RETREATS:
We have a yearly lab retreat in a little converted village school in the hills above Cologne. All lab members present their work from the past year (which everyone is familiar with from lab meetings anyway) and a proposal for future work which is discussed in depth. We cook our own meals (Jayan, Fiona and Sam’s Indian meals are favourites) and leave time for long walks and mushroom hunting. In addition to everyone from the lab we also invite external experts for each research area to spend the three days with us.
Experts in the last couple of years included Arno Müller (Dundee), Francesca Peri (EMBL), Eli Knust (Dresden), Jane Parker (Cologne), Anne Uv (Göteborg), Stefan Luschnig (Zürich), Catherine Rabouille (Amsterdam), Freek van Eden (Sheffield), Katja Roeper (Cambridge), Amin Ghabriel (Philadelphia), Uwe Irion (Tübingen) and Robin May (Birmingham).
WORKSHOPS:
We invite European labs (i.e. PIs and lab members) to Cologne for workshops at irregular intervals. The first workshop was on tracheal development and was attended by the labs of Christos Samakovlis, Reinhard Schuh, Stefan Luschnig, Markus Affolter, Marta Llimargas and Jordi Casanova. The next workshop will be on mesodermal development and is currently being planned.
The third one will be on fish immunity.
MEETINGS etc
Our graduate students participate in the planning and organisation of the Graduate School’s International Meeting ‘Cross Roads in Biology’. Everyone attends the yearly ‘Cologne Spring Meetings’. We have regular joint lab meetings with the other fly groups in Cologne, as well as journal clubs and Leptin lab group meetings.