5th Chembion Symposium

What a fantastic Symposium of our Research Training Group "Chemical Biology of Ion Channels" on February 16th, full of stimulating discussions and excellent scientific exchange here at the Universität Münster. Our distinguished speakers spanned computational chemistry, the pharmaceutical industry, chemistry and physiology. These talks received fantastic feedback and attracted many associated research groups and departments. Many thanks to Prof. Dr. Holger Gohlke from the Heinrich-Heine Universität Düsseldorf and Forschungszentrum Jülich for his talk "Advancing the Understanding of HCN2 Channels at the Molecular Level", Nasreen Choudhury, PhD from Evotec for her talk "My Journey in Ion Channel Research: from Academia to Industry", Prof. Dr. Dirk Trauner at University of Pennsylvania and his talk "Ion channels as an inspiration for synthetic chemists" and Prof. Dr. Fredrik Elinder at Linköping University and his talk "Potassium Channel Activators".

The highlight was a poster session by the doctoral candidates of Chembion and associated working groups, for which three poster awards were awarded, supported by the Förderverein Epilepsieforschung an der Universität Münster e.V. Congratulations to the winners of the poster awards Teresa Mittermair, Christina Kick, Fabrice Becker & Marvin Taterra. We would also like to thank the organizers Hanna Kuß, Ronewa Nematswerani, Jennifer Köster and Calvin Dunker who were responsible for this wonderful day of scientific exchange. We are already looking forward to our next Symposium in spring 2025.

4th Chembion Retreat

Negotiation Workshop, 16th & 17th March 2023, Drensteinfurt

Thank you very much to Maren Telsemeyer for this fantasitic workshop! The workshop was held at Hotel Leib & Seele in Drensteinfurt.

4th Chembion Symposium, 14th February 2023

3rd Chembion Retreat, 23rd & 24th November 2022

3rd Chembion Retreat, 23rd & 24th November 2022

Presentation Workshop, 20th & 21st October 2022

Presentation Workshop, 20th & 21st October 2022, Willingen

The workshop was  held at Rüters Parkhotel in Willingen. The participants learned about 'Effective Presentations', how to prepare, structure and start the talk, but also how to deal with nervousness, body language and the scientific discussion afterwards. The participants had a very positive experience learning new skills and we would like to thank Maren Telsemeyer for facilitating this workshop.

Feedback from the participant Eleni Nikalexi:

During the “Effective Presentations” workshop with Maren Telsemeyer, we focused on how to best extract our desired reputation by the end of our presentations. For most of us, the general goal is to demonstrate that we are meticulous and intelligent scientists, with strong enthusiasm and extensive knowledge about our field. In order to accomplish this, we learnt some skills on how to best present ourselves and our topic.

Considering presenting ourselves, we learnt to modulate our body posture and movements to show confidence and invite interest (e.g. “gorilla pose”, using our hands to emphasize our words, maintain eye contact with the audience), and manage our voice and tone (e.g. speak loudly and with determination, avoid filler words and use pauses instead, use punctuation and fluctuate our intonation to match our content). We also discussed the importance of being open and friendly to involve the public and getting our message across.

Considering presenting our topic, firstly we talked about the importance of knowing our audience, as this governs the relative content of our talk. A very targeted audience with researchers from our field can understand our results right away; instead, a highly variable audience with scientists from many different fields will need to hear some background knowledge; the common public will need an even more thorough introduction and a “simpler” vocabulary, etc. Next, we learnt that the structure of our presentation should have a clear format, which either starts (deductive) or ends (inductive) with our conclusions/statements. The first format is usually followed when we want to underline our findings, whereas the second serves to help the audience follow our reasoning. In either case, it is very important to take our time and repeat our most essential key points (the golden rule is 3 times), to stimulate the public’s memory retention and give them space to process the facts. Last, but not least, having our main goal in mind, we should make our message as clear as possible, and appealing to the public already at the beginning of our talk. This is translated into answering the questions “Why should I listen to you” and “What is in it for me”, and they should be addressed within the 1st minute.

As an adjacent topic, we talked about our visual aids, i.e. our PowerPoint slides. The basic tips are to keep them legible (letter size and colour), clear (message quickly visualized) and attractive, and keep in mind that the slides should be only complementary to our speech, not stealing the attention away from us (the presenter). Again, the rule of thumb is maximum of 3 colours, excluding black and white. In addition, to avoid nervousness, it is advised to check the equipment and the room before we start.

To showcase all the points, Maren Telsemeyer involved many group discussions and various exercises during these two days in Willingen. She also made sure to tailor her guidance to our needs and goals, and also cared to learn about our research fields and science in general, outside the workshop. As a bonus, she gave us very clear and practical advice to handle the discussion that usually follows a presentation. In addition, in order to practice everything we learnt, she included a part where we worked on our slides and we gave an example presentation, which was taped, and we could give each other feedback.

To conclude, even though all of the participants had given presentations in the past many times and had heard many tips and rules to improve, the Workshop in Willingen definitely helped us correct and clarify some questions, and upgrade our way of presenting. As a final thought, we would like to thank very much Maren Telsemeyer for her insight and her passionate character that made this workshop unique.

Career Workshop, 13th October 2022

The career workshop gave a good introduction into the different options docotral students have after finishing their PhD. Junior researchers from Chembion spoke about their career so far and furthermore, we had a speaker from Novartis to give us an insight into working in the industry.

Feedback form the participant Nicole Rychlik:

The goal of the career workshop was to give insides into the different working fields for us female doctoral students after finishing our PhD. For this junior researchers from Chembion Dr. Louisa Temme, Dr. Annika Lüttjohann and Dr. Petra Hundehege told us about their career and the different possibilities to stay in academia. But there is also another way after the PhD. Dr. Sandra Pleiser from Novartis shared her experience with us how it is to work in the industry.

All the four speakers started with introducing themselves. They gave to us their personal experience from where they studied to their PhD thesis up to the point they are currently at in science. Some of them went abroad after their PhD, but not all. This showed us that it is not mandatory to have a Postdoc position abroad and that it is also possible to become a successful and independent researcher without going abroad.

Furthermore, we talked about the different ways to become a Postdoc, how to finance it and how to find the perfect lab group. We continued with the question why the presenters decided to stay in academia or go to the industry. When staying in academia, what tasks you have to manage and what requirements you have to fulfill to achieve the habilitation and how much you have to teach. Going to the industry, what are the goals there and how to find a position in a company. What are the fields of work in industry and what future opportunities or advancements do we have in the industry. The last topic that was discussed was how to manage work and having children at the same time.

Finally, I would like to give the advice the presenters were giving us PhD students: be in contact with other scientists and meet as many people on conferences, etc. as you can. This means networking is the most important thing in science.

All in all, the career workshop was a good opportunity to see what different options we as PhD students have after finishing our PhD.

3rd Chembion Symposium, 8th February 2022

Female Leadership Workshop, 8th & 9th November 2021

Female Leadership Workshop, 8th & 9th November 2021, Rüters Parkhotel in Willingen

The workshop included scientifically based knowledge of different leadership styles in the 21st century. Furthermore, the participants were provided with practical skills and self-reflection to develop and enhance their personal leadership style in the sciences. A particular focus lay also on communication skills, including non-verbal and para-verbal communication, as well as preventation and resolution of conflicts. The teaching of these skills was supported by critical examples provided by the participants.

We would like to thank Dr. Imke Lode for leading this workshop. The participants had a very positive experience learning new skills.

2nd Chembion Retreat, 22nd & 23rd September 2021

2nd Chembion Retreat, 22nd & 23rd September 2021

The 2nd Chembion Retreat took place at Schloss Raesfeld at the end of September. The Chembion team members enjoyed the beautiful location, good food and interesting scientific talks and discussions.

Science Publishing Workshop, 29th June 2021

2nd Chembion Symposium, 9th February 2021

Program

Presentation & Negotiation Workshop, 23rd Oct., 6th Nov & 20th Nov 2020

The presentaion and negotiation workshop was given by Annie Bordeleau and divided into the following topics:

Focused Presentations I: Presence

Focused Presentations II: Connection and Goal

Focused Presentations III: Structure and Attention

Focused Presentations IV: Engaging a Discussion (Q&A)

Negotiating I: Harvard Model and Preparation

Negotiating II: Practice with own topic

1st Chembion Retreat, 29th & 30th September 2020

1st Chembion Online Retreat on 29^th & 30^th September 2020

Our first Chembion Retreat took place on 29th & 30th September 2020. The event was mostly carried out online due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

However, we were very happy to welcome four distinguished keynote lecturers. The online presentations were given by Prof. Dr. Kümmel and Prof. Dr. Kuhlmann of the WWU Münster and Prof. Dr. Gouaux from Portland, as well as Dr. Seifert from Bonn (see details below).

Furthermore, we had 12 fantastic online talks by Chembion PhD students, who presented their current research (see details below). A separate project discussion session gave all PhD students belonging to the RTG Chembion the opportunity to brievly present and discuss their work.

The Chembion members also met up for two online breakout sessions. During the first session we learned about the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) and the process involved in the application of the research training group Chembion. In the second session a lively discussion about ‚How to write a paper‘ ensued, where many interesting aspects were raised.

Keynote lectures

Prof. Dr. Daniel Kümmel
‘Peptide inhibitors of the α-cobratoxin/nicotinic acetylcholine receptor interaction’

Prof. Dr. Tanja Kuhlmann
‘How to wrap the myelin: What can we learn from stem cells?’

Dr. Reinhard Seifert
‘Even funnier: Hyperpolarization-activated channels selective for protons’

Good Scientific Practice, 16th June 2020 and 1st, 2nd, 9th & 10th December 2020

Good Scientific Practice

The primary objective of this workshop is for participants to develop their skills as ethical scientists. A well-balanced combination of theoretical input and interactive hands-on activities will allow participants to reflect on their own scientific practice in relation to relevant local, national and international guidelines and come up with strategies for identifying and overcoming scientific misconduct in their immediate environment. Participants will receive links to relevant materials and contact persons for future reference.

This workshop will cover:

1. Theoretical considerations in research ethics and their practical application

2. Scientific misconduct

3. Data acquisition & management

4. Mentoring and supervision

5. Collaboration

6. Publication and peer review

This workshop is designed in line with recommendations and rules on good scientific practice of the WWU and its faculties, the DFG and its Ombuds Committee for scientific integrity, and the German Rectors’ Conference.

This workshop was prepared and carried out by Dr. Iva Ognjanovic from the WWU Graduate Centre.

1st Chembion Symposium, 5th June 2020

1st Chembion Online Symposium on 5^th June 2020

The first Chembion Symposium took place on Friday, 5th July 2020 and was carried out online due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Two excellent speakers presented their work on ion channels. First, Prof. Arcangeli gave us an overview of her research into hERG1 channels, followed by Prof. Melacini presenting his work into the mechanisms of HCN gating.

Prof. Dr. Annarosa Arcangeli
Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Firenze, Italy
"Targeting hERG1 channels for a therapeutic approach to cancer”

Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Melacini
Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology, Biochemistry & Biomedical Sciences, McMaster University, Canada
"Mechanisms for HCN gating”

Opening Ceremony, 28th January 2020

Chembion Opening Ceremony in the Schloss Münster, 28th January 2020

“Chembion” (“Chemical Biology of Ion Channels”) is a new Research Training Group (RTG) at the University of Münster. It was approved by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in mid-2019 and is going to start its activities now. The RTG will receive approximately four million Euros for four and a half years. The international programme of the RTG is held in English and international doctoral students from the fields of medicine, pharmacy and chemistry are attracted. In joint research projects they work on controlling so-called ion channels in cell membranes. In this interview with Juliane Albrecht, Chembion spokesperson Prof. Bernhard Wünsch from the Institute of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Münster explains the challenges involved. Please continue reading...

Kick-Off Meeting on 14^th & 15^th November 2019

On the 14th and 15th November 2019, the Research Training Group Chembion held their Kick-Off Meeting in Haus Mariengrund in Münster, Gievenbeck. We were welcomed by Sister Josit and enjoyed the good food and calm atmosphere there.

The Kick-Off Meeting brought together PIs, postdocs and doctoral students from the medical faculty and the natural sciences to start off the interdisciplinary thinking and understanding aimed for by the Research Training Group Chembion.

Each day started with presentations introducing various methods and techniques, which are commonly used in the different laboratories taking part in the Research Training Group Chembion. These more technical presentations were followed by the PIs introducing their field of research and establishing a common level of knowledge. Subsequently, the doctoral students presented their results to date and outlined their plans for their future work.

As a team-building activity, the Kick-Off Meeting provided a chance for all participants of Chembion to get to know each other and offered the basis for networking. A further very enjoyable team-building activity was to go bowling in the evening of the 14th November at Bowltreff in Roxel.