Organisers
Andreas Beyer, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany
Francis Stewart, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany
Anthony A. Hyman, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany

Introduction
The “Systems Biology of Cellular Regulation” symposium aims to combine new techniques of determining molecular interactions with new ways of portraying cellular regulation. International experts will present the latest developments in genomic technologies such as mass-spectrometry based proteomics, deep sequencing, RNA interference, and computational biology. Presentations will focus on stem cell biology, preclinical regenerative medicine, the effects of cellular stress and statistical genetics. The meeting will therefore be an update on the state of the art for those interested in developing innovative therapies and personalised medicine.

The meeting programme (see below) should be exciting to a broad audience. In order to foster communication among participants there will be ongoing poster displays, giving plenty of time to discuss the work and share experiences. There will be awards for the best posters.

The meeting program will consist of four consecutive sessions:

Session 1: Systems Biology of Embryonic Stem Cells

Embryonic stem (ES) cells have been developed in culture and induced to differentiate into any tissue type. The mouse species cells can be used to generate new mice from single embryonic stem cells. Despite the ethical restraints on attempting whole animal generation from human ES cells, there is a great potential in developing multipotentiality in human cells. New advances in the techniques of culturing stem cells have allowed a more physiological milieu to be recreated, so that populations of committed stem cells can reliably be derived. With sophisticated analysis of the biochemical
interactions in cells that are in various conditions at various times, we can gradually document the changes in composition of regulatory protein complexes and their effects on transcription of the genome.

Session 2: Genome-scale methods for Systems Biology

Now it is possible to map a particular DNA sequence to its position on the published genome sequence, for mouse or man, new methods of detecting protein-DNA interactions have become available. The purification of complexes between particular proteins and other proteins or DNA has been accomplished by recombineering recognisable tags onto transfected molecules, or by using antibodies to detect the endogenous proteins directly. Once the protein and its associated complex
can be derived biochemically, mass spectrometry can be used to work out what the complex contains. This type of data can yield an overall record of what types of places on the DNA of the genome a particular transcription factor can bind. By looking at all the available possibilities, the interactions that do occur can be identified and characterised further.

Session 3: Statistical Genetics

Statistical genetics develops methods for the association of genetic variations with phenotypes. Recently, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified genetic loci associated with complex diseases and many other medically relevant phenotypes. This research is a key to personalised medicine, and also for identifying genetic risks, which may lead to the development of improved clinical management.

In addition to clinical GWAS, many systematic genetic studies have been conducted in model species, such as panels of inbred mouse strains. The meeting will focus on these applications, using mainly mouse and different yeasts. Using model species has many obvious advantages, such as applying tests or sampling techniques that are not possible in humans. In addition, they also provide an ideal platform for developing new technologies that can later be applied to humans. A prominent example is screening for expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL), which was first developed using yeast and
mouse populations and is now also being applied in humans. The session will present experimental and computational technologies that depict statistical genetics screens understandably. As well, it will feature exciting applications that have led to novel insights.

Session 4: Oxidative Stress

Oxidative stress plays a part in many important diseases such as cancer and neurodegeneration. This special session of the meeting will present proteomics, deep sequencing and statistical genetics to reveal the molecular pathways invoked in oxidative stress. One aspect that will be emphasised is how natural genetic variation affects whether cells can effectively respond to chemical stress such as reactive oxygen species. Different polymorphisms, such as SNPs, may interact in combination to produce extreme phenotypes such as extreme sensitivity or resistance to oxidative stress. This session will showcase state-of-the-art technologies for studying a specific biological question.

The “Systems Biology of Cellular Regulation” symposium is jointly hosted by the Biotechnology Center of the Technische Universität Dresden and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics.

The TUD Biotechnology Centre (BIOTEC), which opened in 2004, is a cross faculty, interdisciplinary centre hosting 13 international research groups encompassing genomics, proteomics, biophysics, cellular machines, nanotechnology and bioinformatics. Currently BIOTEC researchers are participating in 10 EU projects, two as coordinators. BIOTEC is housed in the BioInnovationsZentrum, which includes incubator space and a variety of biotec and start-up companies. BIOTEC won the
national competition for the €85m DFG Centre for Regenerative Therapy (CRTD), which will double the faculty and research space.

The Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG), founded in 1998, is one of 80 institutes of the Max Planck Society, an independent, non-profit organisation in Germany.

 "How do cells form tissues?" has been and still is the question that researchers at MPI-CBG are tackling from different angles. Molecular cell biologists provide insight into basic processes of cellular life and organization. Developmental biologists and geneticists place these functions into the context of tissue development in different model organisms like zebrafish, Drosophila, C. elegans, or mouse. Once science has an understanding of how cellular control systems work, currently incurable illnesses may be diagnosed earlier with a view to developing more effective treatments.

The MPI-CBG has also invested extensively in Services and Facilities to allow research scientists shared access to sophisticated and expensive technologies. The Scientist voted the MPI-CBG number 1 place in the world in academia and number 1 in the world to do a postdoc.

Venue
The conference will take place at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics.

Speakers

Toby Gibson, European Molecular Biological Laboratory (EMBL),Heidelberg
Matthias Mann, MPI of Biochemistry, Munich
Wolfgang Wurst, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU), Munich
Antony Hyman, MPI of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden
Frank Buchholz, UniversitätsKrebsCentrum Dresden
Francis Stewart, Technical University Dresden
Andreas Beyer, Technical University Dresden
Gerd Kempermann, Center for Regenerative Therapies, Dresden

International Speakers
Soren Brunak, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Lyngby, Denmark
Chris Workman, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Lyngby, Denmark
Frank Grosveld, Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Edith Heard, Institut Curie, Paris, France
Bill Skarnes, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, London, UK
Austin Smith, Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research, Cambridge, UK
Ruedi Aebersold, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH), Zürich, Switzerland
Jürg Bähler, University College London (UCL), London, UK
Chunaram Choudhary, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Nevan Krogan, University of California-San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, USA
Boris Lenhard, Bergen Centre for Computational Science,Bergen, Norway
Michael Rudnicki, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
Luis Serrano, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona, Spain
Huck Hui Ng, Genome Institute of Singapore, Singapore
Jacques Remacle, European Commission, Brussels, Belgium
Aimée Dudley, Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, USA
Gaël Yvert, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Lyon, France

Draft Programme

The programme can be downloaded here.

Registration

Registration is now closed.