PDF file: EURASNET Annual Report 2008

two groups (SCRI, Dundee, UK; AMU, Poznan, Poland) were reimbursed for attendance of the Plant Intra-Workpackage meeting in Vienna organized by 8 (MUW, Vienna, Austria).WP18 Career developmentA workshop entitled “Career Paths for RNA Scientists” was held during the Krakow International Meeting 2008. Atotal of 27 young scientists from 23 EURASNET institutions, 5 speakers, and 3 EURASNET PIs participated in theworkshop. The program covered a wide spectrum of career related topics with representatives from industry andfrom the publishing industry. Talks were followed by discussions. Many of the EURASNET members are highlyactive in the arrangement of career develoment workshops, both at their home universities and throughout theworld. By now there are at least 12 registered joint PhD committees or co-supervisions within the EURASNETnetwork. A mentor lunch with a about 50 participants was organized at the Krakow meeting. Direct interactionbetween representatives from industry and the students occurred on an informal basis after the workshop.WP19 Public understanding of RNA biologyThe past year has seen truly enhanced activities of the EURASNET faculty as outlined and summarized in the moreextensive report. In all areas of PUS activities, like press releases, articles or interviews in local media ormagazines, organization of events for the public, like Open house or visits to schools or organizations, and otherseminars for a broader audience, EURASNET members have not only tried to enhance the understanding of ourScience but have also outlined the importance of EU activities in sciences and education, exemplified by theEURASNET network. In addition, scientists were encouraged to send their latest publication to be screened for apossible press release and for communicating the results on our Webpage for a broader audience. Furthermore, wehave successfully launched our first biannual Newsletter which was also send to the broader RNA community andto specific target groups like medical doctors of human genetics and biology teachers. We got very good responsesand new connections for joint Workshops for clinicians were arranged. Another highlight was the media workshopat the 1 st International EURASNET meeting and the competition for the best press release with all the participants.For both activities we got very positive feedback from the scientific community. In the course of this year we havealso finished the content and layout of the extended EURASNET brochure which is currently translated (English-German) and will be produced soon. This is in fact the most time consuming activity of this work package whichled us to increase the employment of the public scientific officer to 30 hours per week for this time period.WP20 SMEs and technology transferThere was significant progress during 2008 in both the main areas and aims of WP20, i.e,. promoting thecommercial exploitation and development of work relating to RNA splicing and the use of the Scottish HitDiscovery Facility at the University of Dundee to help with one of the overall aims of EURASNET to identifysmall molecule inhibitors of splicing that can both help to delineate the splicing mechanism in more detail and topromote links to pharma and biotech for possible use of splicing factors as drug discovery targets. Deliverable 248,i.e., creating and commercialising a pre-mRNA splicing kit, has been fully achieved and the resulting pre-mRNAsplicing kit is currently marketed via the University of Dundee spin-out company Dundee Cell Products Ltd(http://www.dundeecellproducts.com/ see catalogue order number RSK1001). As a result of efforts within theEURASNET network, other reagents for use in the RNA splicing field have also been commercialized by DundeeCell Products Ltd, including “RiboShield”, an effective ribonuclease inhibitor as well as antibodies tospliceosome proteins.Deliverable 250, i.e., developing a stable cell line for evaluating the effect of chemical inhibitors on pre-mRNAsplicing in vivo, was also fully achieved. Several stable human cell lines were established where splicing is requiredto express GFP, but not mCherry, that can be used for in vivo screening of molecules to detect splicing inhibitors.Both of the other two deliverables in WP20, i.e., Deliverables 249 & 251, were also partly achieved and if requiredwill be extended and carried over during the next phase of the project because these are ongoing activities that canbenefit from continued activity throughout the duration of the EURASNET network. Both will have potential alsofor meeting the planned objective for WP20 of enhancing commercial viability of any future spin-out drugdiscovery company using RNA splicing factors as drug targets. Significant progress was made towards thesedeliverables with the screening of small molecules to date identifying several new molecules with splicinginhibitory activity in vitro and the characterisation by the Lührmann group of several small-molecule inhibitors ofprotein acetylation/deacetylation that were found to block the splicing cycle at distinct steps in the pathway.15