eYE eSP

15/06/2014 12:31:00

onWords from the President

Meet the Executive Committee
Lesley Rhodes (President)
Rex Tyrrell (President-Elect)
Evelyne Sage (Past President)
Francesco Ghetti (Treasurer)

Summer 2014, Issue 1

London Heathrow, January 2014:
Executive Committee delivers ESP Strategy
for the biennium 2013-2015

Francesca Giuntini (Secretary)
Santi Nonell (Officer)
David Russell (Officer)
Patricia Vicendo (Officer)
Norbert Lange (Officer)
Amparo Faustino (Auditor)
Kristian Berg (Auditor)
Jacques Piette (Chair, PPS
Ownership Board)
Once the winter holidays
were over, the members of the
Executive Committee (EC) got
together in Heathrow to plan
the activities for the two years
to come.
This was our main meeting
after the debriefing that followed the XV Congress inLiege in September 2013.
Two days on, we were looking at a packed calendar,
populated by major events,
such as the Photobiology
School 2014 and the ESP Congress 2015, and by the preparative activities leading tothese. The roadmap for 20132015 is inspired by our strategy,
which focuses on enhancing

the visibility of ESP at variouslevels.
One of our aims is to raise
the profile of the ESP in thewider scientific community; tothis end, we will relay with national or international scientificSocieties whose interests overlap, if only partially, with ourown. To facilitate this, the ESP
will award enhanced fellowships to its younger members
to encourage their attendance to overseas meetings.
Promoting education andtraining will further our outreach: we will renew the programme of the Photobiology
School to embrace emerging
aspects of photobiology, and,as of this year, an ESP supplement to the PhD Degree
will be available for School
attendees who pass the finalexam.
We are also firmly committed to keeping contact with
all ESP members: our approach to this is a regular
newsletter, edited by the ESPSecretary Francesca Giuntini,conveying the highlights, theupdates, and the events fromthe world of photobiology,
from “in-house” or fromaround the globe, to yourmailbox,
We hope you will enjoy thefirst issue, and will watch thisspace in the future.

Inside This Issue
12
34

From the President. The EC plans strategy and activities for 2013-2015 in Heathrow.
Snapshots. A journey in Australia (AOCP 2013). ESP Photobiology School 2014
In the Spotlight. Young Investigator Awards at the last ESP Congress in Liege.
Catching up. News from out and aboutwww.photobiology.euSnapshots

School time
The success of the Photobiology
School launched in 2010 was reinforced in 2012, encouraging
us to turn this experience into aregular biannual event. The 3rdedition of the School was heldin the picturesque town of Bressanone, Italy, (picture below),from the 16th to the 21st of June
2014. This event, which highlights the strong commitment ofthe ESP to education, is designed for post-graduate students looking for an “initiation”
to photobiology, and for moreexperienced researchers whowish

toenhance

theirknowledge of the field.
The Faculty Members covereda full range of established anddeveloping aspects of photobiology in the short time span of
5 days. The School, financiallysubsidised by the ESP, awards acertificate to those students
who take the optional final exam, allowing them to apply for
an ESP supplement to theirPh.D. degree.

A journey in Australia“Life on a sun drenched planet” was the captivating title of the 6th Asia and Oceania Conference on Photobiology (AOCP), for the first timein Sydney, Australia, in November 2013.
Organising
Co-Presidents
Scott Byrne for Medicine andMin Chen for Plants, accompanied by Nick Girolamo asorganising member for Vision,
provided the 3 main streams
for the scientific content,
which attracted much original work and high attendance.
The themes merged each
afternoon into a super-session
with topics that could not failto interest all photobiologists
including “The bionic eye”
and “The health benefits ofsunlight”.
Delegates enjoyed a warm
welcome and a very wellorganised event, including aboat trip across Sydney Harbour for the Gala dinner atthe exceptional location ofTaronga Zoo.
The many ESP members at-Eye on ESP – newsletter of the European Society for Photobiology

tending found it definitely
worthwhile to make the longhaul flight to the conference,including Lesley Rhodes as
President and Rex Tyrrell as
President-Elect of the ESP.
ESP younger members wereencouraged to present theirwork at the AOCP. This included an invitation to lecture
to post-doctoral scientist Suzanne Pilkington (Manchester,UK) who presented her work
on dietary omega-3 fatty acids in protection against UVinduced inflammation andimmunosuppression
inhumans.
(In the photograph, left to right:
Rex Tyrrell and Lesley Rhodes
meeting with Tetsuro Majima(Past-President of AOSP), Min
Chen (President of AOSP) andGary Halliday (Sydney, Australia).

In The Spotlight

3Young Investigator Awards
Meet Katie Dixon and Abhishek Garg, recipients of the Young Investigator Awardat the last ESP congress (Liege, 2013).
The XV Congress of theESP, held in Liege (Belgium) in September 2013
saw two young researchers jointly awarded theESP YIA.
Dr Abhishek Garg fromthe University of Leuven(Belgium) and Dr Katie
Dixon from the UniverisityofSydney(Australia)
gavetalksontheircutting-edge work
Both Abhishek and Katie
worked on highly success-ful projects that hold potential for significant outreach and impact for thepublic.
Abhishek and Katie havebeen repeatedly awarded prestigious prizes fromthe early days of their careers.
We are confident that it
won’t be long before thePhotobiology community
will benefit from further
contributions by these twotalented young scientists.

Abhishek Garg
Abhishek is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Cell
Death Research and Therapy (CDRT) Laboratory of theUniversity of Leuven (Belgium). His work focuses on thediscovery of new inducers of anti-tumour immunity andimmunogenic cell death (ICD), through discovering

new molecular determinants of ICD, new danger signals, new immunogenicity biomarkers/correlates andnon-DAMP based danger signalling patterns inducedby chemotherapy, radiotherapy or PDT. Abhishek’s efforts towards enabling the translation of ICD-based (PDT-induced)
DC vaccines towards the clinic,
grantedhim

Belgian-'FWO-

Mckinsey & Company Prize 2012'
for the best PhD thesis with socialandeconomic

relevance

anddemonstrable practical implemen-

Katie
Dixon
Katie is a Cancer Institute New South
Wales Early Career Research Fellow
at the University of Sydney (Australia).
Katie’s research focuses on unraveling the mechanisms of photoprotection by vitamin D compounds. Fromher studies it emerged that suchcompounds inhibit the formation ofsquamous cell carcinomas in hairlessmice following long term UV exposure. Katie’s research has also shownthat vitamin D compounds modulate DNA damage and immune
suppression caused by UV exposure,and that they mediate photoprotective effects through a nongenomic pathway.
Katie was also involved in studies
carried out in humans, whichshowed that topical application ofan active vitamin D metabolite immediately after irradiation results in
reductions in DNA damage andsunburn cells. These exciting studies
may pave the way to novel skincancer preventative agents (e.g.,
low calcaemic non-genomic vitamin D compounds and other vitamin
D-like compounds).
Katie became a member of the ESPin 2007 as a PhD student, and sincethen she has contributed both as an
author and reviewer for Photochemical and Photobiological Sciences.

tation.
www.photobiology.euCatching up

Summer 2014, Issue 1

The road to Aveiro

Aveiro (Photo: J. M. Pereira)

The XVI Congress of the ESP
might still seem far away intime (31st Aug - 4th Sept,2015), but in Aveiro the Local
Organising
Committee
warms up the engines.
While the webpage of theCongress is under construction, the topics of the Symposia have been chosen by theOrganising Committee, following the suggestions of the Scientific
Advisory Board. The Congress will feature a total of 26 symposia,
distributed over 4 full days, covering the latest achievements
across the field of Photobiology, from PDT to photosensory biology, to photomedicine. Following their success and warm reception in 2013, we have increased the number of keynote lectures,and rearranged the schedule to ensure all can attend these inspiring talks.
Looking forward to seeing you in Aveiro!

ESP members
crossing borders
Evelyne Sage (photo), thePast-President of the ESP, has
accepted

an invitation tobecome the Secretary General of the International Unionof Photobiology (IUPB). Shewill take uphernewrole in autumn 2014.

New website for the ESP
We are pleased to announce the release of ournew website:www.photobiology.eu
The layout of the site has been completely redesigned for faster browsing and easier access toinformation.
A regularly updated page will keep members
and non-members informed on the events andinitiatives organised by us and our sister societies
in Photobiology.

Dates for your diary

XV World Congress on Cancers of the Skin: 3rd-6th September 2014, Edinburgh (Scotland, U.K.)

International Congress on Photobiology: 8th-12th September 2014, Córdoba (Argentina).



10th International Symposium Photodynamic Therapy and Photodiagnosis in Clinical Practice,October 14th-18th 2014, Bressanone (Italy).

XXV IUPAC Symposium on Photochemistry, July 13th-18th 2014, Bordeaux (France).

eYEoneSP is your newsletter: contact us if you have any news or events
that you wish to share with the ESP community
Eye on ESP – newsletter of the European Society for Photobiology