ASCB EMBO 2017 highlights

ASCB EMBO 2017 Highlights!

Once again, another great ASCB. A huge thank you to the organizers, and other attendees for making it fabulous!

Philly didn’t disappoint. Lots of science, catching up with old friends, and meeting new ones! From the lab, we had 5 members attend. Each lab member gives their personal highlights below (minus Tak Shun, who is enjoying some well-earned rest!).

Harry’s highlights:

-Minisymposium. Alina Guna (@guna_alina ‏), from Manu Hegde's lab (MRC Cambridge). A new pathway for membrane protein insertion at the ER. Impressive combination of biochemical skill and insight.

-Poster. Arnon Henn's laboratory (Haifa, Israel). Mitochondria distribution to filopodia by the actin-based motor Myo19. If it's true, it's amazing and important. Looks promising!

-Symposium. Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz. Unraveling the spatial and temporal dynamics of subcellular organelles. Breath-taking combination of microscopy makes us look at cells in a whole new light.

-Symposium. Gillian Griffiths (Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, UK). Polarised secretion and frustrated ciliogenesis: the cell biology of serial killer cells. Beautiful cell biology that reveals a ton of mechanism.

Raj’s highlights:

Minisymposium: Andrew Moore (@aaandmoore , Holzbaur Lab , U Penn), extends on his previous publish looking at actin clouds surrounding mitochondria. These mysterious structures move in a cyclic fashion around the cell, but what is their role?

Poster: Yvette Wong (Dimitri Krainc lab, Northwestern). Interesting findings between mitochondria, ER, lysosomes, and Drp1.

Lorna’s highlights:

Minisymposium: Benoit Kormann (@BenoitKornmann ETH Zurich, Switzerland). Presents multiple examples of mitochondria fission induced by mechanical force. The cytoplasm is a pretty crowded place, so what happens when organelles collide? Extremely interesting findings!

Minisymposium: Ben Martin (Stony Brooke). Remarkable high resolution imaging of in vivo breast cancer cell extravasion. “Rolling” along the endothelium, I see many protrusions…

Poster: Guillaume Jacquemet (@guijacquemet, Ivaska Lab, Turku). Filopodia protein mapping – localization of around 30 associated filopodial proteins. Awesome insight for filopodia fanatics.

Mu’s highlights:

Minisymposium: Alvaro Sagasti, University of California, Los Angeles. Looks at the exquisite assembly of

Zebrafish microridges through joining of adjacent microvilli and a cyclic-pattern of fusion. What beautiful structures!

Minisymposium: Natalia Wesolowska (Péter Lénárt lab, EMBO, Heidelberg) reveals mechanism behind the Xenopus nuclear envelope breakdown! Nucleus-derived filopodia?

Lorna, Anna (Higglet alum @AnnaHscientist, now working for @DORAssessement), and Raj

All smiles setting off to Philly (Raj, Mu, Lorna, Tak Shun)

Higgs lab and friends of the lab take a bowling outing. Please feel free to ask Harry who the overall winner was.

(Raj, Harry, Lorna, Aanand @aanandapatel Quinlan lab, Tak Shun, Christina @clvizcarra Vizcarra Lab, Higglet alum Pinar @pinar_gurel Alushin Lab, Higglet alum Ernest @Ernopodia Cheney Lab)