The 6^th Bordeaux RNA Club Workshop was a great success!

The 6^th Bordeaux RNA Club Workshop, held last June the 26^th and 27^th at the IECB Bordeaux, was indeed a great success and now is a key event in Bordeaux.

More than 100 researchers and young doctors, from all parts of France, attended the event which had the honor to receive Pr. Thomas Steitz^*, the 2009 Nobel Prize laureate for his work on ribosome.

On that occasion, Thomas Steitz was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa^** by Pr. Manuel Tunon de Lara, President of Bordeaux University. He is also the first to receive this award since the three universities has merged.

He was joined by 4 other prestigious speakers to open the scientific sessions during these 2 days dedicated to gene expression and translation : Nicholas J. Proudfoot  from Oxford University, Raul Mendez from the Institute for Research in Biomedecine in Barcelona, Ann-Bin Shyu from the University of Texas Medical School in the USA and Reinhard Lührmann from Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Munich.

The participants particularly appreciated the proposed program with a total of 5 inaugural talks, 13 oral communications, several booths of industrial sponsors and more than 20 posters, which fostered exchanges and discussions.

The invited speakers were also very pleased to take part to a wine tasting session and a diner at the Chateau La Louvière. The timing was also the opportunity for them to enjoy the “Bordeaux fête le vin” event on the edges of the Garonne.

This workshop gave also the opportunity to Thomas Steitz to meet again Axel Innis who worked alongside him several years at Yale University before he joined the IECB in 2013 as a Group Leader.

With the support of its sponsors: Servier, GE, Dominique Dutscher, tebu-bio, Fluofarma, Novaptech, Cyclops Genome Sciences, Integra, CNRS, TransBioMed, The Aquitaine Region, SFR TecSan and the IECB, the Bordeaux RNA Club organized a  high level scientific event that became awaited every year.

The next edition has already been fixed for June 25 and 26, 2015, the RNA event not to be missed!

Workshop program : Download the Abstract Book

^* : Thomas Arthur Steitz is the Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Yale University, New Haven.

He was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Ada Yonath "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome". Steitz also won the Gairdner International Award in 2007 "for his studies on the structure and function of the ribosome which showed that the peptidyl transferase was an RNA catalyzed reaction, and for revealing the mechanism of inhibition of this function by antibiotics"

**: The highest distinction awarded by Universities for foreign distinguished personalities.


Photo credits: IECB, Bordeaux University