In this 20th edition of the VLAG FLASH we would like to draw your special attention to our following courses:

•	Starting with the client: New approaches to effective health promotion to be held from 14 - 16 April 2009, Wageningen.
•	Master class Nutrigenomics (8th edition) to be held from 6 - 8 July 2009, Wageningen.

Please register as soon as possible.

Besides our own course program we would like to draw your attention to our collaboration with FOOD Research School from Denmark and their course programme.

The deadline for submitting information for the 21st VLAG FLASH is 6 April 2009.

Wageningen Code of Conduct for Scientific Practice is based on the Netherlands Code of Conduct for Scientific Practice (Code of Conduct), approved by the General Board of the Association of Universities in the Netherlands, VSNU. The Executive Board of Wageningen UR has declared this Code of Conduct to be applicable to all of Wageningen UR. It replaces the Wageningen UR Ethical Guidelines, which became void. (visit WUR)

On 16 & 17 February the management of the FOOD Research School from Denmark (Prof. Leif Skibsted, Lars Rasmussen, and Henriette Hansen) visited VLAG-Wageningen in order to discuss various forms of collaboration. PhD students affiliated with FOOD regularly attend VLAG-courses. Several research groups from Wageningen and Maastricht have an intensive cooperation within EC-funded projects.
Recently a Marie Curie Initial Training Network proposal submitted by a consortium of various FOOD and VLAG partners, University of Athens, and few industry partners was approved by Brussels. The research within this ITN 'Enzyme technology for Lean and Green Food' will tackle the challenges of improved utilisation of natural resources to create high-added value food products from biomass/agricultural raw materials with less water consumption, reduced energy expenditure and limited use of chemical reagents and synthetic ingredients.
Later this year FOOD will organise a few activities that might be of interest for VLAG PhD students:

•	PhD course 'Molecular Food Microbiology' (15 - 26 June)
•	PhD course 'Food Chemistry - Stability of foods' (22 - 26 June)
•	FOOD Denmark Congress 2009 (15 - 16 June)

Wageningen University has appointed Kees de Graaf from the Division of Human Nutrition as full professor in Sensory Science and Eating Behaviour from 1 January 2009 onwards. The chair focuses on the role of sensory signals in food choice and food intake. Sensory signals lead to a cascade of (neuro)-biological and psychological processes that have a big impact on eating behaviour. One of the central perspectives of this new chair group is that sensory signals of food get meaning through their association with environmental cues, and through the association with physiological, psychological and social consequences of eating.

Three scientific staff members will be appointed, a food technologist, an experimental psychologist, and a biologist. Together with the chair holder, these three persons form the interdisciplinary nucleus of the new group in this exciting scientific field and will approach it in a coherent way from different perspectives. New techniques will be applied, such as olfactometry in relation to mass-spectrometry (MSNOSE) to characterize sensory exposure, and neuroimaging to characterize sensory perception and food reward. The mission is to perform excellent research and teaching within this field. The chair is strategically positioned between the Division of Human Nutrition and the Product Design & Quality Management group (PDQ) of the Food Technology cluster. A consortium of food sector companies (including Heineken, Unilever, IFF Nederland, FrieslandCampina, Mars Nederland and Suikerstichting Nederland) will be financing 50% of Professor De Graaf´s Chair.

•	Light in the Intestinal Tract Tunnel 11 - 13 March 2009, Helsinki, Finland Organised by: Graduate School ABS with support from VLAG Contact Person for VLAG PhD students: Ingeborg van Leeuwen-Bol
•	VLAG PhD-week - 21st edition 6 - 9 April 2009 This activity is a compulsory part of the VLAG education programme and it is meant for the PhD students that have recently started their PhD study.
•	Starting with the client: New approaches to effective health promotion 14 - 16 April 2009, Wageningen This master class will focus on new approaches to effective health promotion, starting with the client, reflecting on the salutogenic approach to health and applying this to health behaviour. It is at postgraduate level and aims at nutritionists, physicians, nutrition educators, health promoters, health policy makers and scientists, interested in nutrition communication. The course may be of specific use for PhD students working in this field.
•	Food Toxicology and Food Safety 11 - 15 May 2009, Wageningen Organised by: The Postgraduate Education in Toxicology (P.E.T.)
•	Master class Nutrigenomics - 8th edition 6 - 9 July 2009, Wageningen During the Master class we will discuss new developments in nutrigenomics research including specific aspects of human and mouse studies, molecular epidemiology, applications of microarray analysis, metabolite profiling or biomarker identification strategies.
•	Nutritional and lifestyle epidemiology - 9th edition 21 - 26 September 2009, Wageningen The aim of this advanced training course is to acquire knowledge and expertise in the design, conduct and analysis of epidemiologic research on lifestyle and nutritional factors in chronic disease etiology. The link above gives information on the previous edition of this course.
•	Production and use of food composition data in nutrition - 9th edition 11 - 24 October 2009, Wageningen The aim of FoodComp 2009 is to show how the quality and usefulness of food composition data is determined by the quality of the production of analytical data for nutrients in foods, and the compilation of these and other data into food composition tables and nutritional databases.
•	Reaction kinetics in food science - 6th edition 26 - 30 October 2009, Wageningen The aim of the course is to acquire in-depth knowledge about kinetic modelling, and to apply and use kinetics in food science problems using modern software. The link above gives information on the previous edition of this course.

• K.K.R. Tetala (Kishore) Microfluidic devices for sample clean-up and screening of biological samples. 27-02-2009, 13:30 hrs, Wageningen Prof. E.J.R. Sudhölter, Dr. T.A. van Beek • S. Wolterink-van Loo (Suzanne) Characterization and engineering of thermophilic aldolases. Synthesizing nitrogen-heterocycles in biosynthetic routes. 06-03-2009, 13:30 hrs, Wageningen Prof. W.M. de Vos, Prof. J. van der Oost • J.M.L. Heck (Jeroen) Milk genomics - opportunities to improve the protein and fatty acid composition in raw milk. 13-03-2009, 16:00 hrs, Wageningen Prof. A.C.M. van Hooijdonk, Prof. J.A.M. van Arendonk • H.I.M. Sawalha (Hassan) Polylactide microcapsules and films: preparation and properties. 16-03-2009, 16:00 hrs, Wageningen Prof. R.M. Boom, Dr. C.G.P.H. Schroën • M. Streefland (Mathieu) From process understanding to process control: Application of PAT on the cultivation of Bordetella pertussis for a whole cell vaccine. 20-03-2009, 13:30 hrs, Wageningen Prof. J. Tramper, Dr. D.E. Martens, Dr. E.C. Beuvery • S.M. Nabuurs (Sanne) Why do alpha-beta parallel proteins, like flavodoxins, form misfolded off-pathway intermediates? 07-04-2009, 16:00 hrs, Wageningen Prof. S.C. de Vries, Dr. C.P.M. van Mierlo

• N.G.H. Leferink (Nicole) Characterization and redesign of galactonolactone dehydrogenase, a flavoprotein producing vitamin C. 08-04-2009, 16:00 hrs, Wageningen Prof. S.C. de Vries, Dr. W.J.H. van Berkel • C.C.G.M. Booijink (Carien) Analysis of the diversity and function of the human small intestinal microbiota. 14-04-2009, 16:00 hrs, Wageningen Prof. W.M. de Vos, Prof. M. Kleerebezem, Dr. E.G. Zoetendal • M.F. Engberink (Marielle) Dairy intake, blood pressure and hypertension. Observational and intervention studies. 17-04-2009, 16:00 hrs, Wageningen Prof. E.G. Schouten, Prof. F.J. Kok, Dr. J.M. Geleijnse • M.T. Streppel (Martinette) Long-term lifestyle and dietary habits in relation to cardiovascular mortality and life expectancy: a prospective cohort study. 24-04-2009, 13:30 hrs, Wageningen Prof. D. Kromhout, Prof. F.J. Kok, Dr. M.C. Ocké • M.A. Bollen (Mirko) Stability of the Bet v 1 cross-reactive allergens Api g 1 and Dau c 1. A biophysical approach. 20-05-2009, 16:00 hrs, Wageningen Prof. M.A.J.S. van Boekel, Prof. H.F.J. Savelkoul, Prof. H.J. Wichers, Dr. J.P.F.G. Helsper • J.H.B. Sprakel (Joris) Physics of associative polymers. Bridging time and length scales. 12-06-2009, 16:00 hrs, Wageningen Prof. F.A.M. Leermakers, Prof. M.A. Cohen Stuart, Dr. J. van der Gucht

•	Career Assessment - March (visit WGS)
•	Project- and Time Management - 3 March (visit WGS)
•	Career Perspectives - 19 March (visit WGS)
•	Scientific Writing - 1 April (visit Language Services)
•	Information Literacy, incl. Introduction Endnote - 7 April (visit WGS)
•	Techniques for Writing and Presenting a Scientific Paper - 14 April (visit WGS)
•	Communicating science with press, policy and public - 7 May (visit WGS)
•	Writing Grant Proposals - 11 May (visit Language Services)
•	PhD Competence Assessment - 12 May (visit WGS)
•	Career Orientation - 29 May (visit WGS)
•	Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research: Intervision and communication skills - 11 June (visit CERES)

•	Professional in Supervision - 15 April (visit WGS)

From 13th of November until 5th of December the PhD-course Food, medicine and philosophy in East and West took place. This broadening course was organised by the Danish research school FOOD and I was the only one participating from VLAG. The course aimed (and succeeded!) to give us an improved understanding of the scientific, cultural and philosophical background of specific diet habits and health views. Being an international group of about 15 PhD-students from several academic fields, we could have interdisciplinary discussions about the different scientific areas covered in the course. The first part of the course consisted of a series of intense lectures at the University of Copenhagen. After these preparations we travelled to Hong Kong and Guangzhou (China) to observe what we have learned in Copenhagen. The field studies in Hong Kong and China included food markets, hospitals, universities and religious sites. In this way, traditions from the Western world were contrasted with those in the far East. We were made aware of both the potentials and limitations of Western science and medicine, and of their role in the dietary globalization. After the trip to Asia, every participant wrote a report about a selected topic related to his/her PhD-project. This was presented and examined at the end of the course. To conclude, the course was very interesting and really broadening for me! It was very nice to have the combination of lectures and field trips, so you could learn by experience!
Marloes Schepens

The paper titled "Identification of a gatekeeper residue that prevents dehydrogenases to act as oxidases" written by Nicole Leferink has been selected by the Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC) as "Papers of the Week".
Their papers of the week are selected by their Associate Editors and Editorial Board Members and represent the top 1% of papers reviewed in terms of significance and overall importance. The papers are accompanied by a brief summary that explains the findings of the paper and why it was chosen for this honor. (visit JBC)

•	Rubicon Rubicon offers researchers who have completed their doctorates in the past year the chance to gain experience at a top research institution outside the Netherlands (maximum of two years). Deadline is 1 April 2009. read more

•	KNCV Carrière Café Midcareer The Young KNCV (for scientist till 35 years old) organises a Carrière Café Midcareer. This event is meant for people with more than 5 years job experiences. During this event you will discuss your career under supervision of professional career supervisors. What to do, what are my dreams, goals and how to reach them. 9 March 2009 (visit jong KNCV)
•	NVVL Symposium ‘Zomer of winter, vocht is essentieel voor de sporter’ Will be organised by The NVVL (Network for Food Experts) in cooperation with the Vereniging Sportdiëtetiek Nederland (VSN) and the Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen (HAN) (in Dutch) 16 April 2009 (visit NVVL)
•	NWO-Talent Days and Talent Classes In 2009, NWO will organise Talent Days on 17 March and 6 October. Registration for the 17 March Talent Day is no longer possible, but registration for the Talent Day of 6 October will start in June. The 'Talent Days' series helps you developing other skills than technical skills, such as writing, networking and planning. (visit NWO) A Talent Class is an extensive workshop, based on the Talent Day. In 2009 the following dates are planned for the Talent Classes in spring: 21 April, 19 May and 16 June. Registration for most of these talent classes is still possible. Registration for the Fall Talent Classes will start in the middle of May. (visit NWO)
•	Master class Biobusiness 2009 During this master class, which set-up is in 6 modules in one year, you will be taught in all the aspects of the entrepreneurship and you will write your business plan in a team. May, June, September, November 2009 and February and April 2010 (view brochure in pdf)
•	Prevention of weigth (re)gain A Satellite Symposium of the European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2009) has been organised by the Diogenes Project at which the key results and insights generated by the project across its five research themes will be revealed and discussed. Diogenes researchers from its 31 partners across Europe will be joined by external experts from around the world. The Satellite programme also includes a novel EC-USA Workshop on the Early Programming of Obesity. Diogenes - which stands for "Diet, Obesity and Genes" - is co-ordinated by prof. Wim HM Saris, Maastricht University. It is an EU-funded (FP6), innovative multi-disciplinary, multi-centre research project to advance understanding of how obesity can be prevented and treated from a dietary perspective. It integrates studies of dietary, genetic, physiological and psychological/behavioural factors. Noordwijkerhout, Amsterdam 4 - 6 May 2009 (visit Diogenes)
•	BCF Event 2009 BCF Event is the umbrella name of BioCareer Event, ChemistryCareer Event en FoodCareer Event, and the 2009 edition will take place in the Amsterdam RAI. With an extensive exhibition with expectedly over 125 employers, education institutions and recruitment & selection agencies and an extensive program of presentations and workshops. 28 May 2009 (visit BCF Event)
•	European Symposium: Mucosal Immunology and Intestinal Microflora 9 June 2009, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK This 1 day symposium aims to give postgraduate students that work in aspects of gut immunuity, host-pathogen interactions within the gut and the use of probiotics the chance to present their work and exchange ideas to an audience of students, postdocs and prinicipal investigators. Postgraduate students and post-docs are invited to participate during the symposium by either giving a presentation or presenting a poster. (visit miim)