8th Retreat 2019
The Location
In 2019, the Systems Biology students from Zurich and Basel traveled to Zermatt, a cozy small town in the heart of the Alps. The scenic overlooks of Matterhorn and the serene atmosphere provided by the absence of combustion engine cars in the city made Zermatt the perfect location to combine scientific and social interactions among participants.
The Scientific Program
We had a broad scientific program, covering multiple relevant topics. Prof. Dr. Donald Hilvert (ETH Zurich) gave a talk on using directed protein evolution to create novel enzymes. Dr. Martin Schaefer (IEO Milan) and Dr. Judith Zaugg (EMBL Heidelberg) discussed ways of leveraging omics data to study natural variation between tissues and look into the molecular mechanisms of disease. Dr. Steven Schmitt (SpheroBiotics) covered novel methods of discovering antimicrobial peptides. The topics were decided based on the background of the participants and were complemented by the industry perspective, where Dr. Aurélien Rizk (InterAx Biotech) introduced how their company uses mathematical models to predict drug response in certain types of cellular receptors. In addition, Dr. Volker Herdtweck (Roche) talked about possible scientific careers in industry and Alex Grundmann (Twist Bioscience) hosted an info booth.
Several of our speakers also engaged with the students in a career round table, which included former Nature Methods chief-editor Dr. Natalie de Souza (ETH Zurich), who also gave a talk explaining an editor’s point of view on scientific publishing.
The Social Program
Students were given the opportunity to socialize and learn about different projects in the PhD program in Systems Biology. To promote scientific communication to the general public, pairs of participants had to prepare a three-minute speech explaining a concept in their field in the format of a “FameLab” competition, using only props that they could wear and carry. Aspects such as content, clarity and charisma were evaluated, and specific feedback for each presentation was provided.
On the second day of the retreat, the students participated in a scavenger hunt around Zermatt in order to get to know the town (and their peers!) better. Besides that, the interactive workshop “Find your career” given by Jana Linnik and a night out at “The Cable Car” bar with an escape room, pub quiz, and many games kept everyone entertained.
The Feedback
Overall, the retreat was rated highly (4.7/5.0). In addition to the excellent quality of the scientific talks, the students had a lot of interest in and highly regarded Natalie de Souza’s talk on scientific publishing. Finally, students also took note of the excellent venue of the retreat, Parkhotel Beau Suite.
Organizers:
Nina Blaimschein (Daniel Muller group), Marija Dmitrijeva (Christian von Mering group), Uyen Linh Ho (Jolanda van Leuwen group, UNIL), Mauro Miguel Masiero (Nicola Zamboni group)
This retreat would not have been possible without the support from our generous sponsors:
