E-Board No. 35

November 2005

Dear ISDCI Colleagues

This month there is an important message from the President Elect, Kenneth Soderhall, about the election of new Society Officers for 2006-2009. Please use this opportunity to be involved and have your say in Society affairs.

Also, remember to encourage any new colleagues, postdocs or PhD students in your lab to join the Society. This is especially important for anyone thinking of attending the 10th International Congress in Charleston next year, to enable them to take advantage of the reduced registration rates for members. Students and postdocs who join now will have the opportunity to apply for financial help from the society to attend. As in previous years, priority for awards will be given to pre/post doc applicants who have been members for 6 or more months prior to the meeting.

Please keep sending any items of interest ( eg news, successful graduations, meetings, job vacancies, positions sought) to me for future E-Boards. Its free advertising!

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FROM KENNETH SODERHALL, PRESIDENT ELECT

Dear ISDCI members
Now it is time to nominate officers to the ISDCI council from 2006 to 2009 and below are the present officers of ISDCI. The positions which are to be filled are President-Elect, Vice President for Asia and Oceania and finally Secretary–Education and Secretary-Treasurer. Norman Miller is willing to serve a third period as Secretary-Treasurer if no nominations are made.

OFFICER POSITIONS & HOLDERS IN 2005

Past president: Louis du Pasquier (Basel, Switzerland)
President: Chris Secombes (Aberdeen, UK)
President-elect: Kenneth Söderhäll (Uppsala, Sweden)
Vice-President Americas: Martin Flajnik (USA)
Vice-President Europe & Africa: Rene Stet (Aberdeen, UK)
Vice-President Asia & Oceania: Haruhisa Wago (Japan)
Secretary - Treasurer: Norman Miller (USA)
Secretary - Education: Val Smith (St Andrews, UK)


Nominations for

President – Elect
Vice President Asia &Oceania
Secretary - Education


Please send names of nominees, with confirmation they have agreed to stand, and who proposed and seconded (sponsored) the nomination.

Nominations should be sent to me by December 12, 2005.

Yours sincerely

Kenneth Söderhäll
President-elect ISDCI

Kenneth.Soderhall@ebc.uu.se

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4TH INTERNATIONAL INNATE IMMUNITY CONFERENCE
June 4-9, 2006
Chadris Conference Center
Corfu, Greece

The purpose of this conference is to draw together scientists working
on Innate Immunity to discuss the advances made, and the future of
Innate Immunity. Topics will include: Evolution, Structural biology,
Role in host-pathogen interactions, Interactions with adaptive
immunity, Pathophysiology, and Therapeutic applications.

Sessions will convene in the mornings and early afternoons and will
include lectures by invited speakers, as well as talks and poster
presentations selected from submitted abstracts.

Among the confirmed speakers are :

Gérard Arlaud (Institute de Biologie Structurale), Anna Blom (Lund
University), Anna Erdei (University L.Eotvos), Marco Colonna
(Washington University),Piet Gros (Utrecht University),
Saimon Gordon (Oxford University), Berhane Ghebrehiwet
(Stony Brook University), Teizo Fujita (Fukushima Medical
University), Joerg Koehl (Cincinnati Children's Hospital Research
Foundation),
Mitchell Kronenberg (La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology),
Peter Parham (Stanford University), Lorenzo Moretta (University of Genova);
Alessandro Moretta (University of Genova), David Mosser (University of
Maryland),
Bo Nilsson (University of Uppsala), Gregory Stahl (Harvard Medical School),
Eric Vivier CNRS-INSERM-Université de la Méditerranée), Peter Ward
(University of
Michigan), Rick Wetsel (University of Texas).

Additional speakers will be selected from the pre-registered list and
the submitted abstracts.

The deadline for receipt of abstracts, early registration, and hotel
reservations is *March 15, 2006*. Please note that due to limited
space, the workshop will be limited to 150 participants. If you plan
to attend, please fill out the pre-registration form on-line (by
clicking on the „Registration Desk‰ link in the header) at
http://www.aegeanconferences.org. The cost of the
accommodation package is /1120 Euro/ and includes the registration
fee, hotel accommodations at the Chadris Dassia Hotel, all meals
(breakfast and lunches at the hotel, and dinners at selected
restaurants on the island), and an island tour.

In order to encourage the participation of young scientists, the
Aegean Conferences is offering *Trainee Travel Awards* to offset a
portion of the travel expenses to the Conference. The Conference
Organizing Committee will select the recipients based on the
scientific merit of abstracts submitted by applicants.

Additional information will be sent only to people who respond to this
announcement and pre-register on-line. For your convenience and to
expedite the communication process, registration materials, including
abstract and hotel reservation forms, are available on the web site.
Information on Corfu, travel to Greece, hotel accommodations, etc. is
also available on the web site. Updated information will be available
through this site.

John D. Lambris, Ph.D.
Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Director of Protein Chemistry Laboratory
University of Pennsylvania
401 Stellar Chance
422 Curie Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Phone: 215-746-5765
FAX: 215-573-8738
http://www.lambris.net
http://www.proteins.upenn.edu
http://www.complement.us
http://www.innateimmunity.us

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RECRUITMENT: ASSOCIATE PROFESSORSHIP IN IMMUNOLOGY
UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH, GERMANY

The Medical Faculty of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich invites applications for a tenure track position at the Associate Professor level (W 2) in cellular immunology at the Institute for Immunology (Director: Prof. Dr. T. Brocker).
The initial appointment will be made for 6 years. Employment can be continued as tenured position depending on evaluation.
Prerequisites for application are an excellent international research record in immunology, a PhD or MD degree, postdoctoral training and post-doctoral thesis or equivalent scientific qualification. The candidate should have the potential for excellence in teaching.
The desired applicant should be capable of establishing an independent research program in areas of cellular immunology such as regulation, immunomodulation or immune cell differentiation and is expected to actively participate in the Munich research community.
The successful candidate cannot be older than 52 years at the time of appointment. The University of Munich is committed to increasing female representation among the scientific personnel and therefore particularly encourages applications from women. Handicapped candidates with equal qualifications will be given preference.
Applications including CV, list of grants and publications, teaching experience, summary of current research activities and objectives should be send by November 21st, 2005 to the Dean of the Medical Faculty, Bavariaring 19, 80336 Munich, Germany.

For further information please contact
Prof. Dr. Thomas Brocker,
E-mail: tbrocker@med.uni-muenchen.de
Tel.: ++49 (0)89-218075674
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POSTDOCTORAL SCIENTIST, DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
ORIGINS AND EVOLUTION OF THE ADAPTIVE IMMUNE SYSTEM

A position as a postdoctoral scientist is available immediately in the Department of Biological Sciences. The project is centered an investigation of the 185/333 gene family that is expressed in the coelomocytes, or immune cells, of the purple sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus (see Nair et al., 2005). Optimal alignments of the 185/333 messages require gaps, which define 25 blocks of sequence called elements, and suggest significant alternative splicing. Additional sequence diversity is evident from single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and small insertions and deletions (indels). Gene alignments are similar to message alignments, however the genes show two exons, with a single intron between the leader and the rest of the encoded protein. No additional introns are present between between the remaining elements, which does not support the notion of significant alternative splicing of the messages. Comparisons among the gene sequences indicate that the elements have been scrambled, although the mechanism for this is not known. The project will involve analysis of the locus to understand “element scrambling” among the members of this large family, which number more than 100 closely linked genes. Immunological function is implied from gene expression in response to bacteria (Rast et al., 2000) and lipopolysaccharide (Nair et al., 2005) plus protein appearance on the surfaces of a subset of coelomocytes. Results from this study are expected to have a significant impact on our understanding of mechanisms for immune diversification in this deuterostome invertebrate.

The position is funded for two years starting immediately. Some teaching/lecturing duties will be required (to be mentored by the PI) through participation in classes such as Cell Biology, Immunology, Molecular Biology or Bioinformatics. A completed Ph.D. and experience in molecular biology are required. Interest or background in immunology and marine invertebrates along with experience in bioinformatic analysis of genomes is a significant plus. Applicants with a tenured or tenure-track position are not eligible.

The Department of Biological Sciences (www.gwu.edu/~biology) is located in Lisner and Bell Halls on the campus of George Washington University (www.gwu.edu) in downtown Washington DC. The lab and the department are well equipped for cell and molecular biology with a sequencing facility, scanning and fluorescence microscopy, a facility for aquatic animals, etc. Additional facilities are located nearby in the GW School of Medicine. A significant number of the faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences have research interests in evolution, for which the department has an international reputation. In addition, there is a significant “cluster” of faculty from Biology, Computer Science, Physics, Chemistry, Statistics, and Biochemistry with common interests in computational molecular biology, and who meet bi-monthly for seminars and/or discussions.

Applicants should submit either by regular mail or email, a cover letter, a resume including a list of publications, a description of technological expertise (both molecular and cell biology and computer-based or bioinformatic analysis), start date availability, and a list of colleagues or mentors, including phone and email, who have agreed to submit a recommendation. Review of applications will begin as soon as possible and will continue until the position is filled.


L. Courtney Smith, Ph.D.
Department of Biological Sciences
340 Lisner Hall
George Washington University
2023 G St NW
Washington DC
csmith@gwu.edu
www.gwu.edu/~clade/faculty/smith/

See also: www.gwu.edu/~clade/facult/smith

The George Washington University is an equal-opportunity, affirmative-action employer.

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The next E-Board will go out in December. Please send any announcements or items for posting to me at the e-mail address below

Val Smith
ISDCI Education Secretary
vjs1@st-and.ac.uk

Gatty Marine Laboratory
School of Biology
University of St Andrews
Fife, KY16 8LB
Scotland, UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1334 463474
Fax: +44 (0) 1334 463443

END

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