB section of LS2 attended the FEBS Council Meeting. At the Joined 46th FEBS/25th IUBMB Meeting. Lisbon, Portugal on July 9th – 14th, 2022. Prof. Daniel Legler chaired the biochemistry session and delivered one of the main talks at this session as invited speaker.
The YSS aims to promote the participation of young researchers to the e-meeting, and the networking among young, non-professorial scientists. With the support from SCNAT.
This session offers an opportunity for postdocs and senior researchers interested in pursuing an academic career to present a talk similar in format to a professorship application interview. With the support from SCNAT.
This Award is supported by the Stiftung für Physiologie and includes 6 awards: 3 for PhD students and 3 for junior Postdocs in 3 different categories, Bets oral presentation, 2nd Best oral presentation and Bets poster.
To visit conferences abroad and online. 27 travel grants supported by SCNAT: https://www.ls2.ch/files/c874/ls2-travel-grants-2022.pdf
Supported by SCNAT, LS2 sponsored 3 “Sonderpreis” to the winners of Geneva Biochemistry Days 2022 (Léa Assies, UNIGE), winners of Swiss Biology Olympics 2021 and the winner of the “Nationalen Wettberwerb” 2021 of “Schweizer Jungend Forscht”. The prize was to attend the LS2 Annual Meeting 2022, travel and accommodation.
The Swiss Microscopy Core Facility Day aims at bringing together researchers related to microscopy, image analysis and of particular interest to core facilities. It is a meeting point of staff of Swiss Core Facilities to network and exchange of ideas. In 2022 we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the meeting and focused on wellbeing and communication skills in the work environment, as well as an AI plenary lecture. Organized by the LS2 Intersection Microscopy. With kind support from SCNAT.
With all relevant info of LS2 and general life sciences events and activities, newsletter archive at: https://www.ls2.ch/about-us/ls2-newsletter-archive
https://www.ls2.ch/events/other-events with a focus on scientific conferences in Life Sciences
Job Board. Window on our website where members of LS2 and collaborators can post new open positions: https://www.ls2.ch/links/job-board
Member database, open to all members, allows to enter areas of expertise and fosters exchange.
Active social media channels: @LS2Switzerland
(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).
This is a series of webinars with keynote speakers invited by our sections and intersections. It aims to extend the excitement around the plenary lectures of the LS2 annual meeting.
https://www.ls2.ch/events/ls2-prestige-webinars
Organized by the LS2 Proteomics Section, these virtual sessions brought the participants to different cities in Switzerland to discover what Proteomics is all about there.
https://meetings.ls2.ch/proteomics-webinars-series
Organized by young committee of the LS2 Microscopy Section: Yinan Wan and Davide Gambarotto. The microscopy webinar series seek to bring together microscopists, computer scientists and life scientists within Switzerland and beyond to build a lively community. One Tuesday each month, a speaker shared their exciting work on imaging methods and their applications in science or industry. 2 out of the 8 webinars were symposiums dedicated to junior scientists who are at the trainees (PhD student and postdoc). https://meetings.ls2.ch/microscopy-webinars-series