1. Introduction Facts and Figures Organization of PDBEB Courses Seminars Teachers Institutional Consortium 47

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3 Index 1. Introduction 4 2. Facts and Figures 9 3. Organization of PDBEB Courses Seminars Teachers Institutional Consortium Other programmes that benefit from PDBEB Students, location, supervision and research focus Annual Meeting Acomplishment and progress of the students Funding 67 3 Página

4 1. Introduction, comments on the last five years, and some ideas for the future Education at CNC is focused on the domain of molecular life sciences related to disease, namely in the fields of cell and molecular biology, neurosciences and biotechnology. In October 2002 CNC, with the financial support of FCT, launched an International Doctoral Programme in Experimental Biology and Biomedicine to provide advanced, multidisciplinary, research oriented training in emerging areas of modern Biology and Biomedicine. Through this graduate studies programme, scientific education and training of PhD and Master students at a National level is provided. An international PhD programme and a Master programme are organized, aiming to prepare talented, motivated students for independent research projects. The programme is organized in short intensive courses and seminars taught by top scientists selected in the areas, favouring the development of research networks at CNC. The coursework also includes lab rotations in CNC labs, during which the students get acquainted with research groups and start contacts towards choosing a project. There are mainly two options for the students: some prefer to chose an already defined project advertised by a PI, others identify areas of interest and draft some ideas, and a final project is agreed upon after dialogue with the prospective supervisor. The Programme Committee must approve all projects, but so far the need for a more defined structure has not been felt. The programme provides advanced, research oriented training in emerging areas of contemporary Biology and Biomedicine, namely: Molecular Cell Biology Neuroscience and Disease Molecular Biotechnology Medical and Environmental Toxicology Biophysics and NMR Microbiology Development and Reproductive Biology Visual Sciences 4 Página

5 The aim of the CNC graduate studies programme is to provide Master and PhD students with a multi faced education in those scientific fields, through an international doctoral programme. Besides the twelve scholarships provided, CNC has gone to great efforts to recruit other students (Masters, PhD) to boost course participation without loss of quality, and thus maximize the enormous effort (both financial and logistical) to gather in Coimbra top level speakers from different fields. Note that non Programme PhD (i.e., students with independent research fellowships) and Masters students are only asked to participate in a few courses/lectures, not the entire Programme. In our opinion the Programme has been very successful in terms of attracting top level students (average acceptance rate is around 10%) that carry out the tasks expected of them. We plan to try to increase the pool of applicants by advertising the Programme to other prospective students, outside our normal recruiting pool (e.g. Portuguese students studying abroad). Throughout the years only one student has ever left the Programme, in the first few months and for personal reasons. The publication record on the students in the Programme (see further sections) is also noteworthy, and we therefore believe that they are given the right tools to produce at the highest level. In previous editions the students have been encouraged to embark on projects that involve collaborations between national and foreign laboratories, an approach that has been made mandatory since The aim was to promote development of high level thesis, encourage networking and internationalization of national laboratories, while allowing the students to maintain ties with the national institutions that will permit them to work in our country after finishing their PhDs. Since 2008 a new emphasis has emerged, due to two main changes. On one hand, recent years have brought about a widespread development of novel PhD Programmes in Portugal at several Institutions, which can receive a large number of students, thus increasing the options for those who wish to work in specific laboratories. On the other hand, the CNC has grown in terms of PIs and quality of Science produced, and it seems logical to use these highly trained students to help develop the Center as an Associated Laboratory. Therefore, it has been decided that all projects must now involve concrete collaborations with CNC groups and researchers, as well as international collaborations. Other changes are planned if the Programme is renewed, also in accordance with the External Evaluations that were requested (attached to this report). 5 Página

6 There are a few main concerns pointed out in the reports. One relates to benchmarks regarding both the students and Programme. Although we have a continuing evaluation of all students, it might be useful to conduct a more formal evaluation of performance close to the end of the coursework, in the event that some students would be better off leaving the Programme. This has not felt to be necessary so far, but might be useful in the future. Of course, a main problem in this case would be what to do with the scholarship awarded to a student that leaves. One hypothesis would be that only the approved students receive the scholarship 6 months into their first year (scholarship would still be for 4 years), but this would have to be negotiated with FCT, if the Programme is renewed. In terms of how the Programme performs in relation to other similar Programmes, or other ways of obtaining the degree (as asked by one evaluator), we have currently no means of assessing this, as we would need the equivalent reports, names of students in other Programmes, etc. Only informal discussions have ever taken place between Programme Committees. One suggestion would be that PhD Programmes funded (directly or indirectly) by FCT might be gathered under a single umbrella (perhaps in an event/committee sponsored by FCT), and these issues might be discussed more fully, problems identified and benchmarks agreed upon. We are certainly available for this, but believe that the driving force cannot (and should not) be one Programme in particular, but a governing body. Also important to note is that the Course format is extremely interactive and cutting edge, more like specialized mini conferences discussing recent data (i.e. Gordon Conferences, Keystone Syymposia, etc) than classical lectures. Thus we believe that it cannot (and should not) be measured against the background of differently structured (and more common) Ph.D. Programmes. At any rate, it is clear from our point of vue that the Programme at CNC has been invaluable in boosting our publication record, and in developing the Center as an Associated Laboratory. There are 12 BEB students each year at CNC and over three times this number of non BEB students that also enroll at CNC as a Research Institute by other means (i.e. direct FCT Ph.D. fellowships). Although it would be fastidious to list all these students and their publications, a cursory examination revealed that, although both types of students publish well, BEB students have (on average) a higher percentage of high impact publications, thus stressing the importance and success of the Programme. Another concern is that a high percentage of students have taken more than 4 years to complete their thesis. The funding for the extra years comes usually from the lab the student is working 6 Página

7 in, not from the Programme. We have tried to challenge the students to complete their work on schedule, but the reason for the delay is almost always that students have chosen high risk high reward long term PhD projects, and want to obtain the best possible publication record for a succesful postdoctoral career. We will try to work with students and supervisors on this, although we feel that, as long as the student can procure funding for the additional time, this issue is not as crucial as it sounds (i.e. it is actually similar to the USA model). Another crucially important issue to consider is institutional bureaucracy, which can mean an extra 6 8 months between thesis completion and defence, and thus make the problem seem more serious. CNC is working with the University to try and streamline these procedures. Since 2008/09 we have also tried to concentrate course work and create optional courses, thus allowing the students more time to work on preparing their thesis project, and starting lab work, as soon as possible in the first year. In a related issue, CNC PIs are participating in several events related to student mentoring to provide closer monitoring, especially of students performing work mostly abroad. The Programme Committee will also strive to address any issues that may come up in terms of disagreements between students and supervisors that could require mediation. This has been done informally in the past, as only two students have had problems that warranted a change in lab/project, and both were successfully solved (one thesis completed, one close to completion). Recently BEB students from the first editions have come to lecture in the Programme, providing a great example for the new students. We plan to follow the career of all BEB students, post their current positions and achievements online, and ask them to come back for lectures. These students will always be treated as possible CNC hirees. Courses in other areas will be contemplated in future editions, given not only scientific developments, but also new PI hires at the CNC (e.g. Systems Biology, Immunology, Cell Biology of Infection), and perceived student necessities. For example, teaching on science writing (manuscripts, grants, press releases), ethical aspects and career development is planned for 2009/10, and will be a feature in future editions. The relatioship with Biocant (where graduate Programmes in enterpreneurship are planned) will also be a new feature, as these courses might also be offered to BEB students. However BEB does not offer a specific teaching portfolio during the coursework, because BEB is based at a Research institute and with researchers from several backgrounds and different Faculties, with distinct ways of approaching teaching, and very different needs. Other University of Coimbra students based in groups with responsabilities in teaching at specific Faculties do have that aspect developed, and 7 Página

8 BEB students will as well, if they do their project in one of those groups. But we do not think it would be useful to include this aspect. In continuing with a recent philosophy, another aspect that will be developed independently of the evaluation issue mentioned above is relationships with other PhD Programs, both nationally (e.g. GABBA, MIT Portugal), and internationally (e.g. Kings College, London), so that students from BEB can interact with students from other Programmes. BEB courses will thus be offered as optional for students from other Programmes, and there will be reciprocity in this relationship. Finally, the recent announcement of novel PhD Programmes for practicing MDs (i.e. PhDs in a clinical setting) has not escaped our attention, given that Coimbra has a large Public Hospial, and that a high percentage of CNC research is Medically oriented. We already have had some inquiries, and have one MD who has enrolled (as an individual, not yet affiliated with a Programme) in several BEB courses already. We are just waiting for the legal and financial frameworks to be available to offer an appropriate selection of our courses for this purpose, and thus participate in the development of this type of Programme. We are of course available if further infomation is required, Sincerely, João Ramalho Santos (current BEB Coordinator) Luís Pereira de Almeida (former BEB Coordinator) 8 Página

9 2. Facts and Figures The following figures revealed activities of the programme during : a. Number of courses i. 4 th Edition 2005/ courses ii. 5 th Edition 2006/ courses iii. 6 th Edition 2007/ courses iv. 7 th Edition 2008/ courses b. Number of professors of the programme i. 4 th Edition 2005/ national teachers 54 foreign teachers ii. 5 th Edition 2006/ national teachers 38 foreign teachers iii. 6 th Edition 2007/ foreign teachers 73 national teachers c. Number of seminars i seminars ii seminars iii seminars iv seminars d. Number of students that benefit from the Programme i. Programme students 71 students ii. Non programme CNC PhD students students students iii. Masters in Cell Biology 2005/06 24 students 2006/07 20 students e. Number of thesis i. 10 concluded and 2 expected to conclude within the present year f. Number of publications i. 46 papers in international peer reviewed journals 9 Página

10 3. Organization of PDBEB The programme includes advanced courses in top research areas, taught by foreign scientists in collaboration with local investigators, laboratory rotations and research work to be carried out within international networks organized by CNC. Each year a call for applications to the programme has been advertised at national newspapers and at the webpage of the programme ( Near 100 applicants have applied each year for the doctoral programme, including applicants from abroad, from Coimbra, from Lisbon, Porto, Aveiro, Beira Interior, Algarve, Açores, Évora, and Bragança. The applicants were evaluated by a committee formed by Faculty members of CNC. The committee first evaluated the applicants on the basis of their Curriculum Vitae, through a careful analysis of their academic marks and quality of publications in order to select part of the applicants for interview. Twelve (12) applicants were finally selected each year. Criteria such as the ability to expose their current/past scientific work in a hypothesis driven manner, the scientific international experience, the motivation for carrying out an international scientific career, together with the academic merit, were taken into account for the final decision. The students went through a coursetraining period from October to April, in a total of 17 to 20 courses depending of the year (see programme of the courses) and around 40 seminars. Most of the courses were carried out in Coimbra. Ocasionnaly students also did one course at IGC (Oeiras) and IBMC (Porto). The 12 students also attended the Joint Meeting of Graduate Programme on Biosciences and the Annual Meeting of CNC, Portugal, which was held in Cantanhede, Biocant Park, December 16 17, The students had the chance to evaluate all the courses and did laboratory rotations at CNC (6 weeks in the last edition and variable on prevous editions). After the course programme, students selected their areas of research and started working on their PhD projects. In previous editions the students have been encouraged to design with their national and foreign supervisors projects that involve collaborations between national and foreign laboratories, an approach that has been made mandatory since The aim is to promote development of high level thesis, promote networking and internationalization of national 10 Página

11 laboratories, allowing the students to maintain ties with the national institutions that will allow them to work in our country after finishing their PhDs. Each year the students attend an annual meeting where they present their work. After four years the thesis is presented at the University of Coimbra. The students considered the past editions as Excellent, based on the organization of the programme of the courses, the high quality of the international and national lecturers specifically invited for teaching the courses. Furthermore, both coordinators and lecturers were impressed with the overall high quality of the students, highly contributing for maintaining the excellence and success of the Doctoral Programme in Experimental Biology and Biomedicine. Outline of Organization: Each year, twelve (12) students selected to the PDBEB ( The Ph.D. degree the University of Coimbra, Faculties of Sciences and Technology, Pharmacy or Medicine. During the first year courses and seminar programme Lab Rotation one month for students to become familiar with work at laboratories at CNC. Submission of the PhD project until the end of June Supervisors at the University of Coimbra and an external supervisor, usually from abroad The project collaboration between a national laboratory (from Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology or other national laboratory) and an institute/laboratory abroad Attendance to the Annual meeting organized by CNC. 11 Página

12 4. Courses Each year the programme provides, for the first year students, 16 to 20 advanced courses (1 week long) taught by foreign leading scientists in their fields, in collaboration with local investigators. The 4 th and 5 th Editions of the programme included 20 and 17 advanced courses, respectively. The courses were also attended by local graduate students and researchers and people from other Portuguese Universities. List of Courses: Advanced Courses 4 th Edition of PDBEB 73 October 2005 Molecular Biotechnology October 3 7 Arthur Moir, Paula Veríssimo (Portugal), Isaura Simões (Portugal), Luisa Cortes (Portugal), Carlos Faro (Portugal), Euclides Pires (Portugal) Molecular and Cell Biology October J. Kevin Foskett (USA), Gergely Lukacs (Canada), Allen Volchuk (Canada), Carlos B. Duarte (Portugal) Microbiology October and November 2 3 Fred Rainey (USA), Garo Antranikian (Alemanha), Pedro Lamosa (Portugal), Nuno Borges (Portugal) Milton Costa (Portugal), Nuno Empadinhas (Portugal) November 2005 Fertility November 7 11 Justin St. John (UK), Christopher Navara (USA), Stefan Schlatt (USA), Olga Genlacev Krtolica (USA), João Ramalho Santos (Portugal) Biology of Development November Frieder Schoeck (Canada), Christine Hartmann (Austria), Ralph Ruebsam (Alemanha), João Ramalho Santos (Portugal) Molecular Neuroscience November 28 December 2 Andrew Irving (UK), Christopher Connoly (UK), Stuart Cobb (UK), Ana Luisa Carvalho (Portugal). 12 Página

13 December 2005 Neuroinflammation December 5 9 Jiang Fan Chen (USA), Bente Finsen (Dinamarca), Michail Sitkovsky (USA), Rodrigo Cunha (Portugal) Neurodegenerative Disorders December Henry Paulson (USA), Nicole Deglon (França), Maria Björkqvist (Suécia), Ana Luísa Carvalho (Portugal), Patrícia Maciel (Portugal), Sandra Ribeiro (Portugal), A. Cristina Rego (Portugal), Luís Pereira de Almeida (Portugal) January 2006 Neurosystems January 9 13 Miguel Castelo Branco (Portugal), Louis Toth (USA), Elia Formisano (Netherlands), Rui Costa (USA) Neuromodulation January João O. Malva (Portugal), Ana P. Silva (Portugal), Armando Cristóvão (Portugal), Christophe Mulle (France), William Colmers (Canada), Rosa Cossart (France) Mini Course: Biostatistics January Pedro Anastácio (Portugal) February 2006 Structural Biology: Amyloidosis February 6 10 Rui Brito (Portugal), Sandra Ribeiro (Portugal), Daniel A. Kirschner (USA), Sheena E. Radford (UK), Steven Finkbeiner (USA) Immunology February Celeste Lopes (Portugal), Teresa Cruz (Portugal), Alexandrina F. Mendes (Portugal), Kai Zacharowski (Germany), Anabela Cordeiro da Silva (Portugal), Carmen Garcia Rodriguez (Spain) Genetics of the Nucleus February Isabel Marques Carreira (Portugal) Catarina Resende de Oliveira (Portugal), Maj A. Hultén (UK), Thomas Liehr (Germany) March 2006 Biology of Proteolysis March 6 10 Paulo Pereira (Portugal), David J Katzmann (USA), Randy Hampton (USA), Robert C Piper (USA) 13 Página

14 Cancer Gene Therapy March Conceição Pedroso Lima (Portugal), Sérgio Simões (Portugal), João Nuno Moreira (Portugal), Esther Chang (USA), Mirco Ponzoni (Italy) Toxicology: Anticancer therapy March Paulo Oliveira (Portugal), Leonor Almeida (Portugal), Carlos Palmeira (Portugal), João Laranjinha (Portugal), Sten Orrenius (Sweden), Catherine Brenner (France), Ulf Rapp (Germany), Jon Holy (USA) Diabetes and Vascular Disease March Raquel Seiça (Portugal), Cristina Sena (Portugal), María Molsalve (Spain), Fausta Natella (Italy), Michael Boarder (UK), Franscisco Ambrósio (Portugal), Sérgio Lemos (Portugal) April 2006 Toxicology of Nitric Oxide April João Laranjinha (Portugal), Rafael Radi (Uruguay), Ana Denicola (URUGUAY), Homero Rubbo (Uruguay) Functional Genomics April Paulo Santos (Portugal), Stephen Bustin (UK), Jo Vandesompele (Belgium), Katja Kotsch (Germany), José Cabeda (Portugal) 14 Página

15 Advanced Courses 5 th Edition of PDBEB October 2006 Structural Biology October 9 13 Ulrich Baumann (Switzerland), Christina Redfield (UK), Rui Brito (Portugal), Sandra Ribeiro (Portugal) November 2006 Molecular Cell Biology November 27 December 01 Carlos Duarte (Portugal) Gregg G. Gundersen (USA), Geri Kreitzer (USA), Edgar R. Gomes (USA), Helder Maiato (Portugal) December 2006 Development Biology December Pedro Domingos (USA), Rui Martinho (Portugal), Antonio Jacinto (Portugal), Josh Brickman (Scotland), Leonor Saude (Portugal), José António Belo (Portugal), Moises Mallo (Portugal), Guillermina López Bendito (Spain) Reproductive Biology December João Ramalho Santos (Portugal), Christopher Navara (USA), António Granado (Portugal) January 2007 Biostatistics January Pedro Anastácio Death and Survival Signaling January Armanda Santos, Emília Duarte and Paulo Santos, Lloyd Greene, Alun Davies, Leonidas Stefanis Neurodegenerative diseases January Paula Agostinho, Claudia Pereira, Cristina Reg, Luis Almeida, Olga Corti, Ruth Luthi Carter, Salvatore Oddo Neurogenesis and Neural Stem Cells January 29 February 02 Inês Araújo, Cristina Rego, Allison Ebert, Mónica Sousa, Jia Yi Li, João Bettencourt Relvas 15 Página

16 February 2007 Systems Neuroscience February Miguel Castelo Branco, Rui Costa, Marta Moita, Rainer Goebel, Serge Picaud Immunology February Alexandrina Mendes, Teresa Cruz, Celeste Lopes, Anabela Cordeiro Silva, António Bandeiras, Kai Zacharowski, Carmen Garcia Rodriguez NMR February 26 March 02 Carlos Geraldes, Margarida Castro, Rui Carvalho, John Jones, Bernardo Celda, Shawn Burgess, Silvio Aime March 2007 Microbiology March Milton Costa, Nuno Empadinhas, André Antunes, Paula Morais, Teresa Gonçalves, António Veríssimo Gregor Grass, Fred Rainey Toxicology March Paulo Oliveira, João Laranjinha, Leonor Almeida, João Ramalho Santos, Sérgio Dias, Ernest Arenas, Horst Spielmann, Edward Perkins Molecular Biotechnology March Paula Veríssimo, Luísa Cortes April 2007 Oncobiology April Celeste Lopes, Teresa Martins, Alexandra Brás, Paula Soares, Raquel Seruca, Alberto Orfão Bioinformatics April Armindo Salvador, José Leal, Rui Alves, Ralf Hofestadt, Thoralf Topel Modelling of Biological Systems April Armindo Salvador, Rui Alves, Jorge Carneiro, Michael Savageau 16 Página

17 Advanced Courses 6 th Edition of PDBEB October 2007 Molecular Biotechnology October 1 12 Paula Veríssimo, Luísa Cortes, Bruno Manadas, Mónica Sousa Biostatistics October 3 5 Pedro Anastácio and Isabel Gordo Lab Rotations October 15 to November 9 November 2007 Molecular Cell Biology November 12 to 16 Carlos Duarte, Edgar R. Gomes Transcription & RNA Biology November 19 to 20 Sukalyan Chatterjee Biology of RNA November 21 to 23 Manuel Santos Break November 26 to 30 December 2007 Reproductive Biology December 3 to 7 João Ramalho Santos Development Biology December 10 to 14 Sofia Araújo Meeting PDBEB December 20 to Página

18 January 2008 Proteolysis January 7 to 11 Paulo Pereira Molecular Neuroscience January 14 to 18 Ana Luisa Carvalho Cell Death January 21 to 25 Armanda Santos Neurodegenerative Disorders January 28 to 1st February Ana C. Rego, Cláudia Pereira, Luís P. Almeida, Paula Agostinho, Paula Moreira, Sandra M. Cardoso February 2008 Retinal Physiology and Disease: from Bench to Clinics February 4 to 8 Miguel Castelo Branco, Francisco Ambrósio Immunology February 11 to 15 Anabela C. Silva, M. Celeste Lopes, Sukalyan Chatterjee Microbiology February 18 to 22 Milton Costa Genome Biology February 25 to 27 Isabel Carreira March 2008 Synapse, Circuitry and Behavior March 3 to 7 Chinfei Chen, Guoping Feng Oncobiology March 10 to 14 Anália do Carmo, Maria Celeste Lopes, Sukalyan Chaterjee 18 Página

19 Neuroimunology March 31 to April 3 Anália Carmo, Teresa Cruz, Emília Duarte April 2008 Extra activities April 7 Toxicology April 9 to 11 João Laranjinha, Leonor Almeida, Paulo Oliveira, Carlos Palmeira 19 Página

20 Advanced Courses 7 th Edition of PDBEB September 2008 Biostatistics September 30 October 3 Chris Palmer October 2008 Molecular Biotechnology October 6 17 Paula Veríssimo Lab Rotations October 20 November 14 November 2008 Molecular Cell Biology November Edgar Gomes Biology of Proteolysis November Sandra M. Cardoso, Cláudia Pereira, Paulo Pereira December 2008 Cell Biology of Infection December 3 5 Otília Vieira Biology of Reproduction and Embryonic Stem Cells December 8 12 João Ramalho Science Writing December Sofia Araújo CNC Annual Meeting December January 2009 Microbiology January 5 9 Nuno Empadinhas 20 Página

21 Immunobiology (Optional Course) January Celeste Lopes Neuroscience January Robrigo Cunha Cell Death January Armanda Santos February 2009 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE IN DRUG DEVELOPMENT (Optional Course) February 2 13 João Nuno Moreira, Conceição Pedroso de Lima, Sérgio Simões, Luís Almeida Visual Neuroscience (Optional Course) February 9 13 Miguel Castelo Branco Neurodegenerative Disorders February Ana Cristina Rego, Paula Agostinho, Cláudia Pereira, Luís Pereira de Almeida Vascular Physiology February João Laranjinha, Giovanni Mann, Paul Frazer March 2009 Biomedical Imaging and Metabolism March 2 6 Carlos Geraldes Obesity & Type II Diabetes (Optional Course) March 9 13 John Jones and Eugénia Carvalho Oncobiology March Anália Carmo, João Nuno Moreira Neurogenesis March João Malva April Página

22 5. Seminars PDBEB helds a weekly seminar programme open to the whole CNC and the scientific community which is attended by PDBEB students and local graduate students and researchers. Generally seminars are held on Friday afternoons and are given either by the invited professors that teach the courses during the week or by invited foreign and national researchers, when no courses are held on that week Series Friday 16:00 h January 14 Titration of cellular processes with steady state concentrations of H2O2: advantages over the bolus addition approach Fernando Antunes Instituto de Investigação Científica Bento da Rocha Cabral e Centro de Química e Bioquímica da FCUL 21 Celular consequences of amyloid deposition in familial amyloid polyneuropathy Maria João Saraiva Amyloid Unit, Inst Biol Mol & Celular, Univ. Porto 28 From HIV to AIDS 22 years later! Prof. Krystyna Konopka Department of Microbiology, University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry, San Francisco, USA February 4 Microbiology of Martian Environmental Analogs on Earth Fred A. Rainey Dept.Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA 18 Role of nitric oxide in endothelial cell migration: a case for matrix metalloproteinase 13 Santiago Lamas Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares, Madrid 23 Joys and woes of AAV vectors for cardiovascular gene therapy Mauro Giacca International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology ICGEB Trieste, Italy 25 Cellular HATs: new emerging partners of HIV 1 Anna Cereseto Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy 22 Página

23 March 4 Fluxes in Metabolic Networks of the Liver by NMR Craig R. Malloy University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Dallas VA Medical Center Dallas, Texas, USA Magnetic Resonance Contrast Agents for Molecular Imaging Applications Silvio Aime Dipartimento di Chimica Universitá degli studi di Torino, Italy Novel approaches to monitor and manipulate single neurons in vivo Michael Brecht Department of Neuroscience Erasmus MC Rotterdam, The Netherlands 18 Regulation of intracellular protein degradation by the ubiquitin proteasome system George N. DeMartino Department of Physiology Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas The University of Texas, USA April 1 Apoptosis in yeast: from biology to medical applications Paula Ludovico Instituto de Investigação em Ciências da Vida e Saúde Escola de Ciências da Saúde Universidade do Minho Braga, Portugal 8 Controlling signal transduction in T cells: inhibitors disguised of activators Alexandre Carmo IBMC, University of Porto 15 Manipulating immune responses: NFAT transcription factor as a target Carmen Garcia Instituto de Biología y Genética Molecular (CSIC Univ. de Valladolid), Facultad de Medicina Valladolid SPAIN 22 Astrocytes and Neuroprotection/Neurodegeneration Simon Heales Neurometabolic Unit, National Hospital & Institute of Neurology (UCL), London, UK 29 Aging, a mitochondria mediated atavistic program. Can it be switched off? Vladimir Skulachev Moscow State University, Russia May 6 Neuropeptide Y and seizures Prof. Woldbye Laboratory of Neuropsychiatry, Rigshospitalet University Hospital & Department of Pharmacology, University of Copenhagen 23 Página

24 12 Prions and Lipid Membranes Teresa Pinheiro Department of Biological Sciences, University of Warwick, UK 20 LentiVector based gene therapy for Parkinsonʹs disease and motor neuron diseases Mimoun Azzouz Oxford Biomedica plc Medawar Centre The Oxford Science Park, Oxford, UK Dissecting the molecular mechanisms of neurotoxicity by unconjugated bilirubin Dora Brites Centro de Patogénese Molecular, Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade de Lisboa June 3 Retinal gene expression in an experimental model for glaucoma. Microarray and real time quantitative PCR studies Willem Kamphuis Ophtalmic Research Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 17 Huseyin Mehmet Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College, London, UK 24 Synucleins in Parkinsonʹs disease: novel insights Cristine Alves da Costa Institut de Pharmacologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, IPMC, CNRS, Valbonne, France July 1 Proteomics driven research in neurodegeneration Michael Fountoulakis Foundation for Biomedical Research of the Academy of Athens, Greece October 7 A Review of The Role of The Sarcomeric Proteins in Familial Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Arthur Moir Krebs Institute, Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Sheffield, UK 14 The IP 3 receptor and the endoplasmic reticulum gateway to apoptosis Kevin Foskett University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine Departments of Physiology and Cell and Developmental Biology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA 21 mrna mistranslation in biological processes Manuel Santos Department of Biology, University of Aveiro, Portugal 24 Página