Intelligenes Vol. 4, Number 2, January 2008

ELSYS 2008 Conference: Register now!

• Editorial Elsys Conference
• Lab-diaries Part II: I published in Cell in my first year
• What’s next? Part II: Join them if you canít beat them
• Science @ nu.nl
• Did you know?
• News
• PhD: Piled higher and deeper

Happy New Year to you all! Hereby we present to you the second new GeneYouS newsletter: the New Year’s edition! This year will somewhat special since it is the fifth anniversary of GeneYouS; you’re bound to hear more on this soon. As in the first edition, you will find in this newsletter a personal story from the lab bench, a ’what’s next?’ story on career possibilities after your PhD, and lots of other items of interest or fun to young life-scientists. Furthermore, there will be a second edition of the ELSYS conference in February this year: see the ’News’ section for more info.

When she started her Ph.D. two years ago, all Saskia Houwing wanted was an ambitious working environment, in which she could do nice experiments. Little over a year later she published her first paper, in the high-impact journal Cell. Now she looks back, and shares with us the making-of of her paper. Read more

Your PhD project teaches you to do research, to set up experiments and present your results. In short: to be a scientist. But what if you decide that, after all, a scientist is not what you want to be for the rest of your life? Read more

NIJMEGEN - Onderzoekers van het Universitair Medisch Centrum St Radboud hebben een nieuwe erfelijke oorzaak van de huidziekte psoriasis ontdekt. Read more

WASHINGTON - Wetenschappers in de Verenigde Staten en Japan zijn er onafhankelijk van elkaar in geslaagd menselijke huidcellen de eigenschappen van embryonale stamcellen terug te geven. Deskundigen spreken over een doorbraak. Read more

Doing your PhD is not just about pipetting and getting results: if you are a member of a graduate school, you also have to attend courses and earn a certain amount of points depending on the graduate school you’re in. The value of such graduate-points differs from school to school; some have a European standard and some have their own. Some of the courses can be really useful, scientifically as well as concerning the management of your project, and writing and presentation skills and you can often also join courses in different grad schools at different universities or medical centers. Most grad schools in the Netherlands have standardized Training-programmes for all PhD students following a PhD track in that school. See examples of training programmes of grad schools and the courses they have in Nijmegen, Wageningen, Nijmegen, Leiden, Amsterdam en Utrecht, Utrecht, Amsterdam or Groningen or see the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences

• We would like to draw your attention to one of our initiatives: the next ELSYS Conference. On 24th-26th February 2008 the European Life Science conference for Young Scientists (ELSYS) will take place for the second time at the campus of Twente University, Enschede, NL. ELSYS aims to bring together around 120 early career researchers working in Life Sciences. ELSYS is different from other conferences, as it unites three different aspects of Life Sciences that are important for young scientists. Firstly, young scientists will present their own results and participate in discussions in a group of scientists who work in different fields of Genomics. Secondly, young scientists will be informed about the latest developments in Life Science and the newest techniques in interactive sessions. Thirdly, young scientists will participate in workshops on career development. ELSYS 2008 will be a highly diverse conference, thanks to the involvement of excellent national as well as international scientists. The keynote topics will be presented in plenary talks this year, followed by a more in-depth session on the topic of your preference.
  Check for more details on the program. Registration for ELSYS 2008 is € 100,- and covers conference attendance, lunch and dinner.
  You can register now here. We look forward to seeing you at ELSYS 2008!
• The Genomics Researchers event took place on November 29 in Amsterdam. Read about one of the highlights: ’Bobos embrace Dodos: Government-supported movie shows new approach to science communication is taking effect’.
• GeNeYouS' General Assembly (GA) took place on December 14 in Utrecht. It was the perfect opportunity to meet each other, and hear about ongoing activities and projects. Active members presented their progress in different cities and Joost van den Brink performed his 20PK again.
• GeNeYouS currently consists of 198 members; 78 in Medical, 34 in Biotechnology, 26 in Bioinformatics, 45 in Fundamental and 15 in Societal aspects of genomics.
• Click here for an overview of the geographical coverage of GeNeYouS.

Welcome to PiledHigher and Deeper, the ongoing chronicle of life (or the lack thereof) in grad school