News

SECRET-ITN seminar Kick-off – January session (19.01.2021)

The SECRET ITN network has had an energetic start into the new year, with the first of 6 planned sessions of a seminar aimed to provide all network members with a comprehensive look into the research topics of each of the beneficiaries. Each monthly session is planned to feature two talks, including a question and answers sessions after each talk.

The January session was kicked off by a presentation titled “PKD3: a driver of cancer cell secretion and tumor progression” from the network coordinator, Angelika Hausser, leading the Membrane Trafficking and Signaling lab at the Institute of Cell Biology and Immunology from the University of Stuttgart. Her lab’s work investigates how membranes of the secretory pathway are regulated by signal transduction pathways. Here, the group is particularly interested in the role of the protein kinase D family. Specifically, they address how external cues control PKD activity and how the kinase engages its interactors and substrates to coordinate the secretory pathway. Ultimately, the Hausser lab aims at determining the relevance of PKD in cell growth, polarity, migration and invasion, and stem cell maintenance to understand the impact of dys-regulation of PKD signaling and secretion in human diseases such as cancer and neurodegeneration.

The second talk, “Clinical Cancer Proteomics” was held by Connie Jimenez, head of the OncoProteomics Laboratory at the VU University Medical Center Amsterdam. The goal of OPL’s proteomics research is to identify tumor-associated changes in the proteome using a mass spectrometry-based open screening strategy, and to translate this information – preferably insights relating to tumor biology – into protein-based clinical tests. The activities of OPL are focused on 1) identifying protein markers for non-invasive (early) detection of cancer and for monitoring disease; 2) identifying new predictive markers/targets for (indiviualized) targeted therapy of cancer; and 3) developing/implementing innovative proteomics and data analysis strategies to enable the above.

SECRET-ITN Annual Meeting 2020 and Mid-Term Check

This November, shortly after completing the first year of our project, the SECRET ITN consortium met digitally for a one day annual meeting, where we looked back over our progress for the past year and all the ESRs had a chance to present and discuss their first results with all the PIs and other ESRs. It was a very lively and productive discussion, and we are thankful for everyone’s participation and involvement! We can only hope to keep it up over the upcoming years!

The Annual Meeting was followed by the Mid-Term Check on the 13th of November 2020. We were happy to meet with our project officer, to walk him through our progress and successes, as well as our COVID-19-related struggles and problem solving. We are very grateful for his useful feedback and suggestions, and are looking forward to a continued productive communication!

An introduction to advanced microscopy techniques for our ESRs

The SECRET ITN ESRs participated in a one day digital workshop in microscopy techniques, a blend of informative lectures from experts in the field and a practical tutorial in the use of a popular data analysis tool. The training event was organised on the 9^th of November 2020 by the team of Prof Hesso Farhan at the University of Oslo. Unfortunately, an event in presence at this point was not an option.

The workshop was not only a way to learn new and exciting techniques, but also a great chance for scientific exchange, as SECRET ESRs got a chance to meet and interact with the ESRs from SAND-ITN, coordinated by our beneficiary, Prof Hesso Farhan, from the University of Oslo.