Rodrigo Nunes Da Fonseca

Date of birth: 24.10.1980
Nationality: Brazilian
Emai: rnunesfon1@yahoo.com;
fonsecar@uni-koeln.de
Webpage: http://fonsecarn.50webs.com

Supervisor/ Institute

Prof. Dr. Siegfried Roth, Institute of Developmental Biology

Title of the thesis:

The function of the TGF beta and toll signalling pathways in Tribolium dorsoventral patterning

Thesis committee

Prof. Dr. Thomas Wiehe; Prof. Dr. Einhard Schierenberg

Date of defense

30. June 2008

Field of studies

Evolution and Development (Evo-devo)

March 2002 - July 2004

Master in Biochemistry, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) Brazil. Supervisors: Cristiano Coutinho /Radovan Borojevic
Topic:"Evidence from evolutionary conservation of the hox11/ tlx gene family"
Scholarship from Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal (CAPES)

2008 II Euro Evo-Devo Conference: "Self-Regulatory Circuits in Dorsoventral Axis Formation of the Short-Germ Beetle Tribolium castaneum

2008 2nd Crossroads in Biology - Cologne.Self-Regulatory Circuits in Dorsoventral Axis Formation of the Short-Germ Beetle Tribolium castaneum

2006 I Euro Evo-Devo Conference.European Society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology, Prag, Czech Rep.

• One of the 3 best posters of the Meeting "Integrating Evolution, Development and Genomics", University of Berkeley, Department of Integrative Biology
  
• Scholarship for PhD studies in Cologne, Germany (4 years - DAAD)
  

• Fonseca, RN or Nunes Da Fonseca; Lynch, JA; Roth, S. Evolution of axis formation: mRNA localization, regulatory circuits and posterior specification in non-model arthropods. Current Opinion in Genetics & Development, 2009 Jun 1 [Epub ahead of print]
  
• NunesDaFonseca, R; Vonlevezow, C; Kalscheuer, P; Basal, A; VanDerZee, M; Roth, S. Self-regulatory circuits in dorsoventral axis formation of the short-germ beetle Tribolium castaneum. Developmental Cell, 2008 Apr;14(4):605-15
  

... Cologne:
"As a Brazilian one always like to play soccer and some IGS friends were really skillful. Enjoying the great Cologne Carnival was also fun, although as a Brazilian I have to say that the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador are the best"
... Graduate School GFG:
"I think one of the best moments was the organization of the 1st and 2nd Crossroads in Biology Meetings (2007 & 2008). The opportunity to interact with so many students from different countries organizing an event is unique"

Luis R. Saraiva

Date of birth: 10 October 1980
Nationality: Portuguese
E-mail: saraivalmr@hotmail.com

Future:

Hoping to have my own lab :)

October 2008 – present

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, USA
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Lab of Linda Buck (Nobel Laureate 2004), Basic Sciences Division.
Main Interests: neural circuits, behavior and evolution.

July – August 2008

Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Collaborative project.
Lab of Stephen Liberles, Dept. of Cell Biology

Supervisor/ Institute

Prof. Dr. Sigrun Korsching, Institute of Genetics

Title of the thesis:

A novel olfactory receptor gene family in teleost fish: phylogenomics, cellular localization and comparison with other olfactory receptor gene families

Thesis committee

Prof. Dr. Sigrun Korsching, Prof. Dr. Jens Bruning, Prof. Dr. Peter Kloppenburg

Date of defense

30. June 2008

Field of studies

bioinformatics, genetics, neurobiology (olfactory system) and evolution

July 2004:

“Licenciatura” (<> B.Sc.+M.Sc.) in Biology with an aggregate of 14 (out of 20) from University of Évora, Évora, Portugal
Main interests: microbiology and evolution.

September 2003 – July 2004

Gulbenkian Institute of Science, Oeiras, Portugal: “Licenciatura” Thesis (<> M.Sc. Thesis)
Populations Genetics Lab of Francisco Dionisio. Thesis entitled "Study of the diversity and social interactions among bacteria".

2008 Poster presentation, “XV ISOT”, San Francisco, USA

2008 Poster presentation, “28th Blankenese Conference – Sensory and Information Processing”, Hamburg, Germany

2008 Oral and poster presentation, “II Crossroads in Biology” and poster presentation, “ABC Neurobiology Workshop 2008”, University of Cologne, Germany

2008 Instructor, 1 week Bioinformatics practical course to Biology Undergraduate/Master students, University of Cologne

2007 Organizer, Chair and Oral presentation, “I Biology Alumni Meeting”, University of Évora, Portugal

2007 Poster presentation, “IBRO World Congress of Neuroscience”, Melbourne, Australia

2007 Instructor, 3 month project mentoring an American Undergraduate exchange student for the RISE-DAAD exchange program

2007 Co-organizer and poster presentation, “I Crossroads in Biology”, Cologne and poster presentation, “ 7th German Neuroscience Society Meeting”, Göttingen, Germany

2007 Instructor, 2 week Genetics practical course to Biology Undergraduate/Master students, University of Cologne

2006 “Poster Design and Presentation Course”, IGS-GFG, University of Cologne, Germany

2006, September– Oral presentation, “ECRO 2006”, Granada, Spain

2006 “Effective Scientific Writing Course”, IGS-GFG, University of Cologne, Germany

2005 “High Performance Presentation Course”, IGS-GFG

• Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the Fred Hutchinson
  Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA
  
• Travel grant from AChemS to participate in the “XV ISOT”, San
  Francisco, USA
  
• Subsidy from the Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds for collaborative work with Stephen Liberles at Harvard Medical School, USA (1700€)
  
• Summa Cum Laude PhD in Genetics, from University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
  
• Travel grant from Minerva Foundation to participate in the “28th Blankenese Conference”, Hamburg, Germany
  
• Travel grant from BCF Jobs 2008 to participate in the “International Talents meet Dutch Life Sciences”, Amsterdam, Holland
  
• Travel grant from McKinsey & Co. to participate in the “McKinsey’s Horizons 2.0 Seminar”, Lisbon, Portugal
  
• PhD Fellowship from the International Graduate School for Genetics and Functional Genomics, University of Cologne, Germany
  

• Hussain, A*; Saraiva, LR* & Korsching SI. *both authors contributed equally to this paper: Positive Darwinian selection and the birth of an olfactory receptor clade in teleosts PNAS, 2009 Mar 17;106(11):4313-8.
• Saraiva, LR & Korsching, SI. A novel olfactory receptor gene family in teleost fish. Genome Research, 2007 Oct;17(10):1448-57.

... Cologne:
The years I spent in Cologne as part of the IGS-GFG were definetelly the best years of my life for many many many reasons. The city and its young and multicultural atmosphere definetelly contributed to that! Cologne is just great! My favourite city to live in up to date. In addition, made a few fabulous friendships, grew up to be a scientist (hopefully a good one) and had experiences that shaped me for life.
... Graduate School GFG:
"I like to balance my lablife with a lot of sports, travelling and quality time with friends (aka party!). During my PhD I learned Capoeira, Kickboxing and further developed my rock climbing skills (at least I like to think I did :D). I have travelled the world, both attending conferences or just visiting new places and cultures (including the home countries of some of my grad school class:)). "

Channa Keshavaiah

Date of birth: 10 April 1979
Nationality: Indian
E-mail: chinnatal@gmail.com

February 2009 – present

SFI Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
University College Cork (UCC), Cork, Ireland

Research Interests:
Epigenetic Regulation
Reproduction and Seed Development
Orphan Genes in Stress Response

Active Collaborators:
Prof. Karl Schmidt, University of Hohenheim, Germany
Prof. Ken Feldmann, University of Arizona, USA
Prof. Andrew Patterson, University of Georgia, USA

Supervisor/ Institute

Prof. Dr. Martin Hülskamp/ Botanical Institute-III, University of Cologne

Title of the thesis:

Molecular and Functional Characterization of the Arabidopsis ESCRT-I complex

Thesis committee

Prof. Dr. Ute Höcker; Prof. Dr. Jürgen Dohmen

Date of defense

19. January 2009

Field of studies

Ubiquitylation, Protein Trafficking, Plant Molecular Genetics

2003-2004

Research Interests: Edible Vaccines
Research Scholar in Biotechnology

2001-2003

Masters in Plant Biotechnology
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ramanjini Gowda
Thesis Title: Transformation and Evaluation of Transgenic Plants
Producing Rabies Glycoprotein for its Immunogenicity in Mice
Universirty: UAS, GKVK, Bangalore, India

2009 Participation- Entrepreneurship Ireland: A Biotech Industry start up, UCC, Cork, Ireland

2009 Talk and Poster- Irish Plant Scientists Association Meeting(IPSAM), Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

2008 Talk- European Endomembrane Conference, Lecce, Italy

• Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Postdoctoral Fellowship from UCC, Ireland
  
• Best Scientific Presentation Award from IGS-GFG, University of Cologne, Germany
  
• PhD Fellowship from IGS-GFG, University of Cologne, Germany
  
• Council of Scientific and Industrial Research(CSIR) Fellowship, Government of India, India
  
• Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Fellowship, Government of India, India
  
• Institute of Agricultural Technology (IAT) Fellowship, India

... Cologne: "A great place for international students not only for high standard of research but also a hotspot for international cultural exchange."
... Graduate School GFG: "A cooool graduate school which helped me to learn science and to explore the world."
...things I like to do in free time: "Playing and watching Cricket and Tennis."

Supervisor/ Institute

Prof. Dr. Thomas Langer/ Institute for Genetics

Title of the thesis:

Functional charaterization of the mammalian iAAA protease subunit, YME1L

Thesis committee

Prof. Dr. Siegfried Roth; Prof. Dr. Jens Brüning

Date of defense

21. November 2008

Field of studies

Proteolysis in mitochondria

1999-2004

Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Gdansk and Medical University of Gdansk, Poland.

Master's thesis: Purification of the yeast mitochondrial protein Ilv5 and characterization of its binding to DNA.

Supervisor: Prof. Dr.hab. Jaroslaw Marszalek

2007 Getting funded: writing an individual fellowship application 3 day workshop in English, BioScript International, Cologne, Germany

2006 Advanced scientific writing 2.5 day workshop in English, BioScript International Cologne, Germany

2005 Scientific PowerPoint presentation 2.5 day workshop in English, BioScript International, Cologne, Germany

2005 Workshop for PhD Students and Young Doctors, Max Planck Institute for  Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany

2004 Mouse Genetics Course, Institute for Genetics, Cologne, Germany

2004 12th International Student Scientific Conference for Students and Young Doctors, Gdansk, Poland2001 7th Biotechnology Summer School, Laczyno, Poland

2000 2 week Chromatography Course, University of Bremen, Germany

• Research fellowship from the North Rhine-Westphalia government and the International Graduate School in Genetics and Functional Genomics
  
• Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology Dean’s distinction for excellent performance during the course of studies
  
• Socrates/Erasmus fellowship – University of Bremen and Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Germany
  

...IGS GFG: Working for the School after finishing the PhD shows exactly, how warm are my feelings about it... :)
... life philosophy :) "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” (W.Allen)
...things I like to do in free time: "I am a non-stop reader. Active fisher and explorer of nice-close-by-spots for fishing, enjoying sun and camping :) Prefer outdoors than indoors but have no trekking shoes... :)"