This is the last week (deadline Friday 26 February) to submit your contribution for Current Research 2010. read more

There are still places available for the upcoming courses: Management of Microbiological Hazards in Foods, Bioreactor Design and Operation, and the Summer Course Glycosciences. Please register as soon as possible. Also take a look at our courses for the second half of 2010.

The deadline for submitting information for the 28th VLAG FLASH is Tuesday 6 April 2010.

•	Towards high productivities of microalgae in photobioreactors - minisymposium 5 March 2010, Wageningen
•	Management of Microbiological Hazards in Foods - 12th edition 15 - 19 March 2010, Wageningen The aim of this course is to further improve the knowledge of course participants regarding the management of micro-organisms that may compromise the safety of foods. The course programme combines lectures and group work ("case studies") with plenary discussions.
•	Bioreactor Design and Operation - 5th edition 22 - 26 March 2010, Wageningen Products from biotechnology cover a wide range, from pharmaceutical blockbusters to bulk energy carriers. In the research phase for new products main attention goes to the optimization of the microorganism. Genomics, physiology and metabolic engineering are the main study tools. Scale of operation is not really important in this case.
•	VLAG PhD week 12 - 15 April 2010 This activity is a compulsory part of the VLAG education programme and it is meant for PhD students that have recently started their PhD study. The aim of the PhD week is to combine training skills with lectures on interesting scientific topics.
•	Summer Course Glycosciences - 11th edition 17 - 20 May 2010, Wageningen This course combines general introductions in the field of polysaccharides and glycoproteins with in depth parallel sessions.
•	Exposure Assessment in Nutrition Research - 1st edition After participation the participant will be able to: critically evaluate and improve data collection in nutritional epidemiology and related fields of health research, and understand and have basic experience in design and analysis of evaluation studies. Registration will be open on March 26. More information will follow as soon as possible. 30 August – 3 September 2010, Wageningen
•	Advanced Course on Applied Genomics of Industrial Fermentation - 4th edition 11 - 15 October 2010, Wageningen This course aims to familiarize industrial and academic research professionals with the modern concepts of genomics, their use in microbial research and development, and their utility in contemporary biotechnological industry. The link above gives information on the previous edition of this course.
•	Annual NUTRIM Symposium 2010 Information will follow as soon as possible. 4 November 2010, Maastricht
•	Master class Public health interventions in real-life settings: the AGORA experience 8 - 10 November 2010, Wageningen The master class is especially developed for public health researchers and professionals from practice, working in the field of health promotion, epidemiology, nutrition and health sciences, and communication sciences. It aims is to make knowledge and research methodologies available to researchers working in public health practice

VLAG Events scheduled from 15 November 2010 onwards can be found at the VLAG website.

• J.J. Volman (Julia) Immune modulation by dietary glucans from oat and mushrooms; results from in vitro, animal and human studies. 26-02-2010, Maastricht Prof. R.P. Mensink, Prof. W.A. Buurman, Dr. J. Plat • A Pukin (Aliaksei) Synthetic ganglioside analogues for sensitive biosensing. Improved probes for antibodies and bacterial toxins. 26-02-2010, 16:00 hrs, Wageningen Prof. H. Zuilhof • R. Bosma (Rouke) Towards high productivities of microalgae in photobioreactors. 05-03-2010, 13:30 hrs, Wageningen Prof. R.H. Wijffels, Prof. J. Tramper, Dr. M. Vermuë • S.T.J. van Cruchten (Saskia) Cafestol: a multi-faced compound. Kinetics and metabolic effects of cafestol in mice. 12-04-2010, 16:00 hrs, Wageningen Prof. R.F. Witkamp, Prof. M. Müller, Dr. G.J.E.J. Hooiveld • D.L.M. van der Meer (David) Genomic, transcriptomic and proteomic analysis of the nuclear receptor PPARα. 14-04-2010, 13:30 hrs, Wageningen Prof. S.C. de Vries, Prof. M. Müller, Dr. S. Kersten • M.C. Kandhai (Chantal) Detection, occurrence, growth and inactivation of Cronobacter spp. (Enterobacter sakazakii). 23-04-2010, 16:00 hrs, Wageningen Prof. M.H. Zwietering, Prof. L.G.M. Gorris, Dr. M.W. Reij • T. Kulrattanarak (Thanawit) Deterministic ratchets for suspension fractionation. 28-04-2010, 16:00 hrs, Wageningen Prof. R.M. Boom, Dr. R.G.M. van der Sman, Dr. C.G.P.H. Schroën • F. Blombach (Fabian) Molecular characterization of factors involved in regulation of archaeal translation. 19-05-2010, 16:00 hrs, Wageningen Prof. J. van der Oost, Dr. S.J.J. Brouns

Fifteen PhD students from PDQ + Prof. van Boekel made a PhD study trip to Australia from February 4 - 20, 2010. The first week they were stationed in Melbourne and visited universities, institutes and companies in the neighbourhood, and the second week the same was done in Sydney and surroundings. With each visit, presentations were given of our work, while the hosts were doing the same. Our visits were well received, there was lively discussion and overall everyone was impressed by the fact that this event was organised by the PhD students. While Wageningen UR has already a good reputation in Australia, our visit certainly confirmed that impression. A lot was learned about the situation around food science and food production in Australia and those who are interested are invited to read the report that will be made in due course. (visit PhDcouncil)

Physical Chemistry and Colloid Sciences invites you to attend the farewell symposium and/or farewell address at the occasion of the retirement of Prof. Willem Norde from Wageningen University.
If you wish to participate in the symposium including lunch, please register before 10 April by sending an e-mail to Josie.Zeevat@wur.nl.
Date and location: 23 April 2010, Hotel de Wageningsche Berg
More information: will soon available at http://www.pcc.wur.nl/UK/

Last week, Willem van Berkel (WU-Biochemistry) published a Letter to Nature. Together with colleagues from Texas University he reported that the modular flavoenzyme Mical directly links cell-surface semaphorins and their plexin receptors to the precise control of actin filament dynamics. In this way, and by utilizing its redox activity, Mical spatiotemporally regulates axon guidance, synaptogenesis, dendritic pruning and other cell morphological changes. (visit Nature)

•	Career Assessment - March (visit WGS)
•	Ethics and Philosophy of Animal Science - 3 March (visit WGS)
•	PhD Competence Assessment - 16 March (visit WGS)
•	Career Perspectives - 23 March (visit WGS)
•	Techniques for Writing and Presenting a Scientific Paper - 13 April (visit WGS)
•	Information Literacy, incl. Introduction Endnote - 27 April (visit WGS)
•	Scientific Writing - 6 May (visit Language Services)
•	Presentation Skills - 12 May (visit Language Services)
•	Mobilising your - scientific - network - 23 May (visit WGS)
•	Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research: Intervision and communication skills - 3 June (visit WGS)
•	Science, the press and the general public: communication and interaction - 7 October (visit WGS)
•	Interpersonal Communication for PhD students - 27 October (visit WGS)

•	Professional in Supervision - 14 April (visit WGS)

Many VLAG affiliated research groups are linked to Danish research groups via EC-funded projects. These Danish groups are almost all part of FOOD, the Danish Research School. Both schools have agreed that participation in the courses organised by both parties can de done at reduced costs. See for the courses offered in Denmark the FOOD website.
At this moment there are several vacancies in Denmark in the area of Food and health - natural functional components and minimal processing. (visit FOOD)

On March 12th there will be a PhD party at the Junushoff. You are all invited to come. Doors will be open at 21.30hrs.
Register at: www.wageningenphdparty.nl

The FP7 funded ERA-Net "Initiative for the Development and Integration of Indian and European Research" (New INDIGO) aims at strengthening the multilateral S&T cooperation between Europe and India as well as at harmonising the existing bilateral cooperation to pave the way for long-term scientific cooperation.
Proposals are invited in the field of Biotechnology and Health focusing on: Biomarkers and Diagnostics, Bioinformatics for Health and Structural Biology for Health.
Deadline for submission: 8 March 2010 (visit new INDIGO)

•	NWO-Talent Day The 'Talent Days' series in Utrecht- an initiative of NWO - helps you developing writing, networking and planning to make it within the scientific world. The 2010 NWO-Talent Days will be held on Tuesday 23 March, 2010 and Tuesday 12 October, 2010. Registration for 23 March starts on 13 January. (visit NWO)
•	NWO-Talent Classes A Talent Class is an extensive workshop, based on the Talent Day. In 2010, Talent Classes will be organised on: 13 April, 11 May, 22 June, 28 September, 9 November, and 7 December. Registration for the Spring Talent Classes starts on 13 January. (visit NWO)
•	Bioinformatics - A User's Approach The aim of this practical PhD course is to present a hands-on approach to bioinformatics utility software for computing novices. 15 - 19 March 2010, Wageningen (visit EPS)
•	Transport Processes in Industrial Microorganisms Master class organised by B-Basic 22 - 26 March 2010, Groningen (visit RUG)
•	New functions for coiled-coil motifs: Polymer self-assembly, vaccines and modelsystems for membrane fusion. Colloqium organised by the department of Physical Chemistry and Colloid Science Speaker: Dr Alexander Kros, Dept. Soft Matter Chemistry, Leiden University 9 April 2010, 16:00 hrs, Ab van der Linde room, Building 316, Dreijenplein 6, Wageningen
•	Comparative Proteomics In this advanced PhD course lectures will be focused on principles of mass spectrometry, data analysis, interpretation and applications of comparative proteomics, as well as hands-on practice of LC-MS data quality control and interpretation, using provided datasets. 21 - 23 April 2010, Wageningen (visit EPS)
•	Postdoc Retreat 'Career Development' Postdoc Career Development Initiative, PCDI, encourages and assists young scientists in life science, technology and health-related fields to make the right next step in their career. PCDI organises a three-day retreat on 21-23 April 2010 for postdocs and last-year PhDs to explore their career possibilities. Workshops in career planning and transferable skills, meet and greets with employers, and discussions on shaping a career in the life sciences are all part of the programme. Erasmus MC supports the retreat and covers parts of the costs. 21 - 23 April 2010, Heeze (visit PCDI)
•	Eet voor je leven (in Dutch) The theme "Eet voor je leven!' will be explained from a broad nutritional vision. Each session will combine science and practice. 10 June 2010, CineMec, Ede (visit VoedingNederland)
•	European PhD Conference in Food Science and Technology / BerlinFOOD2010 Young food scientists of the 21st century should possess information and skills to deliver knowledge to industry to be used to develop new or improved products that will expand national, regional and global markets, create employment and benefit society. Through TCD young scientists and technologists shall gain much wider range of skills than simply good laboratory practice. 8 - 10 September 2010, Berlin, Germany (visit BerlinFOOD2010)