Signal Transduction: Receptors, Mediators and Genes 2009 Meeting

The 13^th STS Meeting 2009: Signal Transduction - Receptors, Mediators and Genes will be held at the Leonardo Hotel Weimar from October 28th to October 30th, 2009.

The STS Meeting 2009 will take place in the Leonardo Hotel (former Hilton Hotel) in Weimar. The beginning of the scientific program of the meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, October 28, at 2.00 p.m. The conference will officially end on Friday, October 30, with a congress party and the award celebrations.

Online registration for this year's meeting has been opened on 2009-07-20. The registration fees were kept at the level of 2008 and even lowered for academic STS members despite the fact that the registration fees now also cover the expenses for open access abstract publication in a supplemantary issue of the STS-Journal Cell Communication and Signaling. Along with reduced accomodation rates (see below), the STS council and advisory board aimed at making the meeting even more attractive and affordable for young scientists.

Please note that the following meeting fees cover lunches, dinners and catering during coffee breaks and poster sessions throughout the meeting. Moreover, the conference book and the traditional personalized STS coffee mug are also included in the registration fees. The meeting rates are:

To register for a day-pass, please contact Ralf Hass or the STS-Office in Hannover. The online registration form does not yet support registering for day-passes.

The lecture hall in the Leonardo Hotel in Weimar (previously: Hilton Weimar) is suitable for 300 participants. Due to the development of the society and potentially resulting space limitations, we strongly encourage all STS members and potential participants to register early. As usual, registration will be handled as first come first serve. Registration and abstract submission is possible online only.

The deadline for abstract submission is September 18th, 2009. As usual, there will be no extension of this deadline.

A cancellation of a meeting registration is possible until four weeks prior to the meeting. In case of cancellation, 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 be possible.

With regard to lodging throughout the Meeting, we could arrange a substantial reduction of the rates as compared to last years meeting to very moderate accomodation rates at the Leonardo Hotel Weimar. As compared to the regular rate at this hotel (190,— EUR per night), single rooms will be available to the conferees of the STS meeting for 78,— EUR and double space rooms (which can be shared by two conferees) for 95,— EUR, both arrangements of course including the Leonardo breakfast buffet! Hotel reservations at these reduced rates have to be made under the keyword 'STS'. Please note that the Hotel and third party contractors occasionally offer travel arrangements at even lower rates. Therefore, it might be worthwhile to check for special offers when making your resevation.

Special Focus 2009: Ageing

(co-organized by the SFB728, Düsseldorf, and
the DGZ Special Interest Group "Signal Transduction")

This year’s special focus on ageing will be co-organized by the SFB 728 "Environmentally-Induced Ageing Processes" of the Heinrich-Heine University in Düsseldorf (Judith Haendeler, Peter Schroeder, Lars-Oliver Klotz) and the DGZ study group Signal Transduction (Ralf Hass). The special focus symposium on Friday includes a number of invited lectures, substituted by short talks elected from the submitted abstracts by the Special Focus Committee.

As in recent years, the keynote talks will be given by invited speakers nominated by STS members.

The STS Board developed a preliminary meeting outline which might, however, be subject to change according to the workshop preferences of submitted contributions. We are presently approaching the keynote speakers for the individual sessions. Please check the meeting page for updates occasionally. If the keynote program is completed, STS-members and registered participants will be informed by e-mail.

Please note that depending on the number of abstracts submitted for individual topics, changes in workshop topics may occur.

Like in the years before, the STS will also follow its tradition in 2009 and announce the STS-Science-Award. This year, the scientific award (1,000.– EUR) will be sponsored by Acris Antibodies GmbH.

The award will be given to an outstanding presentation at the STS-Meeting. The award jury consisting of the STS council and STS advisory board members will select appropriate candidates. The candidates will have to present their work both as an oral and as a poster presentation to allow further discussion with members of the jury. The award-winning work should be considered for publication in Cell Communication and Signaling (CCS). A waiver covering the costs of the publication will be reserved.

Please send applications (including CV, list of publication, STS meeting abstract) to the chairman of the award jury:

The definite deadline for applications will be September 18th, 2009. Please make sure that all information is available to the jury in time. Later applications will not be considered!

The STS General Assembly decided to continue to distribute a total amount of 2,500.— EUR in STS stipends. We hope that the financial situation of the STS will enable the Society to keep on supporting up to ten young STS members (diploma or doctoral students) by a travel grant of 250.— EUR each.

According to the stipend guidelines it should be noted that the acceptance of this STS stipend requires a STS membership which should be sustained for at least three more years. Applicants must currently be diploma- or doctoral-students and a letter of confirmation from the head of the department must be supplied with the application. Please also include a copy of your immatriculation certificate. Furthermore, 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. All young STS members who comply with these criteria are also eligible to apply for a STS travel stipend!

The application deadline for STS-stipends expires on September 18th, 2009. Successful applicants will be notified and personally awarded during the STS Meeting in Weimar. Please send your stipend application, including all the required information, to the chairman:

PD Dr. rer. nat. Gaby-Fleur Böl
Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung (BfR)
Abt. Risikokommunikation
Thielallee 88 - 92
14195 Berlin
gaby-fleur.boel@bfr.bund.de

Poster presentations will be again particularly attractive. 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. Awards will be made payable by cheque and must be cashed latest by December 31st of this year (expiration date of the cheques).

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 this years 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 for further information.

All presentations will be given as plenary overview lectures/short presentations in the main conference hall. Most sessions will be opened by an introductory overview keynote presentation of 25 minutes plus 5 minutes of discussion. Thus, in 2009, the STS will again attract and invite Overview-Speakers who significantly contributed to the development of specific areas of signal transduction research. Further speakers will be selected by the chairpeople of a session and the program committee.

Due to time constraints, however, only 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.

Eight Sponsoring Companies of the STS meeting will have the opportunity for a plenary lecture at the STS meeting 2009. Please note that this offer might be “sold-out” fairly early this year. Thus, the Workshop sessions will include presentations of 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.

All accepted poster contributions can be mounted already on Wednesday afternoon and will stay throughout the whole meeting in an area directly connected to the conference hall together with the sponsors' exhibition. This comfortable area will also be the major get-together site during the coffee (and beer) breaks. Poster viewing and discussion is scheduled for Wednesday through 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).

Poster Size: The format for posters is DIN A0 in portrait orientation (width: 841 mm, height: 1189 mm)

For detailed information in German about traveling by plane or by car and the location of the Conference Venue please refer to the Leonardo Hotel Weimar. For special inquiries about local peculiarities, contact Karlheinz Friedrich.