A message from Alex Ashcroft (BSDB student rep) and Michelle Ware (BSDB postdoc rep):

The British Society for Developmental Biology (BSDB) has elected us as your student and postdoc reps. We now have the opportunity to give students and postdocs a voice in moving the BSDB forward.

Therefore, we are trying to gauge what you want to see included as part of the society and the meetings. We have lots of ideas and have created a short survey for students and postdocs who are BSDB members (LINK). Your feedback will be key to determine what will be worthwhile in pursuing.

As a thanks we are offering four kindles and two £30 Amazon vouchers as prizes. We’d be grateful if you could complete it by October 26th.

Many thanks,
Alex Ashcroft and Michelle Ware

Company of Biologists Support Grants are available in 2015 for independent group leaders/PIs with no independent funding to attend meetings, conferences, workshops, practical courses, PI laboratory management courses and courses to re-train. Up to £500 will be awarded for attendance inside the UK, up to £1,000 for Europe and up to £1,500 for outside Europe. These grants are sponsored by The Company of Biologists, the not-for-profit publisher of Development, Journal of Cell Science, Journal of Experimental Biology, Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open.

The Gurdon Studentship scheme provides financial support to allow highly motivated undergraduate students an opportunity to engage in practical research during their summer vacation. We look for students with a strong academic record and clear career vision, who have taken the initiative to establish contacts with a research laboratory where they can perform projects in the area of Developmental Biology.

Like every year, 10 successful applicants were chosen to spent 8 weeks in the research laboratories of their choices, and they are:

• Emma MI (Cambridge University) will work in the lab of  John Gurdon at the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge
• Oliver DAVIS (Brighton and Sussex Medical School) will work in the lab of  Jean-Paul Vincent in the Crick Institute
• Anna KLUCNIKA (Cambridge University) will work in the lab of  Aziz Aboobaker in Oxford
• Julia OH (Edinburgh University) will work in the lab of  Megan Davey in Edinburgh
• Ortlaith MANNION (Natl. Univ. of Ireland, Galway) will work in the lab of  Maura Grealy in Galway
• Rachel WANG (Univ. College London) will work in the lab of  Yanlan Mao in UCL
• Joe WATKINS (University of Birmingham) will work in the lab of  Yun Fan in Birmingham
• Samantha COOPER (Cambridge University) will work in the lab of  Daniel St Johnston in Cambridge
• Arun SHAUNAK (Cambridge University) will work in the lab of  Jose Silva in Cambridge
• Isabella WATTS (Oxford University) will work in the lab of  Tatjana Sauka-Spengler in Oxford

We would like to congratulate the 10 successful candidates and hope that this experience will enrich and complement their portfolio of expertise and inspire them to pursue a career in research. If you would like to read about some of the summer projects from 2014, please find the reports by Benedetta Carbone, George Choa and George Hunt on The Node.

Background & History

The BSDB have taken the decision to award a new annual medal, the Cheryll Tickle Medal, which will be awarded to a mid-career, female scientist for her outstanding achievements in the field of Developmental Biology. The first medal will be awarded at the 2016 BSDB Spring Meeting, where the recipient will present the Cheryll Tickle Award Lecture. BSDB members are invited to nominate suitable candidates.

The award is named after Cheryll Tickle (CBE FRS FRSE Hon FSB), an extremely eminent cell and developmental biologist who used the developing limb bud to explore pattern formation in embryogenesis. After her undergraduate studies at Cambridge and PhD work at Glasgow, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Yale University, then as a postdoc in the group of Lewis Wolpert at Middlesex Hospital (later merged into UCL) where she studied the morphogen model of digit patterning. This laid the foundation for her subsequent work on the elusive limb polarising factor, mechanisms of limb outgrowth, FGF signalling, HOX gene regulation and snake limblessness. While at Middlesex/UCL, she moved up the ranks from lecturer, to reader and eventually to Professor, and shortly after she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, an acolade which was awarded the same year she moved to Dundee (1998). Cheryll was the first ever Waddington medal winner (1998) and became the first female Royal Society Foulerton Fellow (2000). Currently Professor Emeritus at the University of Bath, she continues to explore diverse limb projects such as the loss of the pelvic fin in natural populations of sticklebacks as well as ectopic bone formation in wounded war veterans.

Nominations for the Cheryll Tickle Medal

Nominees should be outstanding female developmental biologists who 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.

The following nomination procedure has been agreed by the Committee:

• Formal nominations should be made to the BSDB Secretary (secretary@bsdb.org) by the closing deadline which is 1^st of July each year, but can be received at any time.
• Nominations should be submitted as a statement of support (maximum 1 page A4) from a Proposer and Seconder (both BSDB members), explaining why the candidate is suitable for the Medal and providing a short summary of their major contributions to Developmental Biology.
• Nominations must be accompanied by a CV of max. 2 pages.
• All nominations received will be considered, and voted upon, by the Committee.

The winner will be invited to present the Cheryll Tickle Award Lecture at the following BSDB Spring Meeting, where the medal will be presented, usually by the BSDB Chair.