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International Delegates Drawn to Filtration Meeting
Building on the success of previous years, a record number of delegates from seven different countries attended the recent Filtration Society two-day technical meeting. Held at the Ramada Hotel in Chester, UK in autumn, Filter Media 5 was the fifth international event focused on filter media and combined a training session, conference and exhibition.
Professor Richard Wakeman and Dr Steven Tarleton, co-authors of ‘The Dictionary of Filtration and Separation‘, presented a short course on the opening day. This introduced both seasoned scientists and newcomers to the latest developments in filter media.
“In addition to the quality technical content, one of the reasons for the popularity of the training course is that it is very time efficient, taking delegates away from the office or laboratory for just one day,” said Dr Graham Rideal, science correspondent and former chairman of The Filtration Society, and CEO of Whitehouse Scientific.
The main conference featured presentations from EP Minerals, Outotec, Colbond bv, Filtration Solutions, Porex Filtration, GKD – Geb,
Palas GmbH and Whitehouse Scientific and covered a wide range of novel filter media and performance testing methods. Abstracts are available on The Filtration Society website
www.filtsoc.org.uk with a complete bound set of notes offered for purchase.
The second day of Filter Media 5 also featured the very popular ‘Technology Burst’ from the exhibitors: G Bopp, Croft Services, Helapet, Palas GmbH, Ralph G Wilson, TSI, and Whitehouse Scientific. Most companies delivered a 10-minute poster of their products, which was very well received.
“After the resounding success of Filter Media 5 we are now looking forward to the 2012 meetings,” said Dr Rideal. “The current schedule includes a range of filtration related conferences culminating in the main event of the year: Filter Testing and Characterisation in October. Such is the interest in this topic that the event will now be over 3 days and will be open to anyone involved in the subject.”
Founded in London in 1964, the Filtration Society is a charitable organisation and throughout its tenure has forged equally strong
links with industry and academia. Its primary objectives are to promote research and development, transfer existing technologies into new applications, and to advance the fields of filtration and separation.
www.filtsoc.org.uk
Find out more circle no. 8
Research Team Lays Foundations for Investigation of Molecular Chaperones Heidelberg molecular biologists have achieved new insights into
the synthesis of proteins with a newly developed technique. A team of scientists headed by Professor Dr Bernd Bukau and Dr Günter Kramer of the DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance in conjunction with Professor Dr. Jonathan Weissman from the University of California in San Francisco devised this new method, which is called “selective ribosome profiling.”
The Alliance is a research association between the Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University (ZMBH) and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ).
Selective ribosome profiling enables researchers to identify a cell’s protein synthesis profile. It was developed for a specific factor that assists in protein synthesis (molecular chaperone) to analyse the participation of chaperones in the folding of newly synthesised proteins.
“These new insights provide the basis for a molecular understanding of how the factors involved in the maturation and folding of newly synthesised proteins are coordinated so that they do not get in each other’s way,” said Professor Bukau.
The findings have been published in the journal ‘Cell’. Find out more circle no. 9
The 13th Edition of Laborama
The 13th edition of Laborama will take place at Brussels Kart Expo-Groot-Bijgaarden Laborama, on 22nd and 23rd March 2012. An initiative of the professional association UDIAS, this event has been described as a meeting point by excellence for the laboratory sector in Belgium, which attracts an increasing number of both national and international exhibitors.
Companies that wish to exhibit at Laborama 2012 can still register via the Laborama website
www.laborama.be. Visitor registration is now open.
New at Laborama 2012 is the award ceremony of the ‘Analyst of the year’. This award goes to the best bachelor in chemistry, biochemical and laboratory technology, environmental, agro- and biotechnology. The ‘Analyst of the year’ award is yet another initiative of UDIAS, the professional association for manufacturers and distributors of laboratory equipment in collaboration with KVCV.
Find out more circle no. 11
Research by an international team of scientists has moved closer to breeding hardier crops that can better adapt to different environmental conditions and fight off attack from parasites. The scientists have shown that they can alter root growth in the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, or thale cress, by controlling an important regulatory protein.
Dr Ive De Smet, a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) David Phillips Fellow in Nottingham University’s Division of Plant and Crop Science, said: “The world’s population is increasing, and a new green revolution is even more pressing to deliver global food security. To achieve this, optimising the root system of plants is essential and these recent results will contribute significantly to our goal of improving crop growth and yield under varying environmental conditions.”
Led by scientists from the Plant Systems Biology Department in the life sciences research institute VIB in Flanders, Belgium, and Ghent University, the study also involved experts from Wake Forest University in the US and the Albrecht-von-Haller Institute for Plant Sciences in Germany.
Plant root biology is essential for healthy plant growth and, while the so-called hidden half of the plant has often been overlooked, its importance is becoming increasingly recognised by scientists.
Despite this, particularly in view of the critical role plants play in global food security, improving plant growth by modulating the biological
architecture of root systems is an area which is largely unexplored.
In this latest research*, the scientists modulated levels of the protein, transcription factor WRKY23, in plants, analysed the effects on root development and used chemical profiling to demonstrate that this key factor controls the biosynthesis of important metabolites called flavonols.
Altered levels of flavonols affected the distribution of auxin, a plant hormone controlling many aspects of development, which resulted in impaired root growth.
The results of the research can now be used to produce new plant lines, such as crops which are economically valuable, which have an improved root system, making them better able to resist environmental changes which could lead to plant damage or poor yield.
In addition, WRKY23 was previously found to play a role in the way plants interact with types of nematode parasites, which could lead to further research into how to prevent attacks from the creatures during the early stages of plant growth.
*The paper Transcription Factor WRKY23 Assists Auxin Distribution Patterns During Arabidopsis Root Development Through Local Control on Flavonol Biosynthesis featured in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
Find out more circle no. 12
Winter Conference Plasma Spectrochemistry Award Winner Named
Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc announced the winner of the 2012 Winter Conference Award in Plasma Spectrochemistry as Dr J. Sabine Becker, head of Trace and UltraTrace Analysis, Central Division of Analytical Chemistry at the Research Center Juelich, Germany. AS sponsors of the award, which honours scientists who have made the most noteworthy contributions to the field of plasma spectrochemistry, Thermo Fisher presented a check for $5,000 to Dr Becker during the 2012 Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry held in Tucson, Arizona in January.
Dr Becker’s distinguished career in analytical chemistry has focused on long-lived radionuclides, ultratrace and high- purity materials analysis, isotope ratio measurements, and
micro and nanolocal elemental and trace analyses. Recently she established BrainMet, an Analytical Centre of Excellence at the Research Centre Juelich for brain research imaging. Based on laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), BrainMet has introduced novel imaging techniques for metals, metalloids and non-metals in biological tissues. The approach provides quantitative mapping of essential and toxic elements in thin sections of diseased and healthy medical and biological tissue sections.
Entry is now open for the next Winter Plasma Award in 2014 and Thermo Fisher invites scientists worldwide to submit their applications. Candidates should send their application with CV to
wpc.award@
thermofisher.com by 31st December 2012.
Find out more circle no. 10
Improving Crops from the Roots Up
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