News From The Calcium Community
Please get in touch with us If you want to share news with the calcium community.Posted
February, 2022
10th Workshop of the European Calcium Society
The website for the 10th ECS workshop 'The Ca2+ signaling toolkit in cell function, health and disease' in honor of Jan Parys, november 15-17, 2023 is online.
Posted
February, 2022
9th Workshop of the European Calcium Society
The website for the 9th workshop of the ECS "Mitochondrial Ca2+ Signaling in Health and Disease" organized in Padua, Italy 7-9 September 2023 is online.
Posted
September, 2022
ECS Board news: Open call for 3 new Board members
At the last GA in Cork, Ireland, after more than a decade of service to the ECS, Jacek Kuźnicki (Warsaw, Poland), Marc Moreau (Toulouse, France) and former ECS President Catherine Leclerc (Toulouse, France) decided to put their Board position vacant and to enable other researchers to join the Board. We are very grateful to their longstanding contribution to the Society.
To fill these 3 open spots in ECS Board, we decided to launch an open call for new Board members, who wish to contribute to the future and the further development of the European Calcium Society. We therefore ask our members to nominate an ECS member or propose yourself before October 31st 2022.
Who should be nominated: We are looking for an active ECS member of the Ca2+ community, who has been contributing to be active in Ca2+ research in general and ECS events in particular with future active engagement in the ECS workings and ECS events. Board members will have the opportunity to shape the future of the ECS and to further develop the ECS by participating in Board meetings and will be asked to provide support to ECS activities & events. ECS members can nominate another ECS member or can nominate themselves.
The Board will apply the following principles to consider new Board members in addition to the contribution to ECS and Ca2+ research:
* we aim that the Board composition reflects the full diversity in scientific topics in Ca2+ research, including Ca2+-binding proteins, a topic that is currently underrepresented in the Board. We thus strongly encourage nominations for researchers covering this topic.
* we very much value geographic diversity in the Board within Europe and beyond. This means that also nominations outside Europe are possible. In this respect, ECS statutory rules restrict the number of ECS Board members / country to 2. In practice, this means that for this call ECS members from Belgium and Germany are not eligible as nominees for the ECS Board. We apologize to any researcher located in Belgium or Germany for not being able to join the Board at this moment.
* we strongly believe in equity, diversity & inclusion. For instance, the current ECS Board composition consists of 2 women and 6 men. We therefore strongly encourage nominations of women active in the Ca2+ field.
Nominations including a short motivation letter should be sent to [email protected] before October 31st 2022.
Posted
September, 2022
jECS Board News: Open call for new Board members
The junior European Calcium Society board is looking for early career researchers (ECRs) to join us!
The jECS board was founded in late 2018 with the goal providing resources, mentorship, and opportunities to the early career researchers in the calcium field. Our work has included the organization of 3 symposiums of ECR research, assistance in coordinating the ECS webinar series, and curation of the ECS Twitter account, @EuroCalcium.
We are excited to continue working for the ECRs in the calcium field with future events and outreach. We would love more researchers to join us to achieve this!
Who should apply: any researcher in the calcium field who identifies as an ECR is welcome to join, from students to junior group leaders. You do not need to reside within Europe, but you must be an ECS member (or willing to become one).
What being a jECS board member involves: we meet regularly over Zoom or Google Meet to brainstorm events and ways to promote ECR research and learning. Our regular tasks include conference organizing, generation of content for Twitter, and coordination with the main ECS board.
How to apply: please send a short summary about yourself and your motivation for becoming a part of the jECS board to [email protected] by October 31st, 2022.
Posted
July, 2022
International Journal of Molecular Sciences
We are really proud to announce to you that the IJMS, to which our society, has an affiliation agreement, obtained an increased JCR Impact Factor and Scopus CiteScore during 2021 in regard to that of 2020.
The new Impact Factor of the IJMS is 6.208 and CiteScore is 6.9.
Posted
July, 2022
ECS General Assembly
All members are invited to attend the ECS General Assembly YEAR 2021. We decided to organize it as a hybrid event (thank you Martin Bootman for your help!). The GA is organized on Wednesday 24th August 2022 at 4pm Irish time (i.e. 5pm CET). ECS2022 meeting attendees can attend the GA in-person in Cork, Ireland, while ECS members not attending the meeting can join the GA via the Google Meet platform, you can find the link in the infoletter of July. In the GA, we will also have short presentations by the organizing teams of the upcoming ECS workshops & meetings!
AGENDA:
1) Welcome and adoption of the agenda
2) Presentation of the Activity Report 2021
4) Presentation of the Financial Report 2021
5) Discharge to ECS Board members
6) ECS website, memberships & payments (T. Luyten)
7) ECS Board composition
8) Honorary ECS members
9) jECS updates
10) Future ECS events
* presentation ECS2023 “mitochondria” workshop (P. Pizzo)
* presentation ECS2023 workshop emeritus in spe Jan Parys (G. Bultynck)
* presentation ECS2024 meeting (S. Patel)
11) ECS partnerships
12) Other points
Posted
July, 2022
ECS2022 meeting info
We are very excited to announce that the program of ECS2022 meeting (21-25 August, 2022; Cork, Ireland) has now been finalized. The organizing team led by John Mackrill, session chairs and Geert Bultynck, the scientific chair, were really impressed by the high quality of abstracts and the exciting science that will be presented at the meeting. Hence, the session chairs had a very challenging task to select the short talks, but they now have made their final selections. All short talk awardees have been contacted by the session chairs and the names/titles will very soon appear in the online program. All other abstracts have been accepted as poster. The selection for the Flash Symposium is in progress and the selected authors will be contacted by the chair Amalia Dolga.
It’s also important to stress that two early career researchers still will be selected by the jECS Board, after the jECS Symposium. So, there are still 2 short talks options at the main meeting.
Finally, the jECS Board is also busy finalizing the program of the jECS symposium (to held on 20 August, 2022). Their selections will soon be communicated to the selected authors.
Not yet registered? It’s still possible to join us: https://www.ucc.ie/en/ecs2022/ for more information!
Posted
April, 2022
Ca2+ Event “Ca2+ signaling in health, disease & therapy”
On Wednesday April 20th, 2022, the FWO-WOG network on “Ca2+ signaling in health, disease & therapy” is organizing its kickoff event (hybrid: in-person location is Campus Gasthuisberg ON5, KU Leuven; online via Teams). We will start at 1 pm CET. Please find the full and final program online with 3 sessions (Ca2+ signaling in physiology; Ca2+ signaling and cell function; New Ca2+ signaling tools & methods). The meeting brings together Ca2+ researchers to present their latest work and to foster collaborations in Ca2+ research within Flanders and between Flemish groups & international teams. Confirmed talks from the teams of Luc Leybaert, Thomas Voets, Llew Roderick, Hideaki Mizuno, Geert Bultynck, Pieter Vanden Berghe, Albena Jordanova, Martin Bootman & Joachim Goedhart.
Program: https://gbiomed.kuleuven.be/apps/lmcs/casign/20220420FINAL_PROGRAM.pdf
You can find the Teams link to follow this event online in our latest Info-Letter to members.
Posted
April, 2022
Online symposium on Intracellular Ion Channels
On Monday April 25th, 2022, Prof. Albrecht Schwab (Münster) and Prof. Ivan Bogeski (Göttingen) (The special interest group "Ion Channels" of the German Physiological Society) organize an online symposium on Intracellular Ion Channels running from 3 – 5 pm CET. The meeting is organized as an online-only symposium that can be attended via Zoom. Please see the Info-Letter of April to members for the link.
Scientific program:
15:00 – 15:30 Prof. Geert Bultynck, Leuven, Belgium - IP3 receptor modulation as an integral part of the anti-apoptotic action of the BCL-2 family
15:30 - 16:00 Prof. Sandip Patel, University College, London, UK - Segregated cation flux by TPC2 biases calcium signaling through lysosomes
16:00 – 16:30 Dr. Maria Patron, MPI, Cologne, Germany - Regulation of mitochondrial proteostasis by the proton gradient
16:30 – 17:00 Prof. Christian Wahl-Schott, MHH, Hannover, Germany - Physiological functions of two-pore cation channels
Posted
April, 2022
Calcium signalling meeting celebrating the career of Professor Colin Taylor
On September 2nd, 2022, Martin Bootman, Ana Rossi, Sandip Patel, Jonathan Marchant & Taufiq Rahman will organize the Calcium signalling meeting celebrating the career of Professor Colin Taylor (Venue: Queens' College, Cambridge, CB3 9ET). All ECS members are welcome this 1-day calcium signalling symposium. The meeting will comprise of both talks and a poster session. Confirmed speakers include Colin Taylor, Jonathan Marchant, Ana Rossi, Sandip Patel, Adelina Ivanova, Graham Ladds, Peace Atakpa, Ian Parker, and David Yule. The committee looks forward to seeing you in September. In-person attendance is £20 per person registration fee that includes lunch and tea/coffee. For registration and further information, please visit: https://www.open.ac.uk/stem/life-health-chemical-sciences/open-calcium-cambridge
Posted
February, 2022
ECS 2022 Meeting
We are very excited to share the news that the registration for the ECS2022 meeting in Cork, Ireland (August 21st to 25th 2022) has been opened. The meeting is preceded by the jECS symposium held on August 20th 2022. All information can be found on the meeting website https://www.ucc.ie/en/ecs2022/ with more information about the program on https://www.ucc.ie/en/ecs2022/programme/. It’s important to note that the abstract submission deadline is Friday June 3rd 2022, which is also the deadline for early registration fees and to be considered for selection oral communications, the flash symposium and travel fellowships. As always, ECS members can register for our events at reduced fees!
Posted
February, 2022
Upcoming Ca2+ Meetings
We are very happy to advertise upcoming Ca2+-related events organized by our ECS members.
- Beth Stutzmann and Jonathan Soboloff, the organizers of the 2022 GRC-sponsored conference on Calcium Signaling, are now inviting applications for their meeting at Four Points Sheraton/Holiday Inn Express in Ventura, California, June 19-24, 2022. The full program has now been assembled: https://www.grc.org/calcium-signaling-conference/2022/. There will be 9 sessions including a keynote lecture by Richard Tsien and a power hour. In addition to the speakers listed in the flyer, we will identify 2 late-breaking speakers and short talks selected from posters, along with many group activities scheduled over the course of the conference.
- Colin Taylor (Cambridge University, UK) is retiring in 2022. ECS Board member Martin Bootman together with other colleagues is organizing 1-day calcium meeting to celebrate Colin's career on 2nd September in the marvelous Queens' College, Cambridge. More information will follow in a next newsletter.
- The FASEB SRC ‘NAD metabolism and signaling’ is co-organized by Andreas Guse (together with Vera Gobunova [Rochester], Raul Mostoslavsky [Harvard], Lee Kraus [Dallas]) and will take place at Steamboat, Colorado, June 26–30, 2022. Researchers interested in calcium-mobilizing 2nd messengers derived from NAD, such as NAADP or cyclic ADP-ribose, are very welcome to attend and get in touch with latest research news from the NAD (and calcium) field. Information and program can be found here: https://www.faseb.org/meetings-and-events/src-events/the-nad-metabolism-and-signaling-conference.
Posted
January, 2022
ECS 2022 Meeting
As already previously communicated, the ECS2022 meeting organized by John MacKrill (together with Marcella Burke, Greg Jasionek, Jackie Maguire, Miriam O’Sullivan, Mark Rae, Nicola Redmond and jECS members Kimberley Stephenson & Michael Vaughan) will take place in Cork, Ireland from 21 to 25 August 2022. The meeting will be preceded by the junior ECS symposium (20 August 2022). During the course of January 2022, the registration page will be opened. Please check out the conference website https://www.ucc.ie/en/ecs2022/.
Posted
January, 2022
“Ion Channels & Cancer” Meeting in Lille
The team of Natacha Prevarskaya & Dimitra Gkika will organize the “Ion Channels & Cancer” Meeting in Lille, France from 26 to 29 September 2022. The meeting will include 1 ECS-organized Session and will have special registration fees for ECS members. The meeting will be organized in a hybrid manner. More information will become available on https://iccm2020.univ-lille.fr/.
Posted
January, 2022
ECS Webinars 2022
We will again start with online webinar series organized by Martin Bootman, Malene Brohus, Katja Rietdorf. The frequency will be 1 per month and the format has been updated. Each webinar will be given by a PI together with an early career researcher. The first webinar is planned for January 20th 2022 at 17:00 CET with a talk from Indu Ambudkar & Moaz Ahmad on “Cellular determinants and functional relevance of STIM2 clustering“ and “STIM2-IP3R communication co-ordinates cellular response at sub-threshold stimuli”.
Posted
January, 2022
Other Ca2+ conferences in 2022
Jonathan Soboloff & Beth Stutzmann will organize the 1st Gordon Research Conference on “Calcium Signaling” Four Points Sheraton/Holiday Inn Express in Ventura, California from 19 to 24 June 2022. More information: https://www.grc.org/calcium-signaling-conference/2022/. The preliminary program has been assembled; there will be 9 sessions including a keynote lecture by Richard Tsien, several short talks selected from posters, a Power Hour and many group activities scheduled over the course of the conference.
Posted
February 24, 2021
PASIFIC
The ECS wishes to inform you about the PASIFIC program
The PASIFIC program offers excellent conditions for scientists with a PhD who would like to conduct research in Poland for two years. Potential applicants can choose any institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences. This includes the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology where Prof. Kuźnicki's laboratory of Neurodegeneration is located. (www.IIMCB.gov.pl).
The program is dedicated to all type of research, but the calcium field is very popular in Poland, so several "Calcium people" could be eligible to get such a fellowship. Prof. Kuźnicki is of course highly interested in the applicant(s) who would like to consider coming to his lab.
The stay can be used as a postdoctoral training or the initiation of the independent career in Poland. During those two years the grantee can apply for additional grants from the National Science Centre and other funding institutions in Poland.
A first call opens March 15 (deadline June 30, 2021)
A second call opens September 15 (deadline December 30, 2021)
More information how to apply to PASIFIC with IIMCB at https://www.iimcb.gov.pl/en/press-office/news/news/1228-iimcb-invites-candidates-to-the-pasific-fellowship-programme
Posted
October, 2021
IN MEMORIAM ANNETTE DRAEGER (1959-2020)
The ECS mourns the loss of Annette Draeger, a highly visible scientist in the annexin field and a popular and very active member of our society who served for many years as a member of the ECS Scientific Board and also as Vice President.
Annette studied Medicine in Aachen and Hamburg with stints in Lausanne and Melbourne. Early-on she decided to pursue a scientific career and consequently chose postdoctoral stays at the MRC-LMB in Cambridge, the Institute of Pathology in Munich and the Austrian Academy of Science Institute of Molecular Biology in Salzburg. Driven by her stay in Vic Small’s group in Salzburg Annette developed a keen interest in membranes and actin cytoskeleton dynamics, topics that should remain at her heart ever since. In 1995 Annette moved on to become head of the Department of Cell Biology at the Institute of Anatomy of the University of Bern, where she continued and expanded her work on the membrane-associated actin cytoskeleton but also studied membrane dynamics in more general terms. This led to a number of seminal discoveries including the role of annexins as intracellular Calcium sensors that are recruited to raft-like membrane microdomains in response to Ca2+ elevation in a graded manner and then function in the cell-autonomous process of membrane wound resealing. Importantly, Annette’s work together with Eduard Babiychuk on cellular responses to bacterial membrane pore-forming toxins led to the discovery that engineered liposomes can sequester such toxins and thereby have a protective potential in severe invasive infections.
Annette will be remembered not only for her scientific contributions but also for her many other talents. She was an inspiring and open-minded leader who attracted talented and motivated young scientists and she taught her coworkers to develop new ideas off the beaten path. Her approach to science was always driven by curiosity and interest in a deeper understanding and not by following the popular trend. In the true meaning of the word she was a selfless and generous altruist always caring for her coworkers.
Annette died too young. She will be missed as a scientist, a mentor, a colleague and as a dear friend.
Volker Gerke, Münster
Stephen Moss, London
Posted
August, 2020
IN MEMORIAM DAVID MACLENNAN (1937-2020)
The calcium field lost another giant this year. David MacLennan, one of the outstanding biomedical scientists of Canada and the World, passed away on June 23rd, 2020. David was well known for his seminal work on the regulation of calcium and its implications to human health. He has made fundamental contributions to our understanding of the mechanism of Ca2+ transport by SERCA, the ryanodine receptor Ca2+ channel, and the storage of Ca2+ in the SR by calsequestrin and calreticulin.
David was born on July 3rd, 1937 in Swan River, Manitoba, Canada and completed his MSc and PhD in Biology with Harry Beevers at Purdue. He received his post-doctoral training with David Green at the University of Wisconsin and in 1969 David was recruited to Canada to the Banting and Best Department of Medical Research at the University of Toronto. David was, amongst other honors, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Fellow of the Royal Society (London), a Foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, an Officer of the Order of Canada and a recipient of the prestigious Gairdner Award (1991). He mentored a large network of outstanding scientists worldwide.
We lost a friend, a great scientist, and our mentor.
Text provided by Marek Michalak (Univ. Alberta, Canada)
Posted
February, 2020
IN MEMORIAM SIR MICHAEL BERRIDGE (1938-2020)
The European Calcium Society is extremely sad to have to communicate the peaceful passing away this night at home of one of the most important members of the calcium community, Sir Michael Berridge.
Mike was not only an extraordinary scientist, who will always be remembered for his groundbreaking work on IP3 and IP3-induced Ca2+ release, and a great communicator but also a true gentleman and a strong supporter of the European Calcium Society, of which he was honorary member. Moreover, he will be remembered for supportive attitude towards the junior members of the calcium community and his friendly but always very insightful and perceptive questions and comments at scientific meetings, including at the ECS meetings he nearly always attended.
He will deeply be missed by all but never forgotten.
Posted
November, 2019
Focus paper
Focus paper about the activities of the ECS, linking the 2018 Hamburg Meeting to the 2019 ECS Coimbra Workshop and the 2020 Cork Meeting: https://stke.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/scisignal.aaz0961.
