E-Board No. 110

February 2, 2012

Developmental and Comparative Immunology

Developmental and Comparative Immunology has an Editorial AdvisoryBoard whose membership serve overlapping 3-year terms. This policy that the members should rotate off the Board at regular intervals was intended to allow a larger number of our essential and deserving ad hoc reviewers to have the distinction of serving on the Board without drastically increasing its size. This editorial system does seem to work quite well although it is clear that I have not always rigorously adhered to the "3 year term" notion. I ask agreat deal of the Editorial Advisory Board members, in terms of reviewing manuscripts, recommending topics and authors for reviews and Special Issues, and advising on journal policies. This workload has recently increased significantly; for example, 600 manuscripts were submitted to the journal in2011. The Editorial Advisory Board has now been changed and some members have been rotated off and some new members have been appointed to the board. I would like to thank all the members who have been rotated off the board for an excellent job done and I would like to welcome the new board members and hope that you will take part in making DCI an excellent international journal. I also would like to invite all new members and the members leaving the board to the next ISDCI Congress in Fukuoka and to the Editorial Board meeting we will have in Fukuoa this summer.

Yours sincerely,

Kenneth Söderhäll
Editor-in-chief Dev.Comp.Immunology


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FISH IMMUNOLOGY WORKSHOP WAGENINGEN
April 22-26, 2012

The Wageningen fish immunology / vaccination workshops have been organised annually since 1998. Typically, the workshops are characterised by one-hour presentations given by experienced lecturers, taking time to thoroughly introduce each subject. The 2012 workshop includes two afternoons with a choice between hands-on practicals or updates on recent molecular advances in transcriptome analysis and gene synteny. Further, participants are asked to send an abstract of their research and will be given the opportunity to bring a poster, with the best one awarded the poster prize. The official workshop language is English.

The objective of the present workshop is to provide participants with advanced knowledge, both theoretical and practical, on the immune system of fish. During the workshop we will discuss the latest insights in the evolution of the immune system but also related issues such as vaccination and (experimental) animal welfare.

The level of the workshop is targeting academic and company researchers as well as management staff in the aquaculture industry. In particular, we more than welcome PhD students, who will have a reduced registration fee.

The number of participants is limited to 35 persons, admitted on a ‘first-come’ basis. Registration fee is 450 € (Ph.D. students, fee based on a shared room), 600 € (post-doc, academic staff) or 750 €(company staff). For ALL-IN registration (including accommodation and all meals) add 400 € for the whole workshop period.

The Fish Immunology Workshop is organised by the Cell Biology & Immunology group at Wageningen University, The Netherlands. For questions contact Geert Wiegertjes or Maria Forlenza at

fish.workshop@wur.nl You can find more information on registration and accommodation on our website http://www.cbi.wur.nl/UK/fish_workshop/

PRELIMINARY PROGRAMME

Sunday 22nd April
Evening registration

Monday 23rd April
The use of animals in experimental research (Frauke Ohl, Utrecht Univ)
Pattern recognition receptors (Inge Fink, CBI)
Innate immune (Ig-like) receptors (Anders Østergaard, CBI)
Macrophage polarisation (Geert Wiegertjes, CBI)
Chemokines (Lidy van Kemenade, CBI)
Fish cytokines (Steve Bird, Univ Waikato)
Fish lymphocytes (Bernd Köllner, FLI)

Evening poster session (i)

Tuesday 24th April
Koi herpesvirus: a fascinating virus for fundamental sciences (Alain Vanderplasschen, Univ. Liège)
Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (Uwe Fischer, FLI)
IFNs, IFN receptors and IFN induced genes in fish (Pierre Boudinot, INRA)

Practicals choose between two programmes
Cellular assays in innate immunity (technical staff CBI) or
Gene discovery through synteny (Steve Bird, Univ Waikato)

Evening poster session (ii)

Wednesday 25th April
DNA vaccination against rhabdoviruses (Niels Lorenzen, DTU)
Chemokines in the context of viral infection and vaccination (Carolina Tafalla, INIA)
Cytokines as molecular adjuvants (Maria Forlenza, CBI)

Practicals : choose between two programmes
Humoral responses (technical staff CBI) or
Transcriptome analysis (Sam Martin, Univ Aberdeen)

Evening Workshop dinner

Thursday 26th April
Adjuvants for oral vaccination (Victor Mulero, Univ Murcia)
Zebrafish as an infection model (Annemarie Meijer, Leiden Univ)
Antimicrobial peptides (Chris Secombes, Univ Aberdeen)
Workshop evaluation (Geert Wiegertjes, CBI)

ADDED SPEAKER: Dr. Oriol Sunyer (Univ. Penn) Evolution of gut immunity


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JOB OPPERTUNITY AT WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY: PhD

A PhD position is available at the Cell Biology and Immunology Group (CBI) at Wageningen University (The Netherlands) on the ‘Development of a trypanosome infection model in zebrafish for the analysis of trypanosome-induced inflammation and immunosuppression and well as screening of anti-trypanosome drugs’.

We are looking for an enthusiastic person who has completed a Master in relevant areas such as Biology, Molecular Biology, Immunology, Biotechnology etc. The candidate should have an interest in (comparative) immunology, be able to work independently and be keen to contribute to the team work. The initial work will mainly focus on the establishment of the trypanosome model (Trypanoplasma borreli and/or Trypanosoma carassii) in zebrafish followed by the characterization of the immune response of zebrafish to the infection. Through the use of gene knock-down (morpholinos) or gene knock-out the candidate will characterize the involvement of particular immune genes in the protective immune response.

Eligibility
According to the Marie Curie Programme, the candidate is eligible only if you have not lived in the Netherlands for more than twelve months in the last three years. Candidates with experience with zebrafish models, (fluorescence) microscopy, and molecular techniques will be preferred.

English is the official spoken language in the lab and the candidate should have a good to excellent spoken and written English.

Organization
The CBI group integrates higher education at all university levels (BSc, MSc, PhD, Post-doc) with internationally competitive research in basic and applied immunology. Special attention is given to the molecular and comparative aspects of disease prevention in animals and human beings using a comparative approach. The ‘Fish Health & Immunology’ group under supervision of Dr. Geert Wiegertjes uses state-of-the-art technology including real-time quantitative PCR, flowcytometry, recombinant protein production in various eukaryotic and bacterial systems, fluorescence microscopy, in situ hybridization and in vivo infection of cyprinid fish for its research approach.

The Fish Health & Immunology group offers a dynamic and challenging research environment with a very high level of international collaboration. Daily supervision with regard to developing the zebrafish model will be provided by Dr. Maria Forlenza. It is foreseen that you will spend research training periods at other partners’ institutes within Europe. You will enroll a training program offered by the Graduate School ‘Wageningen Institute of Animal Sciences (WIAS)’.

For more information and applications please address:

Dr. Geert F. Wiegertjes
Cell Biology & Immunology group
Department of Animal Sciences
Wageningen University
P.O. Box 338, 6700 AH
Wageningen
The Netherlands
e-mail geert.wiegertjes@wur.nl
tel +31 317 482732
http://www.cbi.wur.nl

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Anticipated Postdoctoral Position
Origins of sequence diversity in an immune response gene family

Anticipated funding from the US National Science Foundation is expected to support a postdoctoral position in the laboratory of Dr. L. Courtney Smith in the Department of Biological Sciences at George Washington University in Washington DC. Applications are invited until the position is filled. The successful candidate will be part of a project to characterize the genomic structure of a gene family in the sea urchin that encodes innate immune response proteins. Sequencing, assembly and analysis of BAC inserts that harbor these genes will lead to an evaluation of regulatory region function for the gene family and to testing gene diversification mechanisms. For additional information, please see the Smith webpage. Email questions about the position directed to Dr. Smith (see below) are welcome.

A completed Ph.D. and experience in molecular biology is required. Familiarity with computational biology and/or bioinformatics will be viewed as an important plus, as will a background in immunology and an interest in comparative and invertebrate systems. Salary will be determined upon finalization of the NSF budget, will cover three years and will include benefits with annual merit-based increases. Teaching opportunities and laboratory management training will be provided in preparation for future independence. Start date is not currently defined, but will be flexible.

Applicants should submit a CV including a list of publications, a description of technological expertise (including computational expertise), and a list of phone and email information for mentors and/or colleagues who have agreed to provide reference letters in support of the application. Applications should be submitted by email to csmith@gwu.edu and will be accepted until the position is filled.

Dr. L. Courtney Smith
Department of Biological Sciences
George Washington University
340 Lisner Hall
2023 G St NW
Washington DC 20052
Office: 202-994-9211
Fax: 202-994-6100
csmith@gwu.edu
http://departments.columbian.gwu.edu/biology/people/145

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