Current Job Opportunities
Living with uninvited guests - comparing plant and animal responses to endocytic invasions
Eukaryotic cells infected by pathogens are compromised at many different levels, because an extensive system of communication between the host and the pathogen is established via inter-species protein-protein interactions. How do cells respond to bacteria, which usually encode hundreds to thousands of genes? To which subset of the corresponding bacterial gene products are host cells exposed? A European project of 7 laboratories tries to address these questions for host responses to Salmonella, which physically enters both animal and plant cells. This spectacular and to date unique tolerance of Salmonella to extreme divergence of host species, makes this organism an ideal case study to investigate fundamental biological mechanisms of host-pathogen communication. Studying the similarities and differences in responses of very diverse hosts to the same pathogen, can reveal how pathogens evade detection and elimination from hosts. This project has practical significance, because Salmonella bacteria present in raw meats, fruits and vegetables cause salmonellosis, which is the world’s most widely spread food poisoning.
By bringing together 7 laboratories working in infection biology, signalling, transcriptomics, proteomics, bioinformatics and systems biology, we will ask the following questions: “Which host ‘weak points’ exist in animals and plants that this pathogen is exploiting”. Our central hypothesis is that plants and animals respond to pathogen invasion in fundamentally similar ways. We will test this hypothesis through an integrative cycle of computational and experimental approaches. Systems biology is needed to address the even more complex interaction between bacteria and eukaryotic hosts. Recent advances in proteomics and transcriptomics provide the opportunity to study the whole range of inter-dependent responses inaccessible to traditional methods. This will allow us to develop an integrated picture of cellular pathways, in which we identify the positions of the proteins that communicate with the pathogen. These results will be exploited for drug development, disease forecasting, prevention and control.
Several post-doctoral positions are available in this 3-year project in the partner laboratories of Judith Klein-Seetharaman, Research Center Jülich, Germany (coordinator); Heribert Hirt, URGV Plant Genomics, Paris, France; Vincent Jansen, Alex Gammerman, Mikhail Soloviev, Royal Holloway University of London, UK and VLA, Surrey, UK; Gary Coulton, St. George's University and Hospital, London, UK; Harald Mischak, Mosaiques Diagnostics, Germany; Baldo Oliva, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain; Jose Manuel Mas, Veronica Martinez and Laura Pujadas, Infociencia, Spain.
Candidates should submit a full CV, including publication record and two reference letters to Heribert Hirt (hirt@evry.inra.fr).
Application deadline 28 February 2010.
Master 2 in Systems and Synthetic Biology mSSB
The vigorous development of Systems and Synthetic Biology constitutes a huge challenge that must be met both from
the research and education perspectives. mSSB represents the first step towards nurturing a new brand of researchers and engineers to face up to the challenge.
The aim of mSSB is to provide students from the Life Sciences, Mathematics, Engineering, Chemistry, Physical and Computer Sciences a mean to fruitfully engage in collaborative work across disciplinary boundaries, with applications in Systems and Synthetic Biology. Students undertaking the course will gain hands-on experience in experimental Biology, modelling and designing. They will also enhance transversal capacities including planning a project, giving a seminar, writing and defending a scientific report, interacting with a community, perceiving the industrial, economical and ethical
issues associated with these developing fields.
m o r e: Master 2 in Systems and Synthetic Biology mSSB <
Plant Stress Biology: From Genomics to Systems Biology
This is the first book to present a comprehensive and advanced discussion on the latest insights into plant stress biology. Starting with general aspects of biotic as well as abiotic stresses, this handbook and ready reference moves on to focus on topics of stress hormones, technical approaches such as proteomics, transcriptomics and genomics, and their integration into systemic modeling. This book is a valuable resource for researchers as well as professionals not just in plant sciences but also in cell and molecular biology as well as biotechnology.
To aquire the book:
Wiley - VCH or Wiley International
amazon.de
"Plant Genomics and Beyond" Conference 2009
Heribert Hirt distinguished "New EMBO Member 2008"
Heidelberg, 15 October 2008 EMBO honours 59 leading life scientists
Fifty-nine leading life scientists from Europe and around the world were today recognised by the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) for their proven excellence in research. Fifty-one of the researchers, distinguished as EMBO Members, are from Europe and neighbouring countries while eight equally respected scientists come from other parts of the world and join
as Associate Members, bringing the current membership total to 1360.
EMBO Press Release
Unraveling Arabidopsis Protein Kinase Signaling Cascades by Combined Mass Spectrometry and Peptide Chip Based Phosphoproteomic Approaches
Fifth International Symposium of the Austrian Proteomics Platform
Jan 20 - 23 | 2008 | Seefeld, Tirol | Austria
Press Releases
La bactérie Agrobacterium tumefaciens utilise le système de défense des plantes pour les transformer
INRA 2007 Oct 19 
CNRS 2007 Oct 19
Objectif Sciences Comprendre le stress des plantes pour attenuer les effets du rechauffement terrestre
Salad & Salmonella - Food Poisoning as a Side Dish
Salmonella can also infect plant cells and successfully evade all the defence mechanisms of plants. As a result, cleaning the surfaces of raw fruits and vegetables, e.g. by washing, is not sufficient to protect against food poisoning. This surprising discovery, made during a project supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, has been published today. The results of the project are based on a model plant, which also represents the ideal basis for future development work on treatment and testing systems in the area of food safety.
Austrian Science Fund FWF Press Release
Selection of other press releases:
Labtimes 2008: Intruder Alert
Bacteria Use Plant Defence for Genetic Modification (Oct 19, 2007)
ScienceDaily (Oct. 24, 2007)
Science (Oct 19, 2007)
Innovations report (Oct 19, 2007)
Biotechnology Market News
Dewdsnews (Oct 19, 2007)
Bioenergy pact (Oct 19, 2007)
Pharma Live (Oct 19, 2007)
I-Newswire.com (Oct 19, 2007)
Campus Vienna Biocenter – Thriving Plant Research (July 28, 2007)
"Stille Post" Wie Pflanzen kommunizieren (Feb 1, 2007)
Discontinued
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