News Archive 2007

November 2007

• Science City Day on 'Diabetes' a great success: Over 600 visitors joined the CC-SPMD researchers at the Science City Day on 'Diabetes' (Sunday, 18 November, 11am-5pm, ETH Hönggerberg). Several professors held short presentations on the newest investigations in diabetes and adiposity research. Furthermore, the scientists demonstrated experiments in their labs and explained why one needs fruit flies and yeasts to do basic research. Nutritionists offered a special program for children. Please find the detailed program here »»
  Read more in ETH Life (German only) »»

Please find some pictures of the event here »»

• World Diabetes Day: On 14 November the first United Nations-observed World Diabetes Day took place. On the occasion of this special event Markus Stoffel was special guest at the Swiss radio DRS1. In the program «Tagesgespräch» at 1pm he talked about Diabetes research. Listen to the broadcast here »»

October 2007

• Latest publication in Molecular Cell: Nabil Djouder and several other researchers from the CC-SPMD discovered on the mitochondria, the cell’s power stations, a signal pathway that decides whether the cell will live or die. Their result of the latest research was recently published in Molecular Cell. Co-author Wilhelm Krek is convinced that the article will initiate further extremely interesting projects in the realm of cancer and diabetes research. In a next step, the researchers would like to intervene purposefully in this fundamental processes that control a cell’s growth, survival and even its death, e.g. to kill cancer cells. Please find an article on this publication in ETH Life »». You can read the publication of Djouder et al. here »»
• Publication on the database 'PhosphoPep': The systems biologists Lukas Müller, Alexander Schmidt and Ruedi Aebersold from the CC-SPMD as well as further researchers from the Functional Genomics Center Zurich and the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle published an article in Molecular Systems Biology: their publication describes PhosphoPep, a database for phosphopeptides and phosphoproteins from Drosophila melanogaster Kc167 cells and a suite of associated software tools as a resource for systems biology research in D. melanogaster. Read the article here »» Read more in ETH Life »»

September 2007

• Publication on the mechanism for the in vivo transport of siRNA: Together with other scientists from The Rockefeller University NY, and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc, Christian Wolfrum and Markus Stoffel published a groundbreaking article on 'Mechanisms and optimization of in vivo delivery of lipophilic siRNAs' in which they elucidate the mechanism for the uptake of siRNA in combination with fatty acids in mammals. Please find their article which was published in Nature Biotechnology here »» Read more in ETH Life »»
• Grant awarded: The Board of the Roche Research Foundation decided to support the project of Prof. Romeo Ricci with a fellowship of CHF 30'000 for the first year of the Ph.D. thesis work of Susann Kumpf. Susann Kumpf works on 'Signal transduction in adipocyte physiology'. Read more about the project »»
• Researchers' Night 2007: On 28 September in Zurich and more than 30 other European cities researchers invited the public to join them at the Researchers' Night. At the Zurich lakeside people of all age groups could experience science in a tangible way by meeting scientists face-to-face in a relaxed Friday night atmosphere: in an unusual and fun matter one could take part in research experiments, interactive presentations and attend science talks. On a shuttle boat that cruised between Bellevue and Zürichhorn, Markus Stoffel and Christian Wolfrum from the CC-SPMD gave short presentations on diabetes and adiposity.

August 2007

• All-SystemsX.ch-Day: On 17 September 2007 the All-SystemsX.ch-Day took place at EPF Lausanne. There were presentations on the ongoing SystemsX research projects and workshops to prepare the submission of further proposals.
• New member of the CC-SPMD Scientific Advisory Board: We are happy to announce that C. Ronald Kahn, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Joslin Diabetes Center, accepted to become a member of the CC-SPMD Scientific Advisory Board. Kahn is an internationally recognized diabetes researcher: together with his colleagues he made important discoveries in insulin signaling, explored fat cell biology and leveraged new genetic technologies. Moreover, Kahn received numerous honors and awards, including the highest scientific awards of the American Diabetes Association and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
  A fifth SAB member coming from Computer Sciences will be nominated soon.
  

June 2007

• Nine new projects on systems biology: As a new endeavor, SystemsX supports interdisciplinary research and education by establishing interdisciplinary pilot projects and financing Ph.D. Fellowships. This approach fosters research at the interface between disciplines that are relevant to systems biology. Earlier this year, SystemsX decided to financially support nine projects submitted by CC-SPMD members. Please find a list with the projects here »»
• Prof. Wilhelm Krek talks about the impact of systems biology. Read more in ETH Globe (p. 32) »»
• An article on a CC-SPMD Ph.D. project was published in the annual report 2006 of the ETH Foundation (p. 8f). Read more »»

May 2007

• Prof. Markus Stoffel, ETH Institute for Molecular Systems Biology, wins one of the prestigious Scholar Awards of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (JDRF). Stoffel was selected for this award because of his unique research direction, willingness to take risks, and commitment to accelerating type 1 diabetes research. He will receive $250'000 annually for up to five years for his research. Read more in ETH Life »»

April 2007

• Dr. Christian Wolfrum, ETH Institute for Molecular Systems Biology, has been elected as a new CC-SPMD member: Wolfrums group focuses on elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying the altered preadipocyte and adipocyte biology in different models of obesity, type 2 diabetes and associated metabolic disorders, with special emphasis on gene expression, postranslational modifications and lipid composition of the cell.

March 2007

• First CC-SPMD Minisymposium a Big Success: The Minisymposium entitled “Keeping the Balance - New Insights into Energy Homeostasis” which took place on March 15th 2007 at ETH Hönggerberg was a big success. This first symposium organized by graduate students of the Competence Center for Systems Physiology and Metabolic Diseases (CC-SPMD) offered both exciting science and a pleasant atmosphere.
  Four experts from very different fields gave their own perspective of energy homeostasis: David Carling (Imperial College, London), Jeroen Jeneson (Eindhoven), Jim Kaput (UC Davis) and Steve Oliver (Univ. Manchester). The topics covered – ranging from mouse cell biology over nutrigenomics to yeast functional genomics – were very broad, but complemented each other well. “I was rather surprised to see the combination of speakers, but it turned out to be a both entertaining and scientifically fascinating afternoon” was Prof. Carling`s summary of the day. The event was complemented by a reception and poster session where CC-SPMD students had the opportunity to present their work. More information »»
• Romeo Ricci, a group leader of the CC-SPMD, received the prestigious SNF Förderungsprofessur. He is now assistant professor for Molecular Biomedicine at ETH Zurich.
• An interview with three members of the Ph.D. program 'Systems Biology of Complex Diseases' was published. Please read the article on Daria Esterhazy, Gerhard Seisenbacher and Thomas Fuchs in: ETH Life PRINT (p. 5)
• An article on the Ph.D. position which is funded by the Karin und Oskar Müller-Fonds in CC-SPMD member Romeo Ricci's lab was published in Connect (p. 20f).