After last year’s success, the FEBS Advanced Lecture Course: Danube Conference on Epigenetics will return in 2024 for the 5th time. The conference will bring together scientists to discuss a range of topics in the field of epigenetics: from transcriptional regulation, through chromatin modifications, nuclear architecture, transgenerational inheritance and metabolism to DNA methylation. Lectures by leading experts in the field will be followed by poster sessions in a relaxed atmosphere. In addition, this year’s program will again feature a dedicated hands-on session on “How to write better scientific papers”, with a specific focus on data visualization. After the exciting sessions, evenings will be shared with new and old friends during social events, ideal for interacting one-on-one with invited speakers. If you wish to immerse yourself in the full spectrum of epigenetics in a friendly atmosphere, then join us in Budapest between 28–31 October 2024!

Organizers: Tamas Arányi

While reactive oxygen species (ROS) were previously widely regarded as mere metabolic by-products, they have now been recognized as important mediators in cellular signalling cascades. It is now accepted that ROS are important in homeostatic signalling events. However, excessive activities of ROS and oxidative damage to lipids, proteins and DNA have been linked to pathologies and therefore oxidative stress is still considered to be a leading player in the pathophysiology of multiple diseases and ageing. This FEBS Advanced Lecture Course on “Redox biochemistry: cellular responses and disease relevance” will focus on recent developments in this exciting field of redox biology.

Organizers: Tilman Grune, Niki Chondrogianni

Fish represent a huge biological community that plays a key role in the equilibrium of the planet’s aquatic systems. The aim of this FEBS Advanced Lecture course is to provide new knowledge on the functioning and evolution of the fish immune system, to highlight how the fish immune system tackles bacterial, viral and parasitic infections, and to explore the role of ecological and environmental constraints affecting fish immunity. The molecular, genetic and functional properties of the fish immune system will be discussed in the view of how to study host–pathogen interactions at the molecular level and to unravel the role of evolutionary and ecological processes in shaping the fish immune system. A particular aspect will be the impact of anthropogenic stressors like climate change and aquatic pollution on fish immunity, and its impact on managing infectious diseases in aquaculture.

Organizers: Joachim Frey

The primary objective of this course is to share the latest knowledge regarding the biochemical, molecular, and genetic mechanisms of fungal pathogenesis with early-career scientists. Additionally, it aims to create valuable networking opportunities for them with renowned experts in this dynamic research field. Through these efforts, the course will play a significant role in enhancing the training of PhD students and post-doctoral fellows engaged in the investigation of fungal pathogens and the control of fungal infections. (Photo credit: Vishu Kumar Aimanianda.)

Organizers: Guilhem Janbon, Mike Lorentz, Elaine Bignell

Organs “communicate” with each other during normal physiology to maintain homeostasis, and also in disease, causing very significant morbidity and mortality, for example, in diabetes, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, autoimmune disorders, or COVID-19. Recent advances have provided new insights into molecular mechanisms of organ crosstalk in health and disease and implicated the immune and nervous system, soluble circulating factors, the microbiome and metabolome, and host pathogen interactions. This FEBS Advanced Lecture Course will bring together leaders in the fields of interorgan crosstalk between the nervous system, immune system, kidney, lung, heart, gut, liver, fat, bone, blood, bone marrow, nervous system, and the microbiome.

Organizers: Andreas Herrlich, François Leulier

This 5-day Advanced Lecture Course will cover a wide range of topics in cellular stress and ADP-ribosylation, from basic concepts, to recent breakthroughs, advanced techniques, and clinical implication. Session topics include systems-wide ADP-ribosylation, NAD biosynthesis and signaling, protein homeostasis and proteostasis, heat-shock, genotoxic stress responses, mitochondrial dysfunction and ADP-ribosylation from virus to cancer. The program provides participants with ample opportunities for presenting and discussing their own work (poster sessions, selected short talks or meet the speakers/experts session).

Picture: MCF7 cells treated with IL8; green: actin; red: SHP1 phosphatase (a protein involved in the regulation of cancer invasion). By Alessia Varone.

Organizers: Daniela Corda, Giovanna Grimaldi, Michael O. Hottiger ([email protected])

In this FEBS Advanced Lecture Course we have brought together a unique combination of frontiers in science focusing on the the capacity of numerous proteins and peptides to self-assemble into amyloid fibrils. The course includes introductory and state-of-art lectures with special emphasis on amyloid structures, chaperones in amyloid formation, membrane-less organelles, lipids and membranes in amyloid formation, functional amyloids, and pathology of amyloids. In the evening lectures, the different topics will be discussed in an integrative manner. Young researchers will have ample opportunity to meet and to discuss basic and emerging topics with the lecturers as social interactions are an important aspect of the meeting.

Organizers: Bernd Helms, Sheena Radford, Stefan Rüdiger

Deadline for applications: 1 May 2023

Our FEBS Advanced Lecture Course aims to provide PhD students and postdocs with different backgrounds an adequate introduction into epigenomics and nuclear receptor signaling, and particularly to cross-fertilize these burgeoning fields to better understand disease mechanisms. The interactive program and the idyllic surroundings will facilitate scientific and social networking during workshops, lunch discussions about lecture topics, poster and short talks sessions, afternoon breaks and tutorial dinners.

Organizers: Eckardt Treuter, Karen E. Knudsen, Susanne Mandrup, Nicolas Venteclef

Deadline for applications: 9 May 2023

This FEBS Advanced Lecture Course / 14th European Summer School on Advanced Proteomics – an internationally renowned educational event – will be held again in Kloster Neustift near Bressanone/Brixen, South Tyrol, Italy. It is designed to provide graduate students and young postdoctoral scientists with insights into state-of-the-art proteomic technologies and applications in the life sciences. One of our main goals is to create an environment that allows young scientists to interact with each other and with experts in the field. Join us for a summer school including lectures by invited speakers, workshops and poster presentations framed by various special activities.

Organizers: Katrin Marcus, Caroline May, Christina Ludwig, Shabaz Mohammed, Jesper V. Olsen

Proteolysis is a critical post-translational modification as every protein encounter a protease in their lifetime, be it signal peptide removal, activation, processing, or degradation. Proteases act in concerted networks to amplify signals, regulate biology and are hypothesized molecular switches and effectors involved in tissue remodeling. The extracellular matrix (ECM) regulates key functions such as cell movement, shape, growth and survival via cell adhesion, cell-ECM, and cell-cell interactions, and some biological functions that are still uncharacterized. We are only beginning to understand the intriguing regulatory aspects of proteases that modulate the ECM and many questions remain.  Specifically, 1- How universal are the auto-feedback mechanisms driven by ECM proteolysis? 2- How does cleaved ECM regulate the initiation and resolution of inflammation and cancer progression? 3- Does aberrant proteolysis dysregulate the resolution of inflammation or it is the ECM that regulate proteolysis?  Our meeting will directly address these questions by inviting several experts from the ECM and proteases and give them an opportunity to discuss where the next decade will take us.

Organizers: Irit Sagi, Antoine Dufour, Nikos Karamanos

This FEBS Advanced Lecture Course aims to provide an overview of the current structural, biophysical, informatics and chemical techniques used in disease biology understanding and drug discovery and design.  A combination of lectures and workshops will provide theoretical background and hands-on experience. Poster sessions and short talks, as well as the very informal atmosphere typical of the beautiful town of Erice, will encourage networking and interactions with leaders in the field.

Organizers: Giovanna Scapin, Charlotte Dean, Frank von Delft

This FEBS Advanced Lecture Course will cover all  fields related to the study of  the family of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases (PARPs), from basic molecular and physiological studies to applied clinical research with an explicit aim to cover drug development. The different sessions are organized in a way that facilitates interaction between young researchers and senior scientists. The meeting is expected to host ~100 participants encompassing scientists engaged in drug chemistry, structural biology, biochemistry, DNA damage response, animal and human studies.

Organizers: Andreja Mikos, Ivan Matic

Deadline for applications: 20 March 2023