Past Meetings
Read reports of past meetings below.
- Second International EURASNET Conference on Alternative Splicing – 28 February - 3 March 2011, Granada, Spain
- Swiss RNA Workshop – 21 January 2011, Bern, Switzerland
- Workshop and Symposium on Alternative Splicing and Genetic Disease – 14-15 October 2010, Paris, France
- Interdiscplinary Focus Meeting on 'Splicing Regulation: from molecules to organisms' – 20-21 September 2010, Berlin, Germany
- Interdisciplinary Focus Meeting 'Frontiers in Structural Biology of RNAs and RNPs' – 16-18 August 2010, Poznan, Poland
- RNA Mis-splicing: Disease and Therapeutics EURASNET Interdisciplinary Focus Meeting – 12-14 July 2010, Cambridge, UK
- 7th Special Interest Group meeting on Alternative Splicing (AS-SIG) – 9-10 July 2010, Boston, USA
- RNA Therapeutics Workshop – 4-5 March 2010, Lisbon, Portugal
- EURASNET Annual Reporting Meeting 2010 – 1-4 March 2010, Lisbon, Portugal
- Swiss RNA Workshop – 15 January 2010, Bern, Switzerland
- EURASNET Workshop “Splicing in Cell Biology” – 5-6 October 2009, Lisbon, Portugal
- Evaluation of bioinformatics predictions of splicing – 2 October 2009, Paris, France
- French workshop on RNA splicing and genetic diseases – 1-2 October 2009, Paris, France
- Workshop on Alternative Splicing and Disease – 20-25 July 2009, Montpellier, France
- 'RNA-protein interactions in pre-mRNA splicing' EURASNET practical course – 20-24 July 2009, Barcelona, Spain
- Inter Disciplinary Focus Meeting "Deciphering the splicing code: the role of protein-RNA interactions" – 27-28 June 2009, Stockholm, Sweden
- Fourth Annual Eurasnet Meeting – April 2009, Italy
- Inter Disciplinary Focus Meeting 'Mouse models for alternative splicing' – April 2009, Italy
- 3rd EURASNET IFM on "Alternative and Aberrant Splicing in Neuromuscular and Neurodegenerative Processes" – March 2009, Italy
- High-throughput technologies for the analysis of alternative splicing – February 2009, Spain
- Interdisciplinary Focus Meeting on Biophysical (RNA) Methods – December 2008, Denmark
- Interdisciplinary Focus Meeting on “Mis-splicing and Disease” – June 2008, Italy
- First international EURASNET conference – May 2008, Poland
- Workshop "RNA splicing and genetic diagnosis" – March 2008, UK
- Workshop 'Alternative Splicing and Disease' - Practical and theoretical introduction into alternative splicing related to human disease – February 2008, France
Second International EURASNET Conference on Alternative Splicing
Meeting Location: Granada, Spain
Meeting date: 28 February - 3 March 2011
Organisers: Jean D. Beggs, Angus I. Lamond, Reinhard Lührmann, Karla Neugebauer, Mihaela Zavolan and Juan Valcárcel
The European Alternative Splicing Network of Excellence (EURASNET) International Conference on Alternative Splicing took place in the beautiful city of Granada (Spain), from 28 February to 3 March 2011.
The programme included a keynote lecture by Phillip Sharp, four plenary sessions with 24 talks by leaders in the RNA processing field and a special closing session on "The Future of Post-Transcriptional Gene Regulation" featuring talks by Benjamin Blencowe, Matthias Mann, Iain Mattaj and John Mattick.
In addition to four dedicated poster sessions, all posters were displayed for the duration of the meeting. Additional activities during the meeting included a Media Workshop and a Career Mentoring Lunch. The social programme included a guided tour of La Alhambra, the moorish citadel from the XIII-XV centuries.
Additional information can be found on the meeting website.
Swiss RNA Workshop
Meeting Location: Bern, Switzerland
Meeting date: 21 January 2011
Organisers: Angela Krämer, Oliver Mühlemann and Daniel Schümperli
The Swiss RNA Workshop took place on Friday, January 21, 2011, in Bern. The aim of this workshop was to bring together Swiss graduate students, postdocs and principal investigators interested in the diverse aspects of RNA. The workshop is financed by the Swiss Committee of Molecular Biology (SKMB) with funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation, with additional support from Microsynth, Roche and Agilent Technologies. Mary O'Connell (MRC, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK) and Chris Smith (University of Cambridge, UK) joined us as speakers from outside Switzerland.
Workshop and Symposium on Alternative Splicing and Genetic Disease
Meeting Location: Paris, France
Meeting date: 14-15 October 2010
Organisers: Diana Baralle, Mario Tosi and Stefan Stamm
This two day event was targeted for clinical geneticists interested in disease relevant changes in alternative splicing, usually caused by a mutation. The first day was a workshop, divided into two parts: the first one on bioinformatics analysis of mutations that may have an impact on alternative splicing and the second one on the interpretation of sequence variants that affect splicing, in the molecular diagnostic context. Participants had the opportunity to send their splicing related mutations and questions to the workshop organisers and these mutations will be discussed. The second day was a symposium that gave an overview of the current knowledge of alternative splicing as it relates to human diseases.
Symposium speakers:
Gil Ast (Tel Aviv, Israel)
Christiane Branlant (Nancy, France)
Emanuele Buratti (Trieste, Italy)
Franco Pagani (Trieste, Italy)
Elmar Stickeler (Freiburg, Germany)
Jamal Tazi (Montpellier, France)
Julian Venables (Montpellier, France)
Interdiscplinary Focus Meeting on 'Splicing Regulation: from molecules to organisms'
Meeting Location: Berlin, Germany
Meeting date: 20-21 September 2010
Organisers: Javier Caceres and Karla Neugebauer
The aim of the meeting was to integrate continuing discoveries of splicing mechanisms with emerging principles of how splicing occurs and is regulated in living systems. Insights from biochemistry, advanced fluorescence live-cell microscopy, model organisms, and human disease were presented and discussed in a retreat-like atmosphere in the heart of Berlin's artistic neighbourhood, Prenzlauerberg.
Please see the preliminary programme and a Meeting Poster.
Interdisciplinary Focus Meeting 'Frontiers in Structural Biology of RNAs and RNPs'
Meeting location: Collegium Biologicum of the Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland
Meeting date: 16-18 August 2010
Meeting organisation: Janusz M. Bujnicki, Reinhard Lührmann, Jean Beggs, Reinhard Rauhut
Description: The aim of the meeting was to present and discuss the most exciting recent scientific and technological advances in the fields of structural and molecular biology and bioinformatics of RNAs and RNPs.
The invited talks were complemented by short lectures selected from submitted abstracts on all aspects of RNA biology, including molecular biology, structural biology, and bioinformatics.
Speakers were: Magda Konarska, Reinhard Lührmann, Frédéric Allain, Kiyoshi Nagai, Markus Wahl, Dmitri Svergun, David Rueda, Holger Stark, Sarah Woodson, Henning Urlaub, Grzegorz Kudla, Rolf Backofen, Kevin Weeks, Eric Westhof.
More details are on the IFM website and the meeting poster here.
RNA Mis-splicing: Disease and Therapeutics EURASNET Interdisciplinary Focus Meeting
Meeting Location: Churchill College University of Cambridge, UK
Meeting date: 12-14 July 2010
Organisers: Chris Smith (Cambridge) and Matthew Wood (Oxford)
Description: Errors in pre-mRNA splicing and misregulation of alternative splicing are associated with the molecular pathology of a large number of human diseases. At the same time, manipulation of pre-mRNA splicing provides opportunities for therapeutic intervention. This meeting will focus on therapeutic strategies targeting pre-mRNA splicing events. The 14 invited speakers have been selected to provide balanced coverage of both antisense based strategies and small-molecule effectors of splicing.
Invited Speakers:
- Annemieke Aartsma-Rus (Leiden, Netherlands)
- David Bates (Bristol, UK)
- Irene Bozzoni (Rome, Italy)
- Tom Cooper (Houston, USA)
- Ian Eperon (Leicester, UK)
- Brendan Frey (Toronto, Canada)
- Yves Fromes (Paris, France)
- Luis Garcia (Paris, France)
- Adrian Krainer (Cold Spring Harbor, USA)
- Angus Lamond (Dundee, UK)
- Daniel Schumperli (Bern, Switzerland)
- Barrie Wilkinson (Biotica, Cambridge, UK)
- Matthew Wood (Oxford, UK)
- Jamal Tazi (Montpellier, France)
Please see the meeting website for more information.
7th Special Interest Group meeting on Alternative Splicing (AS-SIG)
Meeting location: John B. Hynes Memorial Convention Center, Boston, MA (US)
Meeting date: 9-10 July 2010
Meeting organisation: Eduardo Eyras, Dirk Holste, Rickard Sandberg, Chris Burge, Ben Blencowe
The AS-SIG2010 meeting is scheduled immediately before the ISMB2010 conference and will take place at the same location.
This year's topic was "The emerging connection between chromatin, non-coding RNA and splicing". Speakers included:
- Christopher Burge
- Jean Beggs
- Roderic Guigo
- Claes Wadelius
- Reini Luco
- Mariano Allo
- John Rinn
- Kevin Morris
Please visit the website for more information.
RNA Therapeutics Workshop sponsored by Harvard Medical School – Portugal Program and European Network of Excellence on Alternative Splicing, EURASNET
Meeting Location: Lisboa, Portugal
Meeting date: 4-5 March 2010
Meeting organisation: Francisco Enguita and Maria Carmo-Fonseca, Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
RNA molecules have been already proven to be a key target for disease therapy as well as a tool for the development of new drugs. Since the discovery of small non-coding RNAs and all the associated phenomena like RNA interference, the possibility of using RNA-based drugs has become a subject of great interest in the pharmaceutical and clinical fields. RNA is at the core of many cellular processes and might become an outstanding landmark in the way how we will fight disease in the future.
This Workshop joined together specialists in the clinical area and in the basic experimental research within the field in a pleasant atmosphere to discuss the forthcoming and present goals of RNA therapeutics. State of the art technologies and applications of RNA molecules as drugs or targets for therapeutics were presented by prestigious invited speakers. Topics ranged from targeted delivery of RNA molecules to applications of RNAi technology, miRNAs and their antagonists, use of therapeutic aptamers, and splice-switching strategies.
Programme:
4 March 2010
- Gert Jan Van Ommen (Leiden, The Netherlands)
- Adrian Krainer (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, USA)
- Mariano Garcia-Blanco (Duke University Medical Center)
- Jamal Tazi (Institute of Molecular Genetics, Montpellier)
5 March 2010
- Tony de Fougerolles (Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, USA)
- Haezel Pinheiro (Exiqon, Vedbaek, Denmark)
- Troels Koch (Santaris Pharma, Hoersholm, Denmark)
- Jörg Kaufmann (Silence Therapeutics, Berlin, Germany)
- Michael P. Czech (Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, USA)
- Sarah Fredriksson (GENOVIS, Lund, Sweden)
- Michael G. Kaplitt (Neurologix, New York, USA)
- Sven Klussmann (NOXXON Pharma, Berlin, Germany)
- Ryszard Kole (AVI BioPharma, Bothell, WA, USA)
- Gary McGarrity (VIRxSYS, Gaithersburg, MD, USA)
EURASNET Annual Reporting Meeting 2010
Meeting Location: Lisboa, Portugal
Meeting date: 1-4 March 2010
4th Reporting Period 2009
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisboa
Coordinator: Reinhard LÜHRMANN MPI for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany
Meeting organisation: Maria Carmo-Fonseca1 , Davide Gabellini2 and Jean Beggs3
1. Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
2. San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Italy
3. University of Edinburgh, UK
Read the final programme of the 2010 Lisbon EURASNET reporting meeting.
Swiss RNA Workshop
The Swiss RNA Workshop took place on 15 January 2010 in Bern.
Organisers: Angela Krämer, Oliver Mühlemann and Daniel Schümperli
The aim of this workshop was to bring together Swiss graduate students, post-docs and principal investigators interested in the diverse aspects of RNA. The workshop was financed by the Swiss Committee of Molecular Biology (SKMB) with funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation. John W.S. Brown (Scottish Crop Research Institute, Dundee, Scotland, UK) and Torben Heick Jensen (Aarhus University, DK) were speakers from outside Switzerland. Further information regarding the workshop can be found on the meeting's web page.
EURASNET Workshop “Splicing in Cell Biology”
Meeting Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Meeting date: 5-6 October 2009
Organiser: Maria Carmo-Fonseca
The participants were members of EURASNET labs, including graduate students and post-docs.
Each invited speaker presented an introductory lecture in the morning and a more specialist research seminar in the afternoon. Each lecture was followed by an informal tutorial discussion with participants.
Participants were invited to contribute short presentations.
Programme
5 October 2009
9:30 – 10:30 Douglas Black (University of California, Los Angeles)
Introductory overview: Splicing mechanisms
10:30 – 11:30 Jamal Tazi (Institut de Génétique Moléculaire de Montpellier)
Introductory overview: Splicing and Disease
11:30 – 12:30 Luis Ferreira Moita (Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Lisboa)
Using RNAi screens to study splicing regulation
14:00 – 15:00 Douglas Black
Research seminar
15:00 – 16:00 Jamal Tazi
Research seminar
6 October 2009
9:30 – 10:30 Torben Heick Jensen (University of Aarhus)
Introductory overview: mRNA surveillance
10:30 – 11:30 Giuseppe Biamonti (Institute of Molecular Genetics, Pavia)
Introductory overview: Splicing and cell differentiation
11:30 – 12:30 Andreas Ladurner (EMBL, Heidelberg)
Introductory overview: Splicing and chromatin
14:00 – 15:00 Torben Heick Jensen
Research seminar
15:00 – 16:00 Giuseppe Biamonti
Research seminar
16:00 – 17:00 Andreas Ladurner
Research seminar
For information, please contact Maria Carmo-Fonseca.
Evaluation of bioinformatics predictions of splicing
Meeting Location: Institut Curie, Paris, France
Meeting date: 2 October 2009, 9:30-13:00
Organisers: Claude Houdayer (Institut Curie), Christophe Béroud (Montpellier), André Blavier (Interactive Biosoftware, Rouen)
General information
Venue (1 October 2009): Institut Pasteur, Paris, 28 rue du Docteur Roux, Metro Pasteur
Conference Secretary : Mrs Nathalie Porchet, Inserm U614, Faculty of Medicine, 76183 Rouen, France.
Email: inserm.u614@univ-rouen.fr ; Phone: +332 35 14 82 80, Fax: +332 35 14 82 37
Workshop information: mario.tosi@univ-rouen.fr
French workshop on RNA splicing and genetic diseases
Meeting Location: Institut Pasteur and Institut Curie, Paris, France
Meeting date: 1-2 October 2009
Organisers: Diana Baralle (University of Southampton, UK), Mario Tosi (University of Rouen, France)
Supported by EURASNET
Programme:
10:00 Diana Baralle (Southampton UK)
"Splicing analyses in the context of genetic diagnosis"
10:30 Franco Pagani (Trieste)
"From the molecular diagnostic laboratory to the molecular interpretation of splicing defects"
11:00 Alexandra Martins (Rouen)
"Spinal Muscular Atrophy and the regulation of SMN2 exon 7 splicing"
11:30 Sean Tavtigian (Lyon)
"Assessing pathogenicity of nucleotide sequence variation"
12:00 Stefan Stamm (Lexington, Kentucky, USA)
"High-throughput generation of alternative splicing reporter genes"
14:00 Didier Auboeuf (Paris/Lyon)
"High throughput analyses of splicing alterations in tumours"
14:30-16:00 Short presentations
Sylvie Tufféry-Giraud (Montpellier), Sylvie Mazoyer (Lyon), Claude Houdayer (Paris), Pascale Fanen (Créteil), Mario Tosi (Rouen)
17:15 Jamal Tazi (Montpellier)
"Development of new therapies based on the correction of splicing defects"
Satellite workshop at the Institut Curie, Paris
Workshop on Alternative Splicing and Disease
Location: Montpellier, France
Date: 20-25 July 2009
Organisers: Jamal Tazi and Stefan Stamm
The workshop offered a one-week in depth practical and theoretical introduction into alternative splicing related to human disease. It was organised by the Institute of Molecular Genetics at the University of Montpellier. The theoretical background addressed by speakers is complemented by experiments covering the most important aspects of alternative splicing.
A complementary EURASNET course on RNA-Protien Interactions in pre-mRNA splicing is held in Barcelona.
TOPICS
- in vivo splicing
- in vitro splicing
- CLIP
- Bioinformatic analysis
- Correction of splicing
- Drug treatment
- Array analysis
- Cellular localisation
- qPCR
Read the description of planned experiments.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Tom Cooper
INVITED SPEAKERS
- Gil Ast
- Brage Storstein Andresen
- Annemieke Aartsma-Rus
- Diana Baralle
- Edouard Bertrand
- Jean-Christophe Bourdon
- Alan Cochrane
'RNA-protein interactions in pre-mRNA splicing' EURASNET practical course
Meeting Location: Barcelona, Spain
Meeting date: 20-24 July 2009
Organisers: Juan Valcarcel and Veronica Raker
This course was for scientists who want to understand pre- mRNA splicing and its alterations at the molecular level. It focussed not only on the technical aspects of how to investigate this process but also on the theoretical background of RNA-protein interactions.
Experimental topics included analysing RNA-protein interactions, splicing pre-mRNA in vitro and in cell culture and determining target sites for RNA-binding proteins.
Invited speakers:
- Eric Westhof
- Jernej Ule
- Bertrand Seraphin
- Michael Sattler
- Karla Neugebauer
- Reinhard Lührman
For more information, please visit the course website and see the course flyer.
Inter Disciplinary Focus Meeting "Deciphering the splicing code: the role of protein-RNA interactions"
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Date: 27-28 June 2009
Organisers: Eduardo Eyras (EURASNET member), Dirk Holste, Fred Allain (EURASNET member), Graziano Pesole, Rickard Sandberg
The AS-SIG meeting provided a forum for the discussion of the latest findings and to establish new collaborations in the field of splicing and RNA biology. AS-SIG 2009 took place immediately before ISMB/ECCB 2009 in Stockholm, Sweden.
Session topics include:
- Protein-RNA interactions and RNA processing
- RNA regulatory maps.
Abstracts are invited for talks and poster presentations and full details are on the AS-SIG website.
Fourth Annual Eurasnet Meeting
Location: Grand Hotel Assisi, Assisi (PG), Italy
Date: 23-24 April 2009
Organisers: Giuseppe Biamonti, IGM-CNR Pavia, Italy
Ian Eperon, Department of Biochemistry, Leicester, UK
The Fourth Annual Eurasnet Meeting was held at the Grand Hotel Assisi, Assisi (PG), Italy. Read the full report of the meeting. Another report of the meeting was also published in the summer edition of the EMBO Encounter.
Inter Disciplinary Focus Meeting 'Mouse models for alternative splicing'
Location: Assisi, Italy
Date: 22 April 2009
Organiser: Juan Valcárcel
The goal of the IFM 'Mouse models for alternative splicing' was to review the state-of-the-art in the generation of mouse models for addressing biological problems and provide examples of how these have been successfully applied to studies of alternative splicing. Read the report of the meeting and details of the programme.
3rd EURASNET IFM on "Alternative and Aberrant Splicing in Neuromuscular and Neurodegenerative Processes"
Location: ICGEB Trieste, Italy
Date: 26-27 March 2009
The 3rd Interdisciplinary Focus meeting on Mis-splicing and disease entitled "Alternative and Aberrant Splicing in Neuromuscular and Neurodegenerative processes"was organised by Francisco Baralle at ICGEB Trieste, Italy on 26-27 March 2009.
You can read the Meeting report.
High-throughput technologies for the analysis of alternative splicing
Location: Valencia, Spain
Date: 5-7 February 2009
Supported by Splired (Spanish network on transcriptomics) and EURASNET.
The meeting aimed to cover state-of-the-art technologies for the analysis of transcriptome diversity generated through alternative pre-mRNA splicing. These include in silico approaches, splicing-sensitive microarrays, deep sequencing, high-throughput RT-PCR and proteomics, as well as the integration of various technologies to study the mechanisms of splicing regulation in development, cell differentiation and disease. Ample time for discussions and poster presentations facilitated interactions between participants and invited speakers.
Interdisciplinary Focus Meeting on Biophysical (RNA) Methods
Location: Aarhus, Denmark
Date: 4-5 December 2008
Read the programme and information.
Interdisciplinary Focus Meeting on “Mis-splicing and Disease”
Location: Rome, Italy
Date: 31 May - 1 June 2008
Read the full report of the Mis-splicing and disease meeting.
First international EURASNET conference
Location: Kraków, Poland
Date: 21-23 May 2008
EURASNET hosted a conference on the mechanisms, physiological importance and disease-associations of alternative splicing in Kraków.
The conference featured 17 international invited speakers who are experts in the biochemistry, genomics, cell biology and clinical aspects of alternative splicing. A highlight of the meeting was a keynote lecture by Professor Joan Steitz. In addition, short oral presentations were invited from selected participants based on submitted abstracts. Read the programme and the full report of the conference.
A Media Workshop was organised during the conference to help participants learn how to interact with the media and communicate their research data to lay people. Read the full report of the workshop here.
Workshop "RNA splicing and genetic diagnosis"
Location: London, UK
Date: 3 March 2008
You can read a report from the workshop in The Newsletter of the British Society for Human Genetics, on page 13.
Workshop 'Alternative Splicing and Disease' - Practical and theoretical introduction into alternative splicing related to human disease
Location: Montpellier, France
Date: 18-23 February 2008
Read the workshop report.
