It does not happen very often that we go to a conference where almost every talk is not from our field. It happens even less that we go to a conference where the average age of participants is 32 and where the quality of largely unpublished science easily matches—and sometimes even exceeds—the quality found at the conferences considered to be the best in the field. But once a year it does happen, as it did on August 3 and 4 during our postdoc retreat, held at the Ocean Place resort on the beautiful New Jersey shore. For two days, 96 postdocs left their normal bench routines and came together to share their research, learn about other people’s work, and, well, socialize. As small as Rockefeller University (RU) is, it often seems that meeting one another is not that easy—unless one spends every night at the faculty club and runs from one campus party to the next. This year, we were especially excited to have several outstanding scientists join us for the retreat. We were joined by Marc Tessier-Lavigne, our new president; Nina Papavasiliou, professor at RU; our keynote speaker Tom Maniatis, professor at Columbia University; and Shaun Muthian, Director of the Center for Therapeutic Innovation at Pfizer. They all interacted, mingled, and socialized with us in a very relaxed atmosphere.

Credit: Yingpu Yu

As always, high-quality science was the centerpiece of the retreat—we had fourteen excellent talks across many areas spanning immunology, structural biology, virology, cancer biology, and neurobiology. There was something new to learn for everyone. Three of the best talks were rewarded with Amazon gift certificates, which were well deserved. The first prize of $150 went to Nicholas Stavrapolous, from Mike Young’s lab, for his talk on “insomniac” a newly discovered mutant in Drosophila. “Insomniac” animals only sleep the equivalent to two to three hours per day, as compared to a human time scale. Nick showed that “insomniac” is regulating sleep in neurons through a pathway distinct from the circadian clock, but that involves a protein degradation mechanism. The second prize of $75 went to John LaCava, from Mike Rout’s lab. John developed a strategy to purify affinity-tagged protein complexes in a 96-well plate set-up, where purification conditions are varied systematically to screen for the optimal condition to retain pure native protein complexes. The goal is to transition from extract to biochemistry within one hour. Patrick McGrath, from Cori Bargmann’s lab, received the third prize of $50 for his work on the regulation of dauer, a long-lived diapause in many species of Caenorhabditis. Using a quantitative genetics approach, Patrick identified a hotspot of microevolution in domesticated strains of C. elegans and C. briggsae. Mutants in two chemoreceptors that sense one of the pheromones driving dauer formation have been repeatedly fixed in strains grown at high-density.

Credit: Yingpu Yu

Though many scientists are famous and well known beyond their fields, few reach the fame of this year’s keynote speaker. Without his pioneering work in developing tools for molecular biology, biomedical science probably would not be where it is right now. The biggest impact that Tom Maniatis might have made on all our lives was through his book, Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, which belongs in any lab as much as a centrifuge or PCR machine does. It was a great honor to have Tom Maniatis join our retreat. His charismatic lecture on the generation of single-cell diversity in the brain showed us how his work has been constantly evolving through solid science and through an interest in fundamental questions. These days, his focus is on the mechanisms of transcription and RNA splicing in the nervous system and how they relate to neuronal connectivity and neurodegenerative diseases.

The first intense day ended with a relaxing reception on the terrace of the resort. The beach view and the drinks definitely made up for the many hours spent in the packed seminar room, and helped to transition from science to social. The dinner was followed by a trivia game and some happy hours of dancing and drinking. If it hadn’t been for the rain, more people probably would have continued their night in the ocean but the Jacuzzi wasn’t a bad option either for those who didn’t want to go to sleep yet.

The second day started with a generous brunch buffet to get everyone back into gear before moving to the morning sessions. Talks competed with the sun and the beach outside for the participants, but as the morning proceeded, the seminar room filled up. After lunch, we concluded the scientific part of the retreat with a lively panel session with our guest speakers on “The Future of Scientific Collaborations.” According to Tom Maniatis, science has changed since his generation started out. Collaborating is becoming a bigger part of science, and he encouraged our group to engage collegially. “Sometimes you have to give up something in order to advance in science,” he said addressing the fact that collaborations also lead to shared fame. Marc Tessier-Lavigne talked about his own experience collaborating, which played a big part in his discovery of netrins, a novel class of proteins involved in axonal guidance, setting up his career. When asked what the most important part of a collaboration is, he answered, “people, people, people.” He explained how important it is to work with someone whom you feel you can trust and with whom you share views and ideas on the project you are working on. According to Nina Papavasiliou, an important aspect of collaborations is communication. She encouraged us to share our ideas, concerns, and thoughts, with our PIs in particular. This approach will lay the groundwork for successful relationships in both present and future collaborations. A different angle on the topic was broached by Shaun Muthian, who talked about collaborations between academia and companies. The gap between the “good” and the “dark” sides of science has become smaller over the past years, with more research grants available from companies to support basic science, and more postdoctoral programs at biotech companies. A great example of this is the Center for Therapeutic Innovation, a new research concept that Pfizer has developed with the goal to establish partnerships with academic institutions, in order to accelerate drug discovery and development. Dr Tessier-Lavigne was excited about this new concept and supported the idea enthusiastically. We are all curious to see where the future will take us and how we will be a part of it.

Everyone was looking forward to the last part of the retreat: free time. The water was warm enough; the volleyball nets were up and ready; and the weather was showing its sunniest side. These few hours passed rapidly and ended with tasty hamburgers and beer on the beach.

Thanks to everyone who came out for making this retreat a great success. We, at the PDA, look forward to seeing you again next year!