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Dear <<First Name>>
I’d firstly like to thank the entire EMBL Australia community for their hard work and contributions throughout 2016. Together with our Chief Operating Officer Maree Agiazis, who joined our team in September, we have really enjoyed building on the strong scientific foundation that has been established in the past eight years. It has also been fantastic for both Maree and I to meet with, and work closely with our EMBL colleagues, in particular Silke Schumacher and Plamena Markova in the international relations office.
2016 has seen numerous scientific highlights for EMBL Australia scientists, including major discoveries published in the world leading generalist literature. We also have welcomed three new EMBL Australia Group Leaders to Australia, and already these talented scientists are making their mark on the Australian scientific scene. The EMBL Australia Partnership PhD Program is flourishing, and the EMBL Australia Postgraduate Symposium (EAPS2016) was another fantastic highlight for the year (and thank you once again to Tanja and Julienne – profiled below). On that note, I’m delighted to announce that we will be continuing to hold the PhD course and symposium next year. Monash University will be hosting the course with dates yet to be confirmed, so stay tuned. We are also delighted to announce that the 2017 EMBL Postgraduate Symposium will be hosted at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research next year. On behalf of the EMBL Australia community, I’d like to take this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation to Jane McCausland, our outgoing Student Program Coordinator for all her hard work and dedication to our students over the years.
I would also like to highlight the Draft 2016 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap, which provided a comprehensive overview of Australian technology platforms and recognized the value of international relationships such as our associate membership of EMBL.
The New Year is already shaping up to be a busy one. We will announce new Group Leader appointments as well as new EMBL Australia Nodes early next year and we are also proud to start the year with a cryo-EM and single-particle analysis workshop.
On that brief note, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year with your families and friends.
Cheers,
James Whisstock
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Tanja Racic, EMBL Australia PhD candidate and EAPS 2016 Co-convener
Tanja is a member of the Provis Group at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, at the Australian National University (ANU) where she is in the final stages of her PhD candidacy. Prior to commencing her PhD, Tanja received an Honours (First Class) in Neuroscience at the John Curtin School of Medical Research and a Bachelor of Medical Science at ANU.
Tanja volunteered to Co-convene EAPS 2016. Her enthusiasm and abundant organisational abilities helped make EAPS 2016 the success it was. When asked why she volunteered to help organise EAPS 2016, she said, “I volunteered because I thought it would be a fantastic leadership opportunity whereby I could also build my skill set. I believed it was a great opportunity to collaborate with fellow PhD students around Australia and help create an event that promoted the sharing of scientific research and knowledge, engage students and facilitate a diverse group of students to network.” Tanja noted that it was impossible to single out specific highlights, as it was all amazing, but declared that being part of the EAPS 2016 organizing committee was one of the best aspects of her PhD candidature. Learn more about Tanja's research and her experience at EAPS 2016 on the EMBL Australia website.
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Profile: Julienne O’Rourke, EMBL Australia PhD candidate and EAPS 2016 Co-convener
Julienne is a PhD candidate from St Vincent’s Institute for Medical Research and the University of Melbourne where she is a member of Dr Andrew Dean’s team. Julienne is studying the rare and inherited syndrome, Fanconi Anaemia.
One of Julienne’s personal goals whilst undertaking her PhD has been to learn a variety of techniques and broaden her skill set, to enhance her intellectual capacity and leadership potential. This personal goal is what led her to volunteer as Co-convener EAPS 2016. Julienne says she volunteered to help organize EAPS 2016 because she sees the enormous benefits to students these symposiums can deliver. She has a passion for programs that benefit students and being able to get together with like-minded students from Australia is an important opportunity to create new networks and make lifelong friends. She says “symposiums like EAPS 2016 are invaluable as they aim to not only provide a platform for students to present research but also let us get involved in the interdisciplinary scientific discussion in a supportive environment.” Learn more about Julienne's research and her experience at EAPS 2016 on the EMBL Australia website.
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Triumph at the EMBL Australia Postgraduate Symposium - EAPS2016
The third annual EMBL Australia Postgraduate Symposium (EAPS), entitled ‘Unraveling Nature’s Secrets’, was held in November at the South Australia Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), Adelaide. Organised by a group of enterprising postgraduate students, the symposium was an exciting opportunity for students embarking on careers in scientific research to meet like-minded early career researchers, increase their knowledge about current research in life sciences, be inspired by the career trajectories of leading researchers in their field and present their work to their peers. One hundred and eight students attended from 18 research organisations, with 80 students conducting poster presentations, and 18 delivering oral presentations.
Congratulations to all the awardees, organisers and everyone involved with EAPS 2016. The event was a great success following a flood of positive comments from conference delegates and plenary speakers, describing EAPS2016 as “showing great initiative”, “displaying very high quality of talks and poster presentations” and “run superbly”. It was a tremendous effort! We are excited to announce that the preparation for EAPS 2017 is well underway and that EAPS2017 will be hosted by the Garvan Institute. Dates are yet to be confirmed, but we will let you know as soon as they are available. Read more about EAPS2016 on the EMBL Australia website.
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Next-Generation Inspiring at BioInfoSummer 2016
Report provided by Stefan Mutter, EMBL Australia Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Mäkinen Group, SA node. Steffan works at the intersection of diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease. Stefan also provided all the social media content for the event.
Over 200 attendees from all over Australia and the world came together for BioInfoSummer in Adelaide at the end of November 2016 to learn the newest trends and methods in bioinformatics and take this new knowledge and inspiration back to their labs. EMBL Australia was an official supporter of this symposium, and the Mäkinen Group from the SA node was involved in its organisation and delivery.
 BioInfoSummer is one of the flagship events of the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI) providing bioinformatics training to students, researchers and other professionals with both specialist lectures, as well as hands-on workshops, including computing and wet lab sessions. This year’s symposium took place at the University of Adelaide from the 28th of November to 2nd of December led by A/Prof Gary Glonek. Read more about the workshops held, national and international speakers, and EMBL presence at BioInfoSummer 2016 via the EMBL Australia website.
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EMBL hosts first Cryo-EM and single particle analysis workshop
The first workshop on cryo-EM and single-particle analysis will be hosted in February.
The workshop will include hands-on practicals in addition to problem-solving oriented talks from leading software developers in the field.
This joint-initiative of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging and EMBL Australia, hosting 60 students was well over-subscribed in the first two days of release – for more information and to register your interest for future workshops visit the SimpleCryoEM website or view the event on the EMBL Australia website.
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Please feel welcome forward on the EMBL monthly newsletter to colleagues that may like to subscribe, to keep in touch with EMBL Australia events, news and opportunities throughout the year.
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