Science Amongst the Vines 2007: Signalling Systems

Delegates at the third meeting held in the Barossa Valley

The third biennial Barossa meeting, held on 14-17 November 2007, was once again located in the picturesque setting of the Barossa Valley Novotel Resort, South Australia.  This year’s conference was organised by a committee chaired by Angel Lopez and comprising other members from the Division of Human Immunology at the IMVS (Greg Goodall, Mark Guthridge, Yeesim Khew-Goodall, Stuart Pitson and Jo Woodcock), University of Adelaide (Grant Booker), Royal Adelaide Hospital (Michael Brown), and Centenary Institute (Mathew Vadas, Jennifer Gamble and Pu Xia).  Following on from the success of the first two meetings entitled ‘Regeneration’ and ‘Signalling Networks’, this year’s ‘Science amongst the Vines’ meeting focussed on ‘Signalling Systems’. This theme aimed to bring an understanding of the global rules that govern signalling and their implications for fundamental biological processes as well as for therapeutic strategies.

The conference kicked off to an impressive start with an evening session entitled ‘Temporal and Spatial Regulation of Signalling’. Presentations from John Scott (Vollum Institute), John Blenis (Harvard Medical School), David James (Garvan Institute), Shaun Jackson (Monash University) and Rob Saint (ANU) covered topics including cell signalling in space and time, ERK-MAP kinase signalling, insulin action in adipocytes, visualising platelet adhesion in a living mouse and signalling by the Pebble Rho-family GTP exchange factor in the cytoskeleton. These talks encompassed the highest quality of current research, setting a high standard for the remainder of the conference.

After an enjoyable poolside BBQ, generous sampling of the finest wine of the region and a good nights rest, day two began with a session entitled ‘Genetic Models and Cell Fate’.  This session included an enlightening presentation by Bart Vanhaesebroek (University of London) detailing the use of PI3K ‘knock-in’ mice to study the unique roles of various PI3K isoforms.  Other speakers in this session included Sharad Kumar (IMVS) and Peter Koopman (University of Queensland) who discussed the regulation of the iron transport by ubiquitination and retinoid signalling in germ cell fate, respectively.  The second session of day two, ‘Architecture of the Signalosome’ had a unique start with a presentation by Rainer Sladek, an architect from Henn Architekten (Munich) who discussed the importance of physical space in information flow.  Remaining presentations provided insights into receptor signalling (Michael Parker, St. Vincent’s Institute), T-cell antigen recognition and signal transduction (Jamie Rossjohn, Monash University) and SOCS involvement in E3 ubiquitin ligase complexes (Jeff Babon, WEHI).

Session three on day two saw a series of remarkable insights into the area of ‘Discovery to Therapies’.  The first speaker of this session Axel Ullrich (Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry) recapped on the discovery of the breast cancer therapeutic Herceptin and went on to discuss how ‘target-driven drug development’ can be used to develop drugs for the treatment of cancer.  Neil Watkins (John Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Centre), Andrew Scott (Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research) and Benjamin Kile (WEHI) also featured in this session and covered such topics as Hedgehog signalling in cancer stem cells, targeting the epidermal growth factor receptor as a novel cancer therapy and the molecular regulation of platelet life span, respectively.

The last scientific session of day two was a ‘Hot Topics’ session sponsored by the ASBMB.  Seven speakers were selected from submitted abstracts, providing brief but exciting insights into their research in diverse areas.

Day two drew to a close with one of the highlights of the conference in the awarding of the Clifford Prize for Cancer Research. This prize, initiated in 2005 and linked to this symposium series, recognises excellence in cancer research. The 2007 recipient was Tony Hunter (Salk Institute) for his discovery of protein tyrosine phosphorylation and identification of its critical role in cancer.  The award presentation included a lecture from Hunter outlining his amazing career in science, followed by evening of sumptuous food and fine wine at the Tanunda Pines Golf Club.

Day three began bright and early with a session entitled ‘Signalling Networks’.  This session began with two talks by Alan Aderem (Institute for Systems Biology) and Wendell Lim (University of California San Francisco) who both described advances in technology which greatly aid in our understanding of signalling systems.  Other talks included Roger Daly (Garvan Institute) with an insight into his work on the Gab2 docking protein in breast cancer and Richard Boyd (Monash University) detailing his latest findings on signalling in thymic development and destruction.

The remaining session of day three gave us our second insight in the conference into new therapies, as well as focussing on molecular mechanisms of disease. This session covered a range of signalling networks in different systems, including, the involvement of SOCS3 (Nicos Nicola, WEHI), Lyn and SHIP-1 (Margaret Hibbs, Ludwig Institute) in haematopoiesis, BH3-only proteins as essential apoptosis initiators (Andreas Strasser, WEHI), the involvement of SOCS5 in immune responses (Sandra Nicholson, WEHI), and novel therapies for leukaemia (Russell Basser, CSL). A free afternoon followed, allowing some time for socialising while enjoying the delights of the Barossa Valley, prior to more culinary delights at the conference dinner at Salters Restaurant.

The final day of the conference encompassed two morning sessions, the first of which, entitled ‘MicroRNA and Genetic Regulation’ included talks by Eran Hornstein (Weizmann Institute), Hamish Scott (WEHI) and Charles Mulligan (St Jude Children’s Research Hospital) covering mechanisms of regulation at both the genomic and mRNA level, as well as describing several new genomic technologies in progress. To wrap up an extensive four days of presentations, the conference concluded with a final session on kinase signalling. This session included talks by Nadia Rosenthal (EMBL, Rome), Rick Pearson (Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre), Rosemary O’Connor (University College Cork) and Tony Hunter describing the most up to date research on kinase signalling, in particular how aberrant kinase signalling is often linked to cancer, and served a very fitting end to both a productive and interesting conference.

In conclusion, the meeting offered outstanding science, combined with amazing food and wine in a great location. We look forward to the next meeting in this series in November 2009.

-Tamara Leclercq and Kate Jarman, Molecular Signalling Laboratory.

Clifford Prize for Cancer Research 2007

2007 Clifford Prize for Cancer Research awarded at the 3rd Barossa meeting. The 2007 Clifford Prize was awarded to Tony Hunter (centre, with award) by The Hon John Hill, South Australian Minister for Health. Also present are the co-chairs of the Clifford Prize selection committee, Angel Lopez (far right) and Mathew Vadas (far left).

Science Amongst the Vines 2005

Delegates at the Second Science Amongst the Vines Symposium held in the Barossa Valley.

The second 'Science Amongst the Vines' Symposium was held 16-19 November 2005 at the Novotel Resort in the heart of one of Australia's premier wine producing areas, the Barossa Valley, South Australia. Co-chaired by Mathew Vadas and Angel Lopez, this series of meetings has been designed to draw together excellent scientists from different disciplines in a relaxing and inspiring environment, to discuss topics of particular relevance in today's biomedical science. Following the success of the first meeting of 2003, with a topic of 'Regeneration', the second meeting focussed on 'Signalling Networks' which was organised to discuss what constitutes a physiologically relevant signal and how sets of biochemical signals underlie cellular function or dysfunction.

The first four sessions, entitled 'Integration of Signalling', 'Signalling Architecture', 'Negative Regulation of Signalling' and 'Initiation of Signalling', presented various in-depth views into the signalling networks. These sessions featured 11 invited speakers, including Martin Schwartz (University of Virginia), Haian Fu (Emory University), Roger Daly (Garvan Institute), Marie Bogoyevitch (University of Western Australia), Michael Parker (St. Vincent's Institute), Witold Fillipowicz (Friedrich Miescher Institute), Christina Mitchell (Monash University), Nick Nicola and Doug Hilton (WEHI), Tony Wynshaw-Boris (University of California) and Alpha Yap (University of Queensland), and seven selected oral presentations given by Jennifer Gamble (IMVS), Manuel Baca (Amrad), Tom Garrett, Sandra Nicholson (WEHI), Stephanie Watowich (University of Texas), Evan Ingley (WAIMR), Jo Woodcock (IMVS) and William Hughes (Garvan Institute). Their talks illustrated a wide range of issues such as signalling of integrins, growth factor receptors, 14-3-3, SOCS proteins, MAP kinase, Rho kinase and PI 3-kinases pathways. These speakers have each made landmark discoveries in understanding how signalling networks are connected, activated, terminated and regulated within the cell in response to different environmental settings.

The filth session, entitled `Hot Topics', was organised to provide a platform for attendees, especially young scientists, to present their new ideas, new technologies or preliminary findings. Nine short (10 min) presentations in this session covered different topics of cell signalling which sparked discussion and interest.

The last four sessions, including 'Basis of Human Diseases', 'Organ Function', 'Genetic Programs' and 'Inflammation and cancer were addressed by 10 invited speakers: John Dick (University of Toronto); Jane Visvader (WEHI), Peter Shepherd (University of Auckland), Richard Proia (NIH, NIDDK), Erwin Wagner (Institute of Molecular Pathology, Vienna), Steve Gerondakis (WEHI), Levon Khachigian (University of NSW), Sharad Kumar (Hanson Institute), Sarah Spiegel (Virginia University) and Michael Karin (University of California), and seven selected oral presentations given by Pu Xia (IMVS), Shaun McColl (University of Adelaide), Yeesim Khew-Goodall (IMVS), Matthias Ernst (Ludwig Institute), Wayne Phillips (Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre), Anne Chapman-Smith (University of Adelaide), Paul Hertzog (Monash University), Greg Goodall (IMVS) and Stuart Pitson (IMVS). These speakers presented a large body of work, including lots of their unpublished new findings, which provided insights into how signalling networks are regulated under different physiological and/or pathophysiological settings.

Several particularly interesting topics, such as 'Development of experimental models of leukemogenesis' (Dick), `Generation of a functional mammary gland from a single stem cell' (Visvader), 'Sphingosine-1-phosphate, a multifunctional signalling lipid' (Proia), 'Sphingosine kinases in cancer signalling' (Spiegel), and 'JNK and NFkB: linking inflammation to cancer development' (Karin), gave us wonderful tours de force of their remarkable work and highlighted the implication of signalling networks in human diseases and organ functions.

A particular highlight of this second 'Science Amongst the Vines' symposium was that the organisers and their home division, Human Immunology IMVS, initiated a prize, the Clifford Prize, that recognises excellence in Cancer Research around the world. The 2005 prize was awarded to Axel Ullrich. His pioneering work in the field of signal transduction and cancer research has elucidated major fundamental molecular mechanisms, such as protein phosphorylation and receptor transactivation, which govern the physiology of normal cells and allowed insights into pathophysiological mechanisms of major human diseases, including cancer. As the inaugural recipient of the prize, Professor Ullrich gave a sensational talk that presented his journey in discovery of the HER2/neu oncogene, the basis of the breakthrough therapeutic for breast cancer, Herceptin (Trastuzumab), and his recent work in developing the first multi-targeted kinase inhibitor, SL 11248/SUTENT, for the treatment of cancer. Ullrich's talk not only provided an insight into a key role for signalling in cancer development, but also gave us an inspiring example of a successful scientific career from fundamental discovery to clinical application.

The presentation of the Clifford Prize will remain linked to the scientific symposium series `Science amongst the Vines' that are held every two years.

This conjunction recognises the importance of high-powered small meetings as one of the major drivers of new ideas, gives the possibility for more junior scientists to interact closely with the recipients of the Clifford Prize, and emphasises Australia and, in particular, South Australia as a leader in scientific innovation.