E-Board No. 84

November 4, 2009

ANNOUNCEMENTS

POSTGRADUATE NEWS
The President (Val Smith) would like to improve the involvement of postgraduate students in ISDCI and towards this end, a regular section will be appearing in the monthly E-Board mailings. This is for post-graduates and their supervisors to send in news items about and for their students. Examples of news might be winning of awards or prizes, getting a PhD, starting a new job, publishing a first paper, or just doing something noteworthy in a general sense. It can also be a vehicle for students to seek jobs or obtain advice and information (e.g. about techniques) from peers or colleagues in the Society. Please send any items to Courtney Smith (csmith@gwu.edu) or info@isdci.org. They will be posted as soon as the following E-Board is circulated. Please add your own contact e-mail address if you require answers to questions. Here are two items of news about ISDCI postgraduates to kick things off:

CLAIRE ROULSTON (St Andrews University, Scotland) was recently chosen as the winner of the Institute of Biology / Biosciences Federation (UK) Best Scottish Student Undergraduate Project in Biology competition for 2009. Her project was on the isolation and characterisation of prohaemocytes from decapod crustaceans. She will receive her award at the Scottish Parliament Building on 11th November 2009. She is now working on her PhD.

CALUM ROBB (Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland) has recently won the British Universities & Colleges Sportsman of the Year Award, in recognition of his achievements in karate. Calum is currently the World and European Wado-Kai karate champion and has won the Scottish Championships for a remarkable 12 years in succession. He is now in the second year of his PhD, studying apoptosis in crustacean haemocytes.
http://www.news.hw.ac.uk/news/4726-Calum_Robb_named_Sportsman_of_the_Year

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Report of the Editors of Developmental and Comparative Immunology

The Editors of the Society´s journal,Developmental and Comparative Immunology, are delighted to report that our journal is doing well. Each year 12 issues of the journal are printed with an increase in published manuscripts per year. In 2008 ca 150 manuscripts were published. The rejection rate has been around 50% for the past 3 years. The handling time of manuscripts from submission to the initial decision by the Editors-in-Chiefs has improved from 48 days in 2004, 30 days in 2006 and in 2009 ca 20 days. The average time for a manuscript being received to its publication online is 20 weeks in 2008.

The number of review articles published was 1 in 2006, 3 in 2007, 5 in 2008 and 3 in 2009.

In order to maintain and improve the quality of our journal, and to keep the impact factor rising, DCI relies on the submission of high quality manuscripts from ISDCI members: hence we welcome your continuing contributions in the form of original manuscripts. In addition, we are particularly interested to publish high quality reviews, mini-reviews and Special Issues. If you are interested tino writing (or guest-editing) a review or Special Issue, please send a brief proposal to me. I sincerely urge members and members of the editorial board to send mini-reviews or longer reviews to our journal. One special issue on Fish Immunology, which will be edited by Oriol Sunyer, is in the pipe-line as are a few reviews. But we need more!

At our ISDCI meeting in Prague, Greg Warr announced that he wished to resign as coeditor-in-chief. Greg has served as coeditor-in chief since 1993 and he has been instrumental in increasing the quality and impact of our journal. I have worked with him for a number of years as coeditor-in-chief and we have met several times to discuss science and editorial matters. It has been a great pleasure and an honour to have worked as editor-in-chief together with Greg Warr.

Submitted by

Kenneth Söderhäll
Coeditor-in-chief

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OPEN POSITIONS

Postdoctoral fellowship position in evolutionary and developmental immunology

A postdoctoral position is available in the department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York, to conduct comparative and developmental studies of viral pathogenesis and immunity in amphibians caused by Ranaviruses (Iridoviridae) using the frogs Xenopus laevis and Xenopus tropicalis as model system. The project involves the development of new reverse genetic technologies such as knockout (KO) of putative virulence genes by site-specific integration in the viral genome, and in vivo knockdown of immunologically-relevant genes by RNA interference using transgenesis. More information on the lab's current research can be found online at:
(1) http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/web/index.cfm?event=doctor.profile.show&person_id=1001617&display=for_researchers
(2) http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/mbi/resources/Xenopus/
(3) http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/mbi/resources/labs/Robert_Lab/index.cfm

This position is ideal for a recently post-graduated student interested in broad and fundamentally-based developmental, molecular and cellular immunological research in an interactive and scientifically stimulating environment. A strong background in molecular biology and cellular biology is required. Previous experience in virology and Xenopus transgenesis is welcome.

Please send a CV, a statement of research interests, and names of three references by email to: Jacques Robert Ph.D., jacques_robert@urmc.rochester.edu

--
Jacques ROBERT, Ph. D.
Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Box 672
University of Rochester , Medical Center
Rochester, NY 14642 USA

Phone: office: (585) 275-1722; lab: (585) 275-5359 FAX: (585) 473-9573
Email: Jacques_robert@urmc.rochester.edu
http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/smd/mbi/faculty/robert.htm
http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/smd/mbi/faculty/labs/robert/index.html

Xenopus laevis Resource for Immunobiology: http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/smd/mbi/xenopus/index.htm

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Fully Funded Positions for PhD Students in Sea Urchin Immunology
George Washington University, Washington DC, USA

The Department of Biological Sciences (www.gwu.edu/~biology) is currently recruiting PhD students for the fall semester of 2010, including research opportunities in sea urchin immunology under Dr. L. Courtney Smith. The funding sources for the positions are either a Graduate Teaching Assistantship (first two years) and various Research Assistantships (last two or three years) that are currently set at US$23,000 for 9 months, including full tuition. Summer research stipends (3 months) are available from US National Science Foundation funding. Interested students are encouraged to contact Dr. Smith by email (csmith@gwu.edu) BEFORE submitting an application to obtain additional information about this opportunity and application procedures. A description of the research plus a list of current publications are available at http://www.gwu.edu/~biology/faculty/smith.cfm. Applications are due in January, 2010. Application procedures can be found at http://www.gwu.edu/apply/graduateprofessional.

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MEETINGS

Mini-symposium on Comparative Immunology Symposium

Florida International University, Miami, USA will be holding its annual spring-time Biomedical and Comparative Immunology Symposium on 4-5th March 2010. The theme at this meeting will be 'Biological Diversity; cellular and molecular interactions'. It will be held on the Maidique Campus , WC 130, Miami, Florida 33199. Interested participants are cordially invited to contact Charles Bigger (bigger@fiu.edu) or Aileen Landry (alandry@fiu.edu) for additional information.

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Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the organising committee, I'm pleased to announce that in May 2010 (from 23rd to 27th) will be held in Viterbo (Italy) the first Symposium of the European Organisation of Fish Immunology (EOFFI), new designation of the former Nordic Organisation of Fish Immunology (NOFFI www.noffi.org <http://www.noffi.org/> ). The symposium will cover the latest aspects of fish immunology, with qualified invited speakers. A preliminary information about the meeting can be found at www.unitus.it/eoffi2010, which will be updated regularly. Please send questions and requests for more information to eoffi@unitus.it.

A preliminary deadline for registration and hotel reservation is set for March 2010, and a preliminary date for early registration will be January 2010. Viterbo is a beautiful medieval town located in Lazio Region, 90 Km north of Rome and 150 Km south of Florence. Please circulate this announcement among your colleagues if they may be potentially interested.

I hope you will be able to participate and contribute to the success of the meeting.

Kind Regards,

Giuseppe Scapigliati

Giuseppe Scapigliati, MSc PhD
Associate Professor of Animal Biotechnology
Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali,
Universita' della Tuscia,
I-01100 Viterbo, Italy
tel +39-0761-357029
fax +39-0761-357029 or 357179
Email: scapigg@unitus.it

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