Cell News 3/2013
28
MEETING REPORT
Meeting report of the DGZ study group ‘Signal Transduction’
Katharina Kubatzky, Ottmar Janssen, Klaudia Giehl,
Frank Entschladen and Ralf Hass
The 17th Joint Meeting ‘Signal Transduction – Receptors, Medi-
ators and Genes’ was held again at the Leonardo Hotel, Weimar,
from November 4 to 6, 2013. Like in previous years, this meeting
was co-organized by the study groups of the German Society for
Immunology (DGfI), the Society for Biochemistry and Molecular
Biology (GBM) and by the German Society for Cell Biology (DGZ).
For the first time, the German Society for Pharmacology and To-
xicology (DGPT) and the DFG SFB854 ‘Molecular Organization of
cellular communication in the immune system’ also contributed
to this international conference.
About 200 scientists discussed 120 contributions during the Joint
Meeting consisting of 10 internationally invited overview spea-
kers, 43 short oral presentations and 67 poster presentations.
With this year’s topic of ‘Infection and Inflammation’ Christof
Hauck (Konstanz) was the first keynote speaker and focused on
the relevance of phagocyte receptors in the course of bacterial
infections. Thereafter, Andreas Pichlmair (Martinsried) presented
potential mechanisms on how the innate immune system can re-
cognize viral infections.
In the second workshop, Gunter Hartmann (Bonn) demonstrated
different components of nucleic acids and how they can contri-
bute to inflammatory reactions. Philip Rosenstiel (Kiel) discussed
the relevance of an orchestrated communication between host
cells and the intestinal microbiom for the cause of diseases such
as chronic inflammation of the intestine. The workshop topics
were also supplemented by a variety of short oral presentations
selected from the submitted abstracts.
The success of the STS Joint Meeting also depends on synergistic
interactions with industrial partners. Thus, sponsors of the STS
meeting took the traditional opportunity to present their news on
biochemical and immunological assays as well as advanced tech-
nology in short oral presentations to the plenum for improved
investigation of distinct signal pathways.
A variety of other signaling topics were highlighted in further
workshops during the 3 days STS Joint Meeting. Michael Heneka
(Bonn) presented in a talk about Morbus Alzheimer that immu-
nological processes, particularly the activation of distinct compo-
nents of the innate immune system can be tightly associated with
neurodegeneration. The workshop ‘Growth factors, cytokines and
their receptors’ was introduced by an overview talk from Nancy
Hynes (Basel). Following a brief overview on the relevance of re-
ceptor tyrosine kinases during the development of breast cancer,
she focused on the role of Memo (mediator of motility), a copper-
dependent oxidase and its
role for the formation of
metastasis by neoplastic
mammary epithelial cells.
This issue of tumor meta-
stasis was complemented
by a keynote talk from Su-
sanne Sebens (Kiel) about
the tumor microenviron-
ment and the interaction
of tumor cells with other
adjacent cell populations
and the extracellular ma-
trix. The closely related
topic ‘Tumor Biology’ was
highlighted in a following workshop organized by the study group
of the DGZ. During this DGZ-sponsored workshop the invited key-
note speaker Massimo Dominici (Modena) presented different tu-
mor models and their complexity, whereby the tumorigenic envi-
ronment and the interaction of tumor cells with neighboring cells
and matrix components influence the malignity and metastatic
behavior. Moreover, Massimo Dominici suggested a special role
for tumor-attracted mesenchyml stem/stroma cells as a potential
vehicle to deliver tumor therapeutic agents or death-inducing li-
gands to the tumor cells.
In a joint session with the DGPT, the topic on ‘G protein-coupled
receptors’ was visualized by a keynote talk from Henry Vischer
(Amsterdam) who enrolled classical molecular structures for
pharmacological interventions. The workshop ‘Differentiation,
stress and death’ was introduced by Stefan Constantinescu (Brüs-
sel) about mutations in the thrombopoietin receptor and their
effects to contribute to the induction of myeloproliferative dis-
orders in combination with aberrant or pathological signaling via
downstream cascades such as Janus kinases.
A further highlight of the STS Joint Meeting was the award of
the STS/CCS honorary medal to an outstanding scientist in the
field of molecular and cellular signal transduction. Following Tony
Pawson, Tony Hunter, and Carl-Hendrik Heldin in the past ye-
ars, the fourth STS/CCS honorary medal was awarded to Klaus
Rajewsky (Max-Delbrück-Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin)
for his ground-breaking discoveries in the conditional mutage-
nesis of mice. This technique enables the targeted switch-on/
off of individual genes in cells and tissues and thus, contribu-
tes to the understanding of distinct signaling pathways e.g. in
the course of a disease or tumor development in cells, tissues, or
Prof. Klaus Rajewsky received the
STS/CCS honorary medal 2013
