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Emerging young scientists of the priority program 1356 meet in Würzburg for scientific exchange

As scientists, we work hard to transform our ideas to meaningful experiments and to generate data to support our hypotheses. However, another crucial skill is to present one’s work and to be able to handle criticism. Moreover, getting to know other researchers within the field and discussing scientific ideas and methods is important for career planning, collaborations and long-term scientific success.

For these reasons, a special meeting was organized within the framework of the priority program 1356, to which all the emerging associated PhD-students and young postdocs where invited. Nearly 30 young scientists followed the call and at the end of July we all met in the beautiful monastery Himmelspforten in Würzburg to hold the first PhD/postdoc workshop within the program. As the purpose of the meeting was not only to get an update on the progress within other laboratories but also to improve our presentation skills, every participant gave his or her own talk. It was interesting to see from how many angles one can approach the topic of pluripotency and cellular reprogramming. Talks included ESCs and iPSCs, cloning and embryology in mammals, but also pluripotency in drosophila and axolotl. It is also important to note that, even though no principal investigators where present, the quality of the presentations and the discussions was extremely high. Additionally, in a keynote lecture given by Toni Wagner from the Biocenter Würzburg, we heard about how to address questions regarding pluripotency using an unusual model system - the fish Medaka.

During the breaks and in the evenings, there was plenty of time to discuss the different opinions on how reprogramming works mechanistically, how to address the longstanding questions of active DNA demethylation and much more. As all the participants are actively involved in benchwork there were also a lot of discussions on how to improve certain methodological details.

After getting to know each other better, now the basis for increased interaction are set. In fact, small collaborations are already emerging.

As the organizers got such outstanding feedback after the meeting, it was decided that a second spp1356 PhD/young postdoc workshop should take place in spring 2010. We hope to see many of the participants again and that also new people will join the endeavor.

Martin Pfeiffer, (dated: August 2009)