Cell News 3/2013
29
Retrospect and prospect on the GfV Workshop
“Cell Biology of Viral Infections”
Upcoming Workshop 2013
”Cell Biology of Metabolic Processes“
Susanne M. Bailer and Harald Wodrich
The annual meeting of the study section “Cell Biology of Viral
Infections” of the Society of Virology (GfV) held at the Ketschau-
er Hof in Deidesheim, Pfalz, has become a well-known tradition.
The workshop intends to foster research of cell biological aspects
of virus infections by bringing together cell biologists and viro-
logists at all levels of their career. Each workshop is organized
around 4 keynote lectures held by invited cell biological experts
working on topics with emerging relevance in the field. To foster
collaborations, to exchange newest technologies and to facili-
tate discussions between participants and ”cell-biologists” the
workshop takes place in a pleasant and rather intimate setting,
with ample time to meet and to converse. Furthermore, a tra-
ditional wine tasting organized in one of the famous wineries
in Deidesheim and the excellent cuisine of the Ketschauer Hof
contribute to lively exchange.
Retropect on Workshop 2012
"Nuclear Structures and Chromatin Dynamics"
The 11
th
meeting took place September 19
th
- 21
st
of September
2012 and focused on
“Nuclear Structures and Chromatin Dyna-
mics”
. Faithful to our strategy we invited four excellent speakers
to introduce us to their respective fields of research on nuclear
processes, to provide us with overviews of their current work and
to present techniques of particular importance in their studies.
As a special treat this year we invited
Prof. Harald zur Hausen
,
the Nobel Laureat of physiology or medicine in 2008. We were
very honored and grateful that Prof. zur Hausen accepted our in-
vitation despite a very tight schedule travelling and lecturing on
an international level. Prof. zur Hausen presented a lecture en-
titled “Viral infections in human cancers” that was received with
great interest by young students and mature scientists alike as
indicated by an extended discussion following the presentation.
In his lecture Prof. zur Hausen talked about a potential link bet-
ween the increased consumption of beef and colorectal cancer.
Based on epidemiological evidence he suggested that “red” beef,
e.g. a juicy steak, often is prepared in a way that would allow
several pathogens, like some DNA viruses to survive the food
preparation process. These pathogens then may at the basis of a
transforming process lead to increased rates of colorectal cancer
as observed in the western world.
Peter Hemmerich
, professor at the FLI-Leibniz Jena, gave a lec-
ture entitled
“Assessing protein dynamics in the nucleus: new
clues on genome function”
. Peter Hemmerich analyses dynamics
and architecture of the cell nucleus with a particular focus on
age-related alterations. With his talk he provided insight into re-
cent developments in the field as revealed by high resolution and
live microscopy in combination with several other techniques
like photobleaching and -activation, and fluorescence correla-
tion spectroscopy (FCS). The techniques applied are of particu-
lar importance in studying dynamics and interactions as well as
biophysical properties of proteins in their natural environment.
M. Cristina Cardoso
, professor at the TU Darmstadt, summarized
the work of her laboratory with a talk entitled
“DNA replication
and repair, a 4D matter”
. She presented her studies aimed at elu-
cidating principles that enable and govern the dynamic organi-
zation of the cell nucleus. In addition, M. Cristina Cardoso´s lab
focuses on how the genetic and epigenetic information of the
genome is replicated in a faithful and coordinated manner. In
general, the Lab´s results provide the basis to understand how
genome stability is maintained, with important implications for
cancer development, as well as cell differentiation. Like P. Hem-
merich, M. C. Cardoso applies high-resolution microscopy based
on fluorescent fusion proteins, complemented by biochemical
and biophysical techniques.
Gernot Längst
, professor at the University of Regensburg, our
third plenary speaker, presented a talk entitled
“From local to
global chromatin structures - Regulation by chromatin remo-
deling enzymes and non-coding RNA”
. Gernot Längst provided
insight into a fascinating research area using cell biological and
biochemical techniques. The Längst lab analyses how various
Nobel Laureate Prof. Harald zur Hausen with the organizers
MEETING REPORT
