Find out here how to nominate for two prestigious Ryal Society awards; the Royal Society Kohn Award for Excellence in Engaging the Public with Science and the The Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize.....   more »

The Life Science Directory is A Free Resource For The International Life Science Community.    more »

Only10 places remain for EuroSciCon’s ‘Analysing the Phenotype & Function of Regulatory T cells' meeting on March 7th. This meeting has an excellent agenda and a great line-up of speakers.   more »

There is an international line-up of speakers at EuroSciCon's 'ELISPOT technology: Newer tricks' meeting on 8th July 2008 at BioPark Hertfordshire. This CPD accredited meeting will discuss the advances made in ELISPOT technology including the range of cytokines that can be measured, as well discussions on assay development and applications to both basic and clinical research.    more »

EuroSciCon have confirmed that David Wallder (CEO, Wallder Consulting Ltd) has agreed to speak at their 'How can I spin out my research and become a company?' meeting on 14th March 2008. If you are considering setting up your own company then this is the event for you! The deadline for early registration is fast approaching so book now and save £££s.   more »

Do you need to boost the number of points in your CPD scheme? All of EuroSciCon's meetings give 6 CPD points from the IBMS. Furthermore, register before the early registration deadlines and save £££s.   more »

EuroSciCon have now released their meetings calendar for 2008. These events also provide a fantastic networking opportunity for scientists. The informal atmosphere promotes lively discussions, both in the lecture theatres and during breaktimes. For some, the early registration deadlines are fast approaching so to get half price registrations do register as soon as possible.   more »

There is still time to book a place at EuroSciCon's 'Proteomics: advances in biomarker discovery' meeting on 23rd November 2007. There a five places available at this meeting for only £50 each...   more »

EuroSciCon (www.euroscicon.com) have finalised the agenda for their 'Analysing the Phenotype and Function of regulatory T cells' meeting on March 7th 2008. Please note that this event is restricted to 66 participants so we recommend booking early to avoid disappointment. The line-up includes   more »

Three places at EuroSciCon's “Surviving as a Woman in Science” meeting on Friday 2 November 2007 are being auctioned (from £50 each) at http://www.lifescienceauctions.com/index.php?a=2&b=108 . Don't delay - have a bid today!   more »

Professor Maggie Smith (Institute of Medical Sciences,University of Aberdeen) will be speaking at EuroSciCon's 'Bacteriophages: Nature and Exploitation' meeting on 22nd February 2008. The topic of her discussion will be 'Novel anti-phage systems in bacteria'. This will add to an already impressive line-up   more »

This sounds a lot of fun. Apparently the filming of the first part is likely to take place over 10-14 days in January in South Africa -- nice work if you can get the time for it! Obviously there are not many people who will qualify, so do go for this if you can.   more »

The early registration deadline for EuroSciCon's (www.euroscicon.com) 'Molecular Farming - plant biologicals' meeting on January 29th 2008 is tomorrow! But don't worry if you miss this deadline, you can get 50% off the registration fee if you just enter the following code   more »

There is still time to book a place at EuroSciCon's 'Genomics and Chemical Space: a new Locus for Drug Discovery' meeting on 12th October 2007. Even though the early registration deadline has passed you can get 50% off the registration cost.   more »

EuroSciCon (www.euroscicon.com) have confirmed that Dr Jagadeesh Bayry (Centre de Recherche des Cordeliers¸ France) will be speaking at their 'Understanding dendritic cells and their ability to regulate immune responses' meeting on November 16th 2007. The topic of his discussion will be 'Regulation of human dendritic cell functions by CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells'. This will add to an already impressive agenda   more »

There is a great line-up of talks at EuroSciCon's 'Proteomics: advances in biomarker discovery' meeting on 23rd November 2007. Why not submit an abstract for presentation?   more »

EuroSciCon are offering 5 places for only £99 each at their 'Companion Animal Disease: research, diagnosis and treatment' meeting on Friday, September 28, 2007. The meeting is CPD accredited and will be held at BioPark Hertfordshire   more »

Just a quick reminder about EuroSciCon’s 'Toll-like receptors - Investigating innate immunity & infection ' which is coming up on 25 September 2007 at The BioPark, Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City. It’s not too late to book!   more »

EuroSciCon have produced books for two more of their 2007 meetings. Each book contains the abstracts from all speakers. Order them here...   more »

EuroSciCon are holding a number of life science meetings at the end of this year and the early registration deadlines are approaching so book now before the Summer holidays! All meetings are being held at BioPark Hertfordshire, a research and development centre located between Cambridge, Oxford and London (Central London is just 30 minutes travel by train). Agendas for these meetings as always feature high profile speakers, and there is plenty of opportunity for delegates, speakers and company representatives to interact.   more »

EuroSciCon announce that they will be holding the following meeting, 'Companion Animal Disease: research, diagnosis and treatment' on 28 September 2007 at The BioPark, Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City. Book now via euroscicon.com to beat the early registration deadline on June 20th 2007   more »

Another book of proceedings is now available from EuroSciCon. This follows their 'Spontaneous Models of Human Disease' meeting which was held on 2nd February 2007. The meeting was Chaired by Dr. Sonia Quaratino (University of Southampton) and many eminent scientists gave talks.   more »

EuroSciCon welcomes scientists of all levels at their meetings and now undergraduates can come to two meetings during 2007 for only £60.   more »

EuroSciCon have a special Summer offer for four of there upcoming meetings, giving 50% off the registration fee   more »

The editor of Nature Network is looking to write an article about scientists (mums or dads) who have left the lab to start a family, and then returned to work after the break.   more »

Dear Mums In Science:

We discovered you while doing some research and we were thrilled to find another blog that ...   more »

EuroSciCon will be holding the following meeting: “Surviving as a Woman in Science” on Friday 2 November 2007 at The BioPark, Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire 'With a good degree, perhaps a PhD and a couple of successful post-docs under your belt, you start to realise that the majority of senior scientists within your organisation are men! Of course they are not expected to juggle a career with family commitments and we all know that single-mindedly following one’s ambition comes more naturally to the male of the species! So, how can you break through the glass ceiling and achieve your goals? This one day meeting will bring together women from many different scientific backgrounds and at different stages in their careers, all with inspirational life stories, who are challenging the old order. There will be talks and advice from experts to help with CVs, grant and fellowship writing, interview techniques, time management, networking and a whole host of the other skills required to not just survive but thrive in science', Dr Charlotte Lawson, EuroSciCon.   more »

Did you know that all abstracts submitted for EuroSciCon meetings are published in the proceedings? Furthermore, if you submit an abstract for the following two meetings you will only pay 50% of the registration fee   more »

With over 200 delegates, EuroSciCon's “Improving Immunohistochemistry” meeting on April 20th is growing in popularity and once again was a great success. The proceedings for this meeting are now available   more »

It is now well established that the focused one day life science events that are organised by Euroscicon attract speakers of international respect from around the globe. Furthermore the mixture of delegates from academia and industry allows for lively debate both during meetings and in the well organised breaks. Euroscicon are now making efforts to extend the range of delegates by introducing incentives for junior members of the scientific community to attend.   more »

Dr. Catherine Derry introduced and chaired this meeting which was held at Hertfordshire Biopark. Its aim was to provide evolving knowledge facilitate their T cell subset characterisation. Professor Adrian Hayday (King’s College London, UK) identified critical roles for gamma-delta T cells in protection, regulation, pathogenesis and therapy. Immunoregulation mediated by CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Treg) was the focus of Dr Jian-Guo Chai’s (Imperial College, UK) talk. He presented key findings on tracking the interplay between antigen-specific naïve and regulatory T cells in vivo. Exploitation of Treg-mediated immunosuppression to control organ rejection in transplantation was proposed by Dr Giovanni Lombardi (King’s College London, UK). She suggested the use of adoptive cell therapy with “customised” antigen-specific Treg to do this. A failure of immunoregulation in pre-eclampsia during pregnancy was discussed by Professor Ian Sargent (University of Oxford, UK) who challenged the normal view of reproductive immunology.   more »

Adding to their collection of meeting proceedings, EuroSciCon have now produced a book of proceedings for their recent 'NO news is good news - Detection, Measurements and Quantification of Nitric Oxide: Tools for NO Research' meeting. Order a copy here   more »

Following the success of the proceedings for their 'Glycomics: Challenges and Technologies” meeting, EuroSciCon have produced another book of proceedings for their recent 'Identifying T cell subset phenotype and function' meeting. If you didn’t manage to attend this event you can order a copy by clicking on this link: http://www.lulu.com/content/767443   more »

EuroSciCon are delighted to announce that their Managing Director, Dr. Shara Cohen has become a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists. This accolade acknowledges her significant achievements in the field of pathology and her ongoing commitment to life science education.    more »

The aim of this meeting, held by Euroscicon, was to check the state-of-the-art about the novel findings on the pathogenic mechanisms of human diseases and immunotherapy. The excellent speakers provided very interesting updated information on the use of animal models developing spontaneous diseases. Using experimental and transgenic models is necessary to unravel human pathological processes. Valid animal models of diseases are of greater importance to better clarify human disease molecular pathways and to provide newer target for potential pharmacological treatment. Nowadays, we have lots of “artificial” models (i.e. genetic mice, chimeras) providing information about “natural” regulatory mechanisms that could indicate novel potential therapeutic targets   more »

Mums in Science are offering a significant discount to the first 10 people who register for the following meeting: “Surviving as a Woman in Science”, Friday 2 November 2007, The BioPark, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire. Just register online using the following code, mumsinscience. The first 10 people will only have to pay £55 so don't delay!   more »

EuroSciCon announce that they now provide meeting reports from the majority of their events in various formats. By going to their new website, www.eurosciconpodcasts.com, scientists can read and listen to meeting reports from many different Life Science fields, including reports from events on: glycomics, tissue engineering and cytokine technology.   more »

The goal of this meeting, held by Euroscicon, was to enlarge the knowledge about host-pathogen interactions in agricultural species, because it gives us a realistic opportunity to identify disease resistance genes. Peter Kaiser’s (Head of the Avian Genomics group at the Institute for Animal Health) project aims to identify the molecular components of the immune system that are shared between mammals and birds.The studies try to understand the bird’s immune response (particularly the repertoire of immune response genes and its innate immune response) and identifying disease resistance genes . Once the genes, have been identified the study will focus on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in these genes between different lines of chickens   more »

EuroSciCon has brought together the most up to date glycomics research in their new ’Glycomics: Challenges and Technologies’ book. which documents the meeting proceedings and technical notes from their extremely popular one day meeting in November 2006. If you didn’t manage to attend this event and would like to read about the latest research in this field you can order the book now.   more »

The scope of this small pan-European meeting (on 13th October 2006) covered many of the functions of heat shock proteins and was a reminder of how this family of proteins interacts with many biological systems and has far reaching implications in the manipulation of disease processes. Dr Kathy Triantafilou (Sussex, UK) has a long established interest in innate immune recognition of microbial pathogens with particular respect to LPS. Elegant fluorescent non radioactive energy transfer (FRET) studies have been carried out on cells stimulated with LPS which demonstrate the clustering of HSP70 and 90 around TLR4 in lipid rafts. LPS and HSP70 compete for binding to TLR4 and using truncated fragments of HSP70 the critical residues for LPS/HSP binding in the ATP binding cleft were identified. This work was carried out using human HSP70 and demonstrated that the signalling pathways are MyD88 dependent.   more »

Nominations are now open for all the Royal Society's Medals and Awards which recognise excellence in science across the disiplines and exist to reward those who have made outstanding achievements.

Nominations open for the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award, the Royal Society’s premier women in science Award

The 2007 round of the Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship Scheme is now open. This Junior Fellowship scheme is designed to help overcome obstacles that prevent some of the most talented scientists to develop their research careers.   more »

While in the last few years genomic and proteomic projects advanced uninterruptedly, understanding glycans still presents several difficulties: they have a non-template driven biosynthesis, there is no system for the amplification of carbohydrates, and their characterization is still complicated. Moreover, the glycosylation patterns are complex and carbohydrate homeostasis requires considerable cellular control. Fortunately, Glycomics is advancing: the new technologies developed, the optimized experimental strategies and the Bioinformatics tools are making their move. On November 28, 2006 Euroscicon Conference “Glycomics: Challenges and Technologies” was held in London, and depicted an optimistic view of the advances in the area.   more »

On the 17th of November 2006 Euroscicon hosted a conference entitled ‘Tissue Engineering Today, Not Tomorrow’ at the MI Centre in London. The conference covered some of the key issues in tissue engineering including the use of embryonic and mesenchymal stem cells, the development of new generations of biomaterials and scaffolds, and the use of methods which will allow the implantation of tissue engineered constructs without evoking an immune response. The conference was chaired by Professor Anne Dickinson from the University of Newcastle and was opened by Dame Julia Polak from Imperial College, London. Dame Polak presented an overview of the major issues in regenerative medicine, from the choice of cells and scaffolds through to methods of scale-up, the choices for cell delivery and the requirements of pre-clinical and clinical phase applications.   more »

This Euroscicon meeting provided an ideal forum for bench scientists to catch up with the commercial companies slant on technologies such as multiplex cytokine analysis, cytokine secretion assays and intracellular staining and to hear colleagues discuss the application of these techniques in areas such as tuberculosis in humans and cattle, HIV, autoimmunity and dendritic cell biology. The day started with two talks on detection of cytokines in tuberculosis (TB). The first was by Dr Ian Durrant from Oxford - he presented his work on the introduction of the first ELISPOT assay to diagnose human TB. ELISPOT assays are a good for this particular type of diagnosis as they are in the order of 2 logs more sensitive thank ELISA or FACS analysis, with cytokine release being detected at the single cell level.   more »

On April 27th 2007 EuroSciCon will be holding a meeting entitled “Maintaining Stem Cells and the Regulation of Their Differentiation”at BioPark Hertfordshire, Welwyn Garden City. The Chair of this meeting, Dr Stefan Przyborski (University of Durham) said "Much of the promise of stem cell biology and tissue engineering depends on the ability to maintain and differentiate cells into tissues in a robust and reproducible manner. We are only just at the beginning of understanding how to control cell growth in vitro and produce cell types that are of value to basic research, pharmaceutical development and potential therapeutic applications. This meeting is designed to bring together experts in the field to share their experiences of developing innovative ways to create a more realistic environment for cell growth and differentiation. The aim of this symposium is to therefore recognise that the control of cell differentiation requires an in-depth understanding of the growth conditions and signals cells require in order to differentiate in a particular manner. This will be exemplified by a carefully selected panel of speakers who will share their experiences of controlling cell growth and differentiation using a range of alternative approaches."   more »

EuroSciCon have now released their meetings calendar for 2007. For details please click on the attachment below. You can register for these meetings any time at http://www.euroscicon.com . The EuroSciCon team look forward to seeing you next year!   more »

EuroSciCon will be holding the forthcoming meeting 'NO News is Good News - Detection, Measurements and Quantification of Nitric Oxide: Tools for NO Research' on March 23rd at BioPark Hertfordshire, Welwyn Garden City. This one day meeting features some excellent international speakers and will appeal to anyone working in this field. The Chair of this meeting, Dr Nicholas Warrick (University of Oxford) said ''Nitric oxide (NO), generated by the enzyme nitric oxide synthase (NOS) plays a key role in a diverse range of physiological and pathophysiological conditions within the cardiovascular, immune, reproductive and nervous systems. Since NO is a small, diffusible, highly reactive free radical with a short half-life, and is present in low concentrations, real-time detection of NO is extremely difficult. This meeting will examine methods used to detect and visualise NO-producing cells. Furthermore, direct and indirect techniques used to measure NO will be examined, including among others, the measurement of NOS enzymatic activity, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and NO-sensitive electrodes. Finally, tools that facilitate NO research, such as NOS inhibitors will be examined".   more »

On October 6th, 2006 a group of experts on fish disease, diagnosis and treatment assembled in London to share recent advances in the field. Fish disease significantly impacts environmental balance and commercial productivity on a global basis. Losses have high economic consequences, especially in areas where fishing or aquatic farming and culture are important community-supporting industries. A diverse range of topics was presented beginning with a new assay developed for detection of salmonid alphavirus infections, given by Dr. David Graham from the Fish Disease Unit of the Agri-food and Biosciences Institute in Belfast. Dr. David Hoole, of the University of Keele discussed the utilisation of serum pentraxins as a very rapid diagnostic method to screen and monitor the health of cultured fish populations. Because of the rapid growth currently experienced by the aquaculture industry, DNA vaccination is being evaluated as a means to protect fish from disease. Dr Felicity D’Mello of the Royal Veterinary College in London, detailed the development of a new DNA vaccine for the spring viremia of carp virus (SVCV).   more »

If so Prowess would like to hear from you. We are working with the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) to raise the profile of women business owners in this sector.   more »

EuroSciCon announce that they will be holding the forthcoming meeting 'Glycomics: Challenges and Technology' on November 28th at Imperial College London. This one day meeting features some excellent international speakers and will appeal to anyone working in the rapidly growing field of glycomics. - Professor J. Turnbull from theSchool of Biological Sciences at the University of Liverpool who will chair this meeting said ''Glycomics encompasses the rapidly developing field of large-scale analysis of the "glycome" - the entire complement of complex sugar structures expressed in cells, tissues or whole organisms. Glycans have incredible structural and functional diversity and are critical players in a huge variety of biological processes, many of which have fundamental roles in disease processes. This has created major interest in their potential biotechnology and pharmaceutical applications, but progress has been hampered by the inherent difficulties in studying the structure-functions relationships for these complex molecules. Now, breakthrough technologies are dramatically changing the landscape and creating the opportunity for real progress in glycomics over the next few years".   more »

EuroSciCon announces the launch of a long awaited auction site for life scientists, http://www.lifescienceauctions.com. Just like ebay but representing the niche market of Life Science, you can auction your own items and place bids on items posted. Categories range from science equipment, reagents, books to clothing. The advantage of this site is that the basic listing of any item is free of charge.   more »

The FWSA will provide a float of up to £250 for successful proposals, as well as offering support and advice from the organisers of previous seminars. Details of how to apply, and of previous seminars, can be found on the FWSA website   more »

Dr Robin Wait (Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, London, UK) chaired this highly informative Euroscicon (www.euroscicon.com) event held on Sept 29th 2006. Professor David O’Connor (Centre for Proteomic Research, Southampton, UK) described some new methods that are being developed to capture more of the proteome including the use of NanoMate technology, enhanced desorption/ ionisation on silicon (DIOS) MS, novel peptide/ protein capture surfaces and the Protein Expression System developed in collaboration with Waters.    more »

The UKRC is hosting a series of events around the country showcasing their work to raise the profile of women in SET and how they are working with public bodies to increase the number of women on SET boards and committees.   more »

EuroSciCon, the European Life Science communications company, are delighted to announce the launch of a new tool for Life Scientists. Amongst the many features of the free Life Science toolbar is the ability to allow the user to get instant access to scientific web sites and life science societies wherever they are on the internet. The user also gets notifications when a Life Science meeting report becomes available, when forthcoming Life Science events are announced and when emails hit their account.   more »

E-mentoring opportunity - just 20 minutes per week

The MentorNet One-on-One Mentoring Programs are a chance to make a big difference in the life of a student with as few as 1 or 2 emails/month. MentorNet seeks science and engineering professionals in industry and government, either currently active, on leave, or retired, to mentor engineering and science community college, undergraduate, and graduate students, particularly women, who are interested in pursuing a professional future in the male-dominated fields of engineering and science.   more »