The Vienna Bio Center EDI (Equity, Diversity & Inclusion) group organises two events about balancing research/career and parenthood. These events are targeted to anyone who is a parent, parent-to-be, but also people who work with or supervise parents. Kids are welcome to both events.
On Tuesday December 13th, two accomplished Principal Investigators from the Weizmann Institute of Science are invited for two events:
10:30-12:00: Fusion talk – Science & EDI
IMP Lecture Hall, no registration
Ruth Scherz-Shouval (Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel)
Stress and mutation dependencies shaping the tumour microenvironment
& Tools for a healthy work-life balance
Michal Sharon (Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel)
Native mass spectrometry under “close-to-life” conditions
& A crash course on parenthood in academia
13:00-14:30: Workshop – Parenthood in academia, challenges and solutions
IMP Seminar Room 1.014-016, registration required
Ruth and Michal will lead a discussion group about the challenges and solutions of parenthood in academia.
Please register through this form to participate in the workshop.
Talk abstracts
Ruth Scherz-Shouval
Stress and mutation dependencies shaping the tumour microenvironment
Tumours initiate through genomic alterations in cancer cells, and progress through reciprocal interactions with non-malignant cells in the tumour microenvironment (TME). Cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are the most abundant cell type in the TME of most carcinomas. CAFs are genomically stable, and transcriptionally rewired by cancer cells to form heterogeneous subpopulations that play diverse and sometimes opposing roles in tumour progression and metastasis. It is well known that oncogenes rewire cancer cells, yet it is not known whether different mutations in the cancer cells lead to differential rewiring of CAFs and contribute to CAF heterogeneity. Moreover, the extent to which CAF rewiring is driven by genomic alterations in the cancer cells versus environmental stresses is not clear.
In my lab we address these questions by combining unbiased mapping and characterization of CAF populations in different carcinomas with a targeted analysis of specific stress responses. In my talk I will discuss recent insights we gained by characterizing the landscape of CAF heterogeneity in BRCA-WT vs BRCA-mutated cancers. I will also share insights and thoughts on CAF epigenetic rewiring and interactions with other cell types in the TME, in particular the immune microenvironment.
Following the scientific part of my talk, I will share some thoughts and perspectives gained through my personal journey as a female scientist, mother of three children and wife of a physician-scientist. I will offer tools to maintain a healthy work-like balance and outline ways to support a family-friendly environment in the lab.
Michal Sharon
Native mass spectrometry under “close-to-life” conditions
A grand goal of structural biology is to understand the mechanics of the molecular machines that coordinate the functions of the cell. This challenging task has traditionally been approached in a reductionist manner, in which cellular molecular components are fractionated and purified before being studied individually. Recent years have witnessed a revolution in the field of structural biology, stemming from the growing awareness to the importance of performing structural studies under more physiologically relevant conditions, ones that retain the effects of the intracellular environment on protein structure, stability, interactions, function, and dynamics. This notion has already given rise to cryo-electron tomography techniques and in-cell nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Yet, conformational variability, heterogeneity, fast dynamics, and asymmetric structures can be a challenge for these methods.
To propel the field of cellular structural biology forward complementary methods are required. One such approach, the focus of my talk, is direct-MS that enables analysis under “close-to-life” conditions. Direct-MS is based on a conceptual frameshift in the field by turning the inherent limited dynamic range of MS (wherein low-abundance proteins are masked by highly abundant ones), typically considered a weakness, into an advantage. The method enables the biased detection of a highly produced target protein, while disregarding the lower-abundant endogenous proteins. Thus, signal suppression allows one to overcome the need for prior protein purification.
I will demonstrate that direct-MS acquisitions enable the immediate, high-resolution assessment of a wide range of structural features: sequence variations, assembly states, folding conditions, PTMs, overall structure, stability, and the association of ligands of the generated proteins. The applicability of the method to analysing drug uptake and target engagement in human cells will be discussed as well as its development towards full organ analysis.
Direct-MS enables structural studies under “close-to-life” conditions, preserving as much as possible the natural environment and biological diversity, features that are often lost during biochemical purifications.