Partners

European Cytoskeleton Forum

The European Cytoskeleton Forum (ECF) is an international association of researchers active in the life sciences, with a focus on an important cellular system: the cytoskeleton.

The Forum maintains a website at http://www.cytoskeletonforum.org/home.html

Aims

The specific aim of the Forum is the promotion and dissemination of scientific knowledge concerning the structure, function and regulation of cytoskeletal elements, and their role in cells and organisms both in health and disease.

The ECF carries out activities pertaining to its objective, primarily via the organization of, or participation in, internationally reputed scientific congresses, conferences, workshops and presentations, as well as the publication of books, periodicals, and other media.

Furthermore, the ECF promotes research, collaboration, training, and education in the field of cytoskeleton research. Annual meetings of the ECF have been mainly organized in European countries, but are open to researchers active in cytoskeleton research worldwide. These meetings provide a structured insight into the current status of the field, in an open and interdisciplinary fashion that boosts the participation of researchers from diverse fields. The ECF encourages participation of young scientists, as part of their training.

In so doing, the ECF provides the European scientific community with an established forum for the interactions of early-stage researchers with leading experts in the area of cytoskeleton research at the highest possible level,  thus preserving the high quality of European cytoskeleton research over time.

Today, the ECF consists of more than 600 researchers from over 20 countries, headed by a board of outstanding cell and molecular biologists, who work on various aspects of cytoskeleton biology in European universities, research institutions, and industry.

Meetings

EU-FP7-Systems Microscopy

The EU-FP7-Systems Microscopy Network of Excellence is a life sciences project spearheading a key enabling methodology based on live-cell imaging for the development of next-generation systems biology. The Network will advance tools and strategies that will make available to the wider research community, a new approach to the systems biology of the living cell.

Biological processes occur in space and time, but current experimental methods for systems biology are limited in their ability to resolve the spatiotemporal complexity of life. In addition, traditional “omics” methods often suffer from limited sensitivity and a need to average over populations of cells, at the expense of cell-to-cell variation. Next-generation systems biology therefore requires methods that can capture data and build models in four dimensions?, three-dimensional space and time, but can also address dynamic events in single living cells. In fact, recent advances in automated fluorescence microscopy, cell microarray platforms, highly specific probes, quantitative image analysis and data mining provide a powerful, emerging technology platform to enable systems biology of the living cell. The use of this imaging technology platform, from living cell to algorithm, constitutes a new strategy that has been coined “systems microscopy” and will be a cornerstone for next-generation systems biology, to elucidate and understand complex and dynamic molecular, sub-cellular and cellular networks.

As a paradigm to enable systems biology at the cellular scale of biological organization, the Systems Microscopy NoE will have as its core biological themes, two basic but complex cellular processes that are highly relevant to human cancer: cell division and cell migration.

Vision-Systems Microscopy ECF Meeting

Cytoskeletal dynamics is at the core of the cell, actively involved in most biological processes, and ongoing research to delineate the role and regulation of the cytoskeleton heavily depends on various light microscopy techniques. To deepen our understanding of the cytoskeleton, we are convinced that systems biology approaches will be very useful. In particular, the recent development of systems microscopy, using quantitative data from light microscopy for systems biology analyses and modeling, appears particularly well suited to leverage research into the cytoskeleton. At the same time, the emerging systems microscopy field will benefit from a deepened understanding of the upcoming needs of cell biology researchers, in order to develop the most useful systems microscopy tools and methods for the future. Therefore, the EU-FP7-Systems Microscopy Network of Excellence is an enthusiastic partner in co-organizing this conference, together with the European Cytoskeleton Forum. Our aim with this conference is to spark active exchanges and interactions between the systems microscopy community and those researching the cytoskeleton. In particular, we strongly encourage young researchers to join this meeting, and to actively take part in the shaping and future development of the systems microscopy field, as well as in further integrating systems microscopy with cytoskeletal and other cell biologically oriented research.

Staffan Strömblad
Scientific Coordinator, EU-FP7-Systems Microscopy NoE

The Israeli Forum for Cytoskeleton and Motility

The Israeli Forum for Cytoskeleton and Motility (IFCM) was founded in 2012. Its mission is to promote exchange of knowledge and resources, strong collaborations and open discussions, and to advance the fields of cytoskeleton and cell motility in Israel. The cytoskeleton is at the heart of cellular structure, dynamics and functionality. Its constituents and their regulation provide the platform for diverse functions that are interlinked through elaborate networks. To grasp the complexity of the cytoskeleton, the concerted efforts of biophysical, structural and molecular cell researchers are essential. The goal of the IFCM is to gather students and researchers across interdisciplinary fields to create an atmosphere of collaboration and learning, and to strengthen cytoskeleton and motility research in Israel.