Cell News 01/2019
10
The 22
nd
Joint Meeting ‘Signal Transduction: Receptors, Me-
diators and Genes’ of the Signal Transduction Society (STS)
was held in Weimar from 5 to 7 November 2018. In view of
the 20th anniversary of the STS in 2018, the focus topic of the
meeting “Signaling: From Past to Future” had been chosen to
emphasize the evolution of the multifaceted research concern-
ing signal transduction since the foundation of the society.
Various scientific societies helped the STS Council and Advisory
Board to create a highly attractive meeting program: study
groups of German Societies of Cell Biology (DGZ), of Pharma-
cology (DGP), of Physiology (DPG), of Biochemistry and Molec-
ular Biology (GBM), and of Immunology (DGfI) had jointly orga-
nized the meeting. Moreover, the collaborative research center
(SFB) 854 “Molecular Organisation of Cellular Communication
in the Immune System” (B. Schraven, Magdeburg) as well as
the study group “Infection Immunology” of the DGfI and the
German Society for Hygiene and Medical Microbiology (DGHM)
supported the meeting. For the first time, junior groups of the
DGP, DPG, and DGfI contributed to the STS meeting by organiz-
ing individual workshops.
The meeting was opened on Monday morning by Manuela Bac-
carini (Wien, AT), who presented her research on the non-ca-
nonical functions of ERK pathway components in the workshop
“Growth factors, Cytokines and their Receptors”. She provided
evidence for distinct
in vivo
functions of RAF and MEK, which
might open new possibilities in targeted anti-cancer therapy.
Her keynote lecture was followed by three short talks selected
from the abstracts. The workshop on “Differentiation, Stress
and Death” was introduced by Manolis Pasparakis (Köln) pre-
senting his work on the complex interplay between IKK/NFkB
and the receptor-interacting protein kinase (RIPK)1 signaling
modules in cell death and its critical role in immune respons-
es. “Infection and inflammation” were addressed in the third
workshop, in which three speakers presented their work about
hepatitis C virus induced signaling pathway in response to
TNF
α
, about TNF-R1 signaling, and about synthetic polysulfates
to inhibit NF-
κ
B. Within the first poster presentation session,
each poster was introduced to the audience in the ‘one minute
- one transparency’ session and then extensively discussed in
the following two-hour poster discussion workshop in a casual
atmosphere. The second poster session was on the next day,
again with ample time to discuss the new findings presented
preferentially by young scientists.
The second day of the meeting was mainly organized by the
‘Young Investigators’. The DGP junior group “Forum Junge
Wissenschaft” organized the workshop “G Proteins and
G Protein coupled receptors“ comprising five early career
researchers as speakers. Christoph Klenk (Zürich, CH) gave
insights into his research concerning directed evolution of
the human parathyroid hormone 1 receptor (PTH1R), which
made it possible to obtain more thermally stable variants and
subsequently a valid crystal structure of PTH1R. Michael Kauk
(Jena) focused his talk on muscarinic acetylcholine receptors
(mAChR). By using FRET- and BRET-based analyses as well as
different derivatives of the mAChR ligand iperoxo a possible
gatekeeper function of an aromatic lid structure within the
mAChR was explored. Then, Andrea Kliewer (Jena) described a
model of G protein bias at µ-opioid receptors (MOR) in which
differential phosphorylation of MOR by GPCR kinases leads to
altered G protein signaling. Adhesion GPCR (aGPCR) were the
focus of Simone Prömel (Leipzig). She and others discovered
that members of the aGPCR class such as latrophilin have,
additional to mediating G protein-dependent signals into cells
(cis signal), a function which is completely independent of
the seven transmembrane domain and the C terminus (trans
signal). The receptor mediates the two signaling modes in
different biological environments which constitutes a novel
signaling principle of this intriguing GPCR class. The session
was concluded by Stefania Mariggiò (Naples, IT) concentrating
on osteoclast differentiation. She presented her research on the
role of the lysophosphatidylinositol/GPR55 axis by introducing
peptide binders of GPR55, which inhibited RANKL-induced
osteoclastic differentiation of RAW264.7 cells. The workshop
“Neuronal Signaling and Ion Channels” was organized by the
“Young Physiologists” group of the DPG. Jan-Philipp Machtens
(Jülich) opened the session by introducing new concepts in the
field of neuronal signaling and ion channels and summarized
his work on the excitatory amino acid transporters (EAAT).
Jan Meents (Aachen) presented his work on the voltage-gated
sodium channel Na
v
1.7, and Maddalena Comini (Oxford, GB)
focused on the chloride/proton exchangers ClC-3 and ClC-5,
which she demonstrated to be crucial during the priming phase
of exocytosis of large dense core vesicles in chromaffin cells.
The session was completed by Gustavo Chaves (Nürnberg), who
shared with the audience his data on the selectivity and zinc
inhibition of the voltage-gated proton channel H
v
1.
Meeting Report DGZ study group „Signal Transduction” from the
22
nd
Joint Meeting of the Signal Transduction Society 2018 -
Signaling from Past to Future
Klaudia Giehl, Bastian Schirmer, Katharina F. Kubatzky
MEETING REPORT
