EMBO Annual Report 04

summary
EMBO actions 2004
‹› EMBO organises annual sectoral meetings
focusing on topics that EMBO feels
require special attention. In 2004, the
sectoral meeting was held in Rome, Italy
and looked at the topic of bioinformatics
and computational biology. In addition
to presenting up-to-date perspectives on
research, the meeting gave participants
the opportunity to provide input to EMBO
on how the organisation could further
impact and support the bioinformatics
community. 2004 also saw the first follow-up
sectoral meeting on molecular
medicine. The theme was molecular biology
and leukaemia with a particular
focus on Ras-, Raf- and Myc-signalling.
‹› EMBO continued its discussions at
the EMBO Council and Committee level
on its potential role as an advisory body
to external parties, in particular to the
EMBC. The commitment of EMBO to this
goal was strengthened during 2004 and
some specific actions are under discussion
for a more structured launch of this
project in 2005.
‹› 2004 was the 40th anniversary of the
formal founding of EMBO. This was cele-
www.embo.org
brated on two occasions – jointly with
EMBC (founded 35 years ago) and EMBL
(established 30 years ago) at a special
event in November and by EMBO itself
at a historical 40th anniversary meeting
in Heidelberg in June. A booklet to highlight
the 40 years of EMBO’s existence
was published in conjunction with this
meeting and contains many interesting
recollections from members throughout
the years.
‹› The 2004 winner of the annual EMBO
Gold Medal was María Blasco, Director
of the Molecular Oncology Programme
at the Spanish National Cancer Centre
(CNIO) in Madrid, Spain. Maria received
the award in recognition of her landmark
work in the area of telomeres (see p. 48).
‹› In 2004, the EMBO members were
polled for their opinions on a variety of
EMBO actions. 15% of the EMBO membership
participated in the survey and the
results demonstrated a high degree of
satisfaction with the majority of EMBO’s
activities. The outcome also revealed a
need for greater publicity of some of
EMBO’s newer actions.
EMBO’s first Executive Director, Raymond Appleyard (left) and Eduard Kellenberger, one of EMBO’s
founding members. This photo was taken during the 40th anniversary meeting in Heidelberg in June 2004.
Eduard Kellenberger sadly passed away in December 2004.
“40 years of success”
This booklet was published
in 2004 to accompany
EMBO’s 40th anniversary.
It highlights important
milestones in the history
of EMBO and EMBC, and
features many interesting
recollections from EMBO
members throughout
the years.
To obtain a copy, e-mail
communications@embo.org
or download the PDF version
at www.embo.org/publications/
archive.html.
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