Signal Transduction: Receptors, Mediators and Genes 2003 meeting

The STS Meeting 2003: Signal Transduction - Receptors, Mediators and Genes was held at the Hilton Hotel, Weimar, from November 6th to November 8th, 2003.

The STS Meeting 2003 will take place once again in the Hilton Hotel in Weimar from November 06.-08. This decision enables us to combine the STS Meeting with a symposium organized by the "Forschungszentrum 'Immunologie'" Magdeburg/Halle (Sachsen-Anhalt) with STS member Burkhart Schraven as Chairman of the Organizing Committee. On Saturday, November 08., a combined Workshop and Symposium 'Signal Tranduction in the Immune System' turns to participants of both events. Lectures given by Doreen Cantrell, Gary Koretzky, Michael Reth and Juan Rivera will be outstanding highlights of this joint session.

As mentioned during the general assembly 2002, the Hilton Hotel had already agreed not to increase the fees for rooms, catering etc. This is directly reflected by unchanged congress fees and a mild reduction of accomodation fees for single rooms. As established in 2002, the beginning of the scientific program of the meeting is scheduled for Thursday morning at 9.00 a.m. Otherwise, we will stick to our approved concept of the previous years.

The conference package covering the abstract booklet, the legendary STS coffee-mug, the catering throughout all coffee breaks, the lunches and snacks and the two dinners, will make up:

The STS-Meeting CD 2003 can be booked in advance along with the registration for an additional 25,-- EUR.

The conference site is suitable for 250 participants. Due to the development of the society and potentially resulting space limitations, we strongly encourage all STS members to register early. As usual, registration will be handled as first come first serve. Registration and abstract submission is possible online only (scheduled to be available at the beginning of April). The deadline for abstract submission is September, 15, 2003. There will be no extension of this deadline.

A cancellation of a meeting registration is possible until four weeks prior to the meeting and only a processing fee of EUR 50 will be charged to cover costs for program organization, handling of funds, cups and buttons. The remainder of the registration fee will be refunded. After that date a refund will not possible.

With regard to lodging throughout the Meeting, we could also arrange a very moderate rate for accomodation at the Hilton Hotel, Weimar. As compared to the regular rate at this hotel (180,-- EUR per night), single rooms will be available to the conferees at 85,-- EUR and double space rooms (which can be shared by two conferees) for 105,-- EUR including breakfast buffet!

The STS council decided to once again distribute STS stipends for a total amount of 2,500,-- EUR. The favourable financial situation of the STS enables the Society to support up to 10 young STS members (diploma or doctoral students) by a travel grant of 250,-- EUR each. The application deadline for STS-stipends is September 15, 2003. The successful applicants will be notified and personally awarded during the STS Meeting in Weimar.

Applicants must be diploma- or doctoral-students, a letter of confirmation from the head of the department and a copy of immatriculation certificate is required. Applicants must also be members of the STS and the STS membership must be continued for at least three subsequent years following the STS stipend. Applications must be accompanied a curriculum vitae, a description of the current project (no more than two pages) and an abstract to be presented at the Meeting. Applications should be sent to the head of the grant comittee, Gaby-Fleur Böl (boel@www.dife.de - Fax: +49-33200/88-419).

Poster presentations will be again particularly attractive in 2003. First of all, there will be ample space for all posters to remain mounted throughout the conference in conjunction with the sponsors exhibition. Second, all posters may be introduced to the plenum in the famous 'one minute - one transparency (no slide)' session and third, five poster prizes will be awarded (first prize: 250,-- EUR, second prize: 200,-- EUR, third prize: 150,-- EUR, fourth prize: 100,-- EUR and fifth prize: 50,-- EUR. Since it is the policy of the STS to particularly encourage and support young scientists, the council decided that chairpeople and heads of departments or institutes are not eligible for a poster award.

With Wiley-VCH as publisher, SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION has been established as the official journal of the STS. Besides the publication of all accepted abstracts submitted in time (potentially as a supplemental issue), we plan to also publish comprehensive proceedings of the 2003 Meeting. Therefore, we strongly encourage all speakers and presenting or senior authors of poster presentations to submit manuscripts on the topic of their presentation. Paper Submission will be possible online or at the booth of SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION and Wiley-VCH at the Meeting.

Upon demand, the STS council will produce a Meeting CD that will include the program and all abstracts, the list of meeting participants, the General Assembly agenda and protocol, as well as pictures and video-clips taken at the meeting. The CD will also contain Powerpoint presentations of talks and posters (of course only of those for which explicit permission was provided along with submission). The CD may be purchased in advance with your registration for 25,-- EUR (including mailing) and will be distributed shortly after the meeting.

The industrial exhibition of sponsoring companies will take place in an approximately 400 square meter area together with the poster exhibition in order to concentrate and to facilitate interactions between the conference participants and the industry. Sponsoring companies of the STS meeting as well as companies who would like to support alternative activities such as organization of a dinner tutorial, sponsoring of scientific awards, banner commercials, etc. are kindly requested to contact Ralf Hass (rh@sigtrans.de) for further information.

All presentations will be given as plenary overview lectures/short presentations in the main conference hall. Each session will be opened by an introductory overview of 25 minutes plus 5 minutes of discussion. The speakers will be selected by the chairpeople of a session and the program committee. If you would like to suggest potential overview speakers (including yourself) for one of the workshop topics listed below, please indicate this by email to Karlheinz Friedrich (khf@sigtrans.de). In 2003, we may also try to attract and invite Overview-Speakers who significantly contributed to the development of specific areas of signal transduction research.

Due to time restrictions, a limited number of abstracts will be selected for oral presentations of 10 minutes plus 5 minutes of discussion. The oral presentations should thematically be related to the Workshop Topics. They will be selected according to the author's indicated preferences by the Workshop chairpeople on the basis of scientific quality and consistency with the program.

The Workshop sessions will also include presentations of 10-15 minutes by sponsoring companies on innovative products for signal transduction research. These presentations will conclude each session to allow further discussions with the company's representatives during the following breaks.

For the 2002 Meeting in Weimar, we launched another innovative highlight: A workshop entitled 'Bench to Business'. With the positive feedback we got from the participants of last year's meeting and from the presenting companies, we will continue to provide this platform for planned projects, new startup companies, for developing and established companies to discuss their aims and fears about combining academia and business or about leaving one for the other. We hope that once again we will attract representatives from many companies that find their basis or their costumers in signal transduction research. For further information on special rates for contribitors to this event, please contact Ralf Hass at rh@sigtrans.de (applicable to company representatives only).

All poster accepted contributions will be placed throughout the whole meeting in an area immediately connected to the conference hall together with the sponsors' exhibition. This comfortable room will also be the major get-together site during the coffee breaks. Poster viewing and discussion is scheduled for Thursday and Friday. In addition, posters may be presented to the plenum in a separate Poster Workshop as a 'one-minute presentation' (one minute - one (A4) transparency - no slide).

For detailed information in German about traveling by plane or by car and the location of the Conference Venue please refer to the Hilton Weimar Website (http://www.hilton-weimar.de). For special inquiries about local peculiarities, contact Karlheinz Friedrich (khf@sigtrans.de).