May 1^st – 3^rd, San Servolo, Venice

The annual SFB1035 PhD & PostDoc Retreat took place on San Servolo Island just outside Venice, right before the SFB conference. 
As in previous years, this year's meeting of SFB members offered many opportunities for networking, mutual exchange and discussions and, of course, continuing education. Like the years before, we had a well-filled schedule. 
The program included three great lectures, three different software training seminars and a poster session, which focused on the commonly used methods of each lab and should highlight the expertise and facilities of each working group. The idea behind the poster session was to provide contacts for special laboratory techniques among the SFB1035 members to benefit from each other's know-how. Among the participants, this somewhat off-type poster session was well received and during the two hours a lively exchange between many different working groups resulted.

Furthermore, we were able to organize and carry out certified software training courses for our participants. Here, the SFB members had the choice between Adobe Illustrator, Origin or PyMOL courses in advance. For the Adobe Illustrator and the Origin workshop we invited two experienced external instructors (Roland Pottkämper, Ralf Rosenberger). For the PyMOL course it was a great pleasure for us to be able to win Dr. Sabine Schneider (TU München).

Additionally, our retreat was rounded off with three excellent talks by our external speakers, Rudolf Glockshuber (ETH Zürich), Brenda Schulman (MPI Martinsried) and Markus Zeeb (Böhringer Ingelheim). These three personalities produced a balanced mix of science and industry, so that the SFB1035 members could get some insight into both working fields. 
The lecture session was opened by Rudolf Glockshuber who gave us insights into his research on the assembly mechanism of the α-pore forming toxin Cytolysin A from E. coli. 
The second talk was given by Brenda Schulman and focused on the N-terminal acetylation as an avidity enhancer within an interconnected multiprotein complex and its role in ubiquitin-like protein conjugation and targeting with small molecules. 
Last but not least, Markus Zeeb gave us an impression of his industrial research at Böhringer Ingelheim which deals with the fragment based screening as an alternative lead identification approach. 
The eventful day ended with a joint dinner of the SFB members and the speakers in the pizzeria OKE Venezia. There, room for personal exchange and networking was offered again.

For interested participants of the retreat, a sightseeing tour through Venice was offered on Wednesday to explore sights and corners of the beautiful city of Venice.

And so, our PhD & PostDoc Retreat SFB1035 2018 found its worthy end. We would like to thank the SFB1035 participants, our speakers and the workshop leaders for the successful event. Furthermore, special thanks go to Mrs. Hilber, Prof. Aymelt Itzen and Prof. Franz Hagn for the support in all organizational matters.

April 3rd – 5th, Haus Bergsee, Spitzingsee

This year’s annual SFB 1035 PhD and Post Doc retreat was held at Haus Bergsee located at Spitzingsee in the Bavarian Alps. The retreat once again gave room to meet fellow SFB members, discuss research topics and thus opened new opportunities for networking and strengthening collaborations. To enforce the latter, the program focused on internal talks. Each sub-project was represented by one talk, concentrating mainly on the methods used. Hence, old and new SFB 1035 members were not only informed about the progress made but also reminded of and introduced to the many methods we have access to within the SFB 1035.

During the internal poster sessions, held after dinner, discussions were affluent and even had to be cut short to keep schedule. It was nice to see that this opportunity to get into touch and learn about each other’s research projects was so eagerly used and fruitful.

Additionally, it was our pleasure to host three external speakers representing a variety of different career paths. Our first evening’s key note lecture was given by Dr. Alexander Pautsch, who is a scientist at Boehringer Ingelheim. His diverting presentation gave insight into the different steps necessary and the methods applied while developing a marketable drug from a lead compound. On our second evening, Professor Dr. Christian Griesinger from the MPI in Göttingen emphasized academia as possible career option by giving an overview over his research topics and developments in the field of NMR. It was great that both speakers could stay not only for their talks but joined us during our poster sessions and remained for further discussions as the evenings continued in an informal get together. A further highlight was set on our second day by Christian Schuler and his colleagues who joined us from “Simon Kucher & Partner”, the consultant company focusing on pricing, marketing and sales. It was very interesting to see where a scientist finds his place in this field run by mostly economists.

Unfortunately, the Tuesday afternoon walk to a nearby alm was drowned in rain and only a few bold hikers actually went there. However, the afternoon was easily filled with games and talking at the seminar house.

Overall, we look back at a very enlightening and profitable get together within our research community that greatly benefitted from all the contributions made by the participants.