Back to Stockholm for ‘metabolism, epigenetics and cell death’

Abstract

The last ECDO Conference organized in Sweden (the 6th Euroconference on Apoptosis), an exciting meeting attended by around 150 participants, was in 1998 at Saltsjobaden in the Stockholm archipelago. Thirteen years later the ECDO Conference is back in the heart of Stockholm City and is the biggest (300 participants) and the most important cell death research meeting hitherto organized in Sweden. Despite the nice weather, the lectures were well attended, thanks to the interesting program and the outstanding speakers. For the past 9 years, an important event preceding the ECDO meetings is the training course on ‘concepts and methods in programmed cell death'. During this course, experts in the field share their knowledge with young fellows. Such an event ensures the continuation of the ECDO traditions as well as the shaping of the next generation of cell death research leaders. To facilitate the participation at these meetings by as many young fellows as possible, several travel fellowships, sponsored by ECDO, were provided. The 9th training course was comprehensive and various methodological problems in cell death research were discussed. Thus, Josef Penninger (Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, Austria) focused on the efforts of his group to use genetic mouse models, in order to understand the impact of the mitochondrial OXPHOS changes and autophagy on the pathogenesis of lung cancer. They were able to identify a novel tumor suppressor gene implicated in multiple cancers that might be involved in the regulation of cell fate and the molecular switch of cells towards necroptosis. Detailed analysis of the cellular response to bioenergetics stress was done by Jochen Prehn (Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland). Importantly, he described various techniques that enable the detection of alterations in cellular bioenergetics both on a population and a single-cell level, and how bioenergetic stress activates complex cell responses, such as the activation of apoptosis or macroauthophagy. A very systematic explanation of the molecular mechanisms regulating autophagy and its assessment in mammalian cells was made by Hans-Uwe Simon (University of Bern, Switzerland). He also clarified how dysregulation of autophagy leads to various diseases and focused on the role of high autophagic activity in adult stem cells. Interestingly, blockage of autophagy in these cells increases their susceptibility towards cytotoxic therapy. Jean-Claude Martinou (University of Geneva, Switzerland) summarized recent progress made on the role of Bcl-2 family members in healthy cells and those undergoing apoptosis. He showed that activation of both Bax and Bak is essential for the fision/fusion of mitochondria. Moreover, the timing between Bax oligomerization at the contact sites of mitochondria and the drop in mitochondria membrane potential does not exceed 10–20s, suggesting an important link between these two processes. Finally, an excellent methodological presentation on how to use high accuracy mass spectrometry-based quantitative proteomics for the large-scale analysis of site-specific protein phosphorylation and acetylation dynamics in autophagy was done by Jens Andersen (University of Southern Denmark, Denmark). All presentations were much appreciated by young fellows who addressed many questions to get more detailed practical information essential for their research. They also asked to keep this tradition to run the courses before the ECDO Conference in the future. It has become a tradition for the Euroconferences to focus each meeting on specific aspects of apoptosis. This time to celebrate the return to Sweden, we chose ‘metabolism and epigenetics' as the theme of the meeting, two fields currently in the cutting edge of cell death research.