Category Archives: Awards

Iwo Kucinski – Dennis Summerbell Lecture awardee 2016

iwokucinskiFollowing a generous donation, the BSDB has instituted the Dennis Summerbell Lecture, to be delivered at its annual Autumn Meeting by a junior researcher at either PhD or Post-doctoral level. The inaugural Dennis Summerbell Lecture was given by Iwo Kucinski at the 2016 BSDB Autumn Meeting. His work was carried out in Eugenia Piddin’s laboratory at the Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge. The lecture was entitled “The molecular signature of the loser cell status reveals key pathways regulating cell competition”.

 

Abstract:

Cell competition is a process conceptually similar to natural selection at the cellular level. In this process a population of less fit cells (losers) is sacrificed and eliminated by a population of fitter cells (winners), with the ultimate goal of maximising tissue and organism fitness. This mechanism has been proposed to play a role in tissue health and turnover and in disease states such as cancer. Despite its discovery four decades ago and increasing examples of mutations inducing the loser status, the molecular properties that earmark cells as losers have not been identified.We identified molecular differences between winner and loser cells through comparative transcriptomics of two seemingly functionally unrelated mutations, which share the loser phenotype: Minute heterozygous mutations (ribosomal defect) and a mutation in mahj (involved in cell polarity and protein degradation). This revealed a molecular signature composed of a core set of genes that are differentially expressed specifically in loser cells.Through subsequent functional analysis we found that three components of this signature play an important role in controlling proliferation and cell death during cell competition. First, loser cells chronically activate JNK signaling, which restricts their intrinsic growth rate. Secondly, the constitutive activation of JAK/STAT pathway promotes proliferation of loser cells but also nonautonomously fuels the expansion of competing wild-type cells, boosting cell competition. Thirdly, we find that chronic activation of Nrf2 induces the oxidative stress response and that this serves a dual purpose: it promotes survival of loser cells on their own, but it is also sufficient to trigger their elimination when they are confronted by wild-type cells. Altogether these findings provide important new mechanistic insight on how cell competition occurs.

Writing competition for PhDs & postdocs

In preparation of our upcoming 70th anniversary to be celebrated at the special Spring Meeting in Warwick (April 15th-18th 2018), the BSDB announces a writing competition for its graduate student and postdoc members. We are curious to hear about your thoughts (in not more than 500 words) on one of the following topics:

  • The future of Developmental Biology
  • What Developmental Biology has contributed to society
  • The experiment/paper in Developmental Biology that most inspired you

Further details of the competition will be formally announced shortly, but we thought it might help if we give you some head-start. The deadline will be Sunday, 4th of March 2018, and the winner is going to be announced at the Spring Meeting. The first prize is a free trip to and attendance of the 77th Annual Society of Developmental Biology meeting in Portland, Oregon, USA.

If you have any questions or would like to submit your essays, please contact Alex at students@bsdb.org or Michelle at postdocs@bsdb.org.

Christiana Ruhrberg, winner of the BSDB Cheryll Tickle Medal 2018

In 2016, the BSDB introduced the Cheryll Tickle Medal, which is being awarded annually to a mid-career, female scientist for her outstanding achievements in the field of Developmental Biology. The BSDB is proud to announce the 2018 awardee Christiana Ruhrberg. Christiana is Professor at University College London’s Institute of Ophthalmology. Her studies are centred around the links between vascular and neuronal development, with particular focus on the roles of VEGF and SEMA3A signalling and a long-term view towards identifying molecular targets for therapeutic intervention in vascular disease. If you would like to read more about Christiana, please visit this blog post. The medal will be presented at next year’s BSDB Spring Meeting where Christiana will give the Cheryll Tickle Award Lecture.

BSDB award nomination deadlines 2017/18

2018 Dennis Summerbell Lecture nominations. Following a generous donation, the BSDB has instituted this award lecture, to be delivered at its annual Autumn Meeting by a junior researcher at either PhD or Post-doctoral level. The BSDB Autumn Meeting 2018 will be the Joint BSDB/Nordic Conference of Developmental Biology held 25-27 October 2017 at the Karolinska Institute (Stockholm, Sweden). Applicants should have a maximum of 10 years research experience, should not be a principal investigator, and should be attendants of the conference.  To be considered for this award, please send a 1 page CV, a paragraph from your PI in support of your application and an abstract for your presentation to Megan Davey (megan.davey@roslin.ed.ac.uk), the BSDB’s organiser of this meeting,  by Monday, 14 August 2017. For more information, please click on the link at the start of this paragraph.

2018 BSDB Waddington Medal nominations. The Waddington Medal is the most prestigous prize of the BSDB, , being awarded to an outstanding individual who has made major contributions to any aspect of Developmental Biology in the UK. Please, put forward names of potential nominees by Friday, 30 June 2017. The BSDB secretary will contact nominators to ask for full nominations. For more information, please click on the link at the start of this paragraph.

2018 Cheryll Tickle Medal nominations. The medal will be awarded to a mid-career, female scientist for her outstanding achievements in the field of Developmental Biology. Nominees should have started their own research group in the UK within the last 15 years, with allowances for career breaks. Nominees should have made significant contributions to UK Developmental Biology and stand out as a role model for early career female researchers.Formal nominations should be made to the BSDB Secretary (secretary@bsdb.org) by Friday, 30 June 2017. For more information, please click on the link at the start of this paragraph.

Medal & Award winners at the 2017 Spring Meeting

As every year, the Spring meeting was the time of awards and medals! This year, we had awardees of three societies who are listed below. For those wanting to have a look at the topics of talks and posters presented at the meeting, please download the abstract book here.

► Medal Awards

► PhD Poster Prizes (are prizes still the same?)

  • 1st BSDB PhD Poster Prize winner (Attendance at SDB 76th Annual Meeting, Minneapolis): Claire Bromley (Kings College London) – Poster 25 “Investigating biomechanical forces in zebrafish brain morphogenesis
  • 1st BSCB PhD Poster Prize winner (visit to 2017 ASCB/EMBO meeting, Philadelphia): Christina Dix (University College London) – poster 5 “Adhesion, not cortical tension, is vital for successful cytokinesis in RPE-1 cells
  • 1st Genetics Society (£100 cash prize sponsored by BioMed Central): Alexandra Buffry (Oxford Brookes University) – Poster 182 “Investigating gene regulatory network architecture and evolution in different developmental contexts
  • 2nd BSDB PhD Poster Prize (£100 cash prize sponsored by BioMed Central): Ariadna Gador Navarro-Aragall (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology) – Poster 86 “SEMA3E and SEMA3C Cooperate to establish vascular boundaries
  • 2nd BSCB PhD Poster Prize (£100 cash prize sponsored by BioMed Central): Sophie Adams (Barts Cancer Institute) – Poster 32 “‘Exosome signatures’ as biomarkers for centrosome-targeted therapy in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC)

► Postdoc Poster Prizes

  • 1st BSDB Prize (£200 cash prize sponsored by BioMed Central): Carla Mulas (University of Cambridge) – Poster 129 “Functional characterisation of metachronous cell state transitions
  • 1st BSCB Prize (£100 Cash prize sponsored by BioMed Central): Girish Mali (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology) – Poster 47 “Assembly Mechanisms of Dynein Motors
  • 1st Genetics Society (£100 bank transfer sponsored by BioMed Central): Laura Molina-Garicia (University College London) – Poster 122 “Sexy learning in C. elegans”
  • 2nd BSDB Prize (£100 cash prize sponsored by BioMed Central): Hadi Boukhatmi (University of Cambridge) – Poster 92 “Molecular logic behind Satellite cells specification in Drosophila”

► Others

  • Genetics Society Overall Poster Prize (Junior Scientist Conference Grant, Scheme A): Alewo Idoko-Akoh (The Roslin Institute) – Poster 185 “CXCR4 and c-Kit signalling are required for directed migration of chicken primordial germ cells through the chick embryonic vascular system
  • BSDB Honorary Mention (Certificate): Eva Higginbotham (University of Cambridge) -Poster 114 “Neurotransmitter specification in the ventral nerve cord of Drosophila melanogaster”
  • The BSCB Science writing Prize: Marcia Kishida (University of Cambridge)
  • The BSCB Image Award:
    • 1st: Cristiano Lucci, School of Life Sciences, University of Nottingham
    • 2nd: Anneliese Norris, School of Biology (University of St Andrews)
    • 3rd: Mohammad Mofatteh (MRC LMB, Cambridge), Alan Prescott, College of life Sciences, University of Dundee

Movies of medal lectures

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv4qZttn9is; w=520; h=405

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv9ndsOuRCE; w=520; h=405

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg3zMt6uYpY; w=520; h=405

Hooke Medal Lecture: Ewa Paluch

Women in Cell Biology Lecture: Victoria Sanz Moreno