National Center of Competence
in Research, RNA & Disease

RNA Regulation in Health and Disease

The 3rd NCCR RNA & Disease Summer School took place this year from the 26th to 30th of August 2019 in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. 38 participants from 26 different laboratories gathered to learn more about “RNA Regulation in Health and Disease”.

Participants of the 3rd NCCR RNA & Disease summer school.
Conference Center

Twenty-five percent of all NCCR RNA & Disease and associated labs were represented among the summer school trainees. The purpose of the summer school was to provide the attendees with the unique opportunity to interact and learn from distinguished scientists in the field and to share ideas with peers.

The summer school consisted of 14 lectures by established experts in genome architecture, gene expression control, epitranscriptomics and phase separation. During the journal club sessions, participants benefited from in depth discussions and had the opportunity to interact in an informal setting with invited scientists. Moreover, all participants were given the opportunity to train their presentation skills and share their current research activities in three minutes flash talks. Evenings were busy for all participants that where challenged to develop a multidisciplinary research project in small groups. This exercise provided an opportunity to experience how to create synergies by integrating complementary knowledge and expertise. The flip chart presentations on the last day of the summer school served as an ideal platform for each group member to present his / her contributions to the project. The organizers and lecturers were very pleasantly surprised at how participants engaged in the maturation of their project proposals by harnessing their own expertise and that of the invited speakers, thus resulting in six novel and creative research project ideas.

Group work: participants developing ideas for their research project proposal.

The summer school provided networking opportunities between sessions, in the evenings and while hiking on the free afternoon in the stunningly beautiful scenery of the Swiss Alps.

The NCCR management would like to express their gratitude to the organizers, the invited lecturers and the participants for their contributions towards this successful summer school.

 Lecturers of the 3rd NCCR RNA & Disease Summer School:

  • Matthias Altmeyer - University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
  • Stefan Ameres - Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, Vienna, Austria
  • Claus Azzalin - University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
  • Peter Brodersen - University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Luisa Cochella - Vienna Biocenter Campus (VBC), Austria
  • Martine Collart - University of Geneva, Switzerland
  • Torben Jensen - Aarhus University, Denmark
  • Rory Johnson - University of Bern, Switzerland
  • Sebastian Leidel - University of Bern, Switzerland
  • Peter Meister - University of Bern, Switzerland
  • Donal O’Carroll - University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
  • Uwe Ohler - Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany
  • Magdalini Polymenidou - University of Zurich, Switzerland
  • Juan M. Vaquerizas - Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Biomedicine, Münster, Germany

Organising Committee:

  • Constance Ciaudo - ETH Zurich, Switzerland
  • Ana Claudia Marques - University of Lausanne, Switzerland
  • Raffaella Santoro - University of Zurich, Switzerland

Coordinator:

  • Larissa Grolimund - University of Bern, Switzerland
Conference Center Steinmatte, Saas-Fee, Switzerland.