Network meeting 16-19 February 2020

This was the third annual network meeting and it took place at Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands.

The meeting consisted of a Research Day with the ESRs providing updates on their work through research presentations, followed by helpful feedback from the Scientific Advisory Board. There were also several network discussions, with the ESRs encouraged to think about the next steps of their research as well as multi-disciplinary collaboration.

On the second day there was a session on interactions between academia and the private sector, which involved a panel made up of 4 people from academia, big pharma, spin-off company from academia, and co-owner of a company. Each member described their background and what they do now, and they also discussed how they interact with academia or industry. The ESRs then asked questions throughout the session on collaborations, contracts, scientific relationships, publications, benefits, etc, and it allowed them to think about the next steps of their career.

Training was provided for the ESRs on topics from modules on data science, complementary skills and personal development, and commerce and entrepreneurship. Three of these sessions were given by external trainers from Leiden and Utrecht. There were also network board meetings, as well as an ESR forum meeting.

Schedule

Sunday 16 February [LUMC, room J-01-116]
17:00 – 18:00 Supervisory board meeting
19:00 – Meeting dinner

Monday 17 February: Research Day [LUMC, room V-04-052/056]
09.00 – 09.15 Welcome, Jeanine Houwing-Duistermaat
09.15 – 10.35 ESR research presentations: Work package 1, Chair Noortje de Haan

  • ESR1 Tamás Pongrácz, “Expanding the reaction space of linkage-specific sialic acid derivatization – a piece of the puzzle”
  • ESR2 Frania Zuniga, “In-Depth N-glycoproteomic analysis of Human Blood Plasma Proteins”
  • ESR3 Samira Smajlović, “Modulation of methylation and expression of HNF1A gene using CRISPR/dCas9 molecular tools for the discovery of the mechanism responsible for glucose stimulated insulin secretion”
  • ESR4 Azra Frkatović, “Genetic and epigenetic regulation of IgG N-glycosylation

10.35 – 11.00 Discussions on WP1 presentations
11.00 – 11.30 Break
11.30 – 12.30 ESR research presentations: Work package 2, Chair Gastone Castellani

  • ESR5 Zhujie Gu, “Statistical integration of methylation and IgG glycosylation data using Group Sparse O2PLS”
  • ESR6 Iva Budimir, “Statistical modelling of protein domain distribution: towards a better resolution in bacterial taxonomy”
  • ESR8 Annah Muli, “Misspecification of frailty distribution in analysis of correlated survival data”

12.30 – 12.50 Discussions on WP2 presentations
12.50 – 14.00 Lunch
14.00 – 15.00 ESR research presentations: Work package 2, Chair Gastone Castellani

  • ESR9 Anna Carbó Meix, “Integration of phenomics and glycomics data in controls, prediabetics and diabetics”
  • ESR10 Md Shafiqur Rahman, “Genetic and glycomic analysis in Chronic Widespread Pain”
  • ESR11 Arianna Landini, “Genetic regulation of transferrin glycosylation”

15.00 – 15.20 Discussions on WP2 presentations
15.20 – 15.50 Break
15.50 – 16.15 Feedback from Scientific Advisory Board
16.15 – 17.15 ESR forum meeting / Research Committee meeting

Tuesday 18 February [LUMC, room V-03-036]
09.00 – 11.00 Interaction between academia and private sector – motivations and lessons

  • Moderation: Azra Frkatović, Md Shafiqur Rahman, Manfred Wuhrer
  • Panel members:
    • Dietmar Reusch, Hoffmann La Roche
    • Erdmann Rapp, founder, CEO glyXera GmbH
    • Lennart C. Karssen, PolyOmica
    • Elena Dominguez Vega, researcher, LUMC

11.00 – 11.05 Break
11.05 – 12.30 GDPR and European Law, Erik Schultes, Erik Flikkenschild, GO FAIR, Leiden
12.30 – 13.10 Lunch
13.10 Depart for PLNT (Leiden Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship)
13.30 – 17.00 Technology transfer, Roisin Holmes, Jofey Chadwick, Frits Fallaux, Luris

Wednesday 19 February [LUMC, room J-01-117,]
09:00 – 10:00 Meeting to discuss feedback and content of video for the network
10.00 – 11.30 Career planning, and perspectives around open science, Kees van Bochove, The Hyve, Utrecht
11:30 – 12:30 Feature selection, Jeanine Houwing-Duistermaat and Zhujie Gu
12.30 – 13:30 Lunch and finish