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EMBO supports researchers from emerging economies

November 08, 2002

The first fellows benefiting from the European Molecular Biology Organization's (EMBO) new World Programme fellowship scheme will start their work in their guest laboratories from now on.

The four selected researchers come from Bangladesh, Brazil, Cuba and India and will visit German or Israeli laboratories for six or nine months:

* Miah Bari (Bangladesh) will visit the Institute for Biology, University of Freiburg, Germany for nine months starting January 2003 to work in Dr Peter Nick's group. Miah Bari's research will focus on the 'application of T-DNA tagging approach in plants to induce beneficial mutants resistant to different stresses'.

* Yamilla Carpio (Cuba) will conduct research for six months at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen, Germany, together with Dr Ralf Dahm in Prof Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard's department. Her research will focus on 'the characterization of zebrafish mutants with defects in eye development at the cellular, molecular and genetic level'. She will start this work in February 2003.

* Cinthya Guimaraes (Brazil) will work at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, for nine months in Prof Hermona Soreq's group. Her research will focus on 'molecular dissection of acetylcholinesterase functioning in retinal photoreceptors'. She will start her work in November 2002.

* Prakash Vincent (India) started his research in the Department of Biology, Geology and Environmental Science at the University of Oldenburg in Dr Peter Jaros's group at the beginning of November. He will work in Oldenburg for nine months. His research will focus on 'cDNA cloning and sequence analysis of opiod receptor genes of the short crab Carinus maenas'.

The EMBO World Programme fellowship scheme was launched this year. It builds on the tradition of EMBO fellowships providing training and mobility for scientists in the life sciences since 1966. However the World Programme fellowship scheme has a slightly different focus. "These fellowships provide an excellent opportunity to scientists from non-European countries to gain training by visiting a laboratory in a European country. We prefer applicants from developing countries or emerging economies who wish to visit European (EMBC+) laboratories," says Mary Gannon, Manager of the EMBO World Programme. "These visits should strengthen ongoing collaborations or establish new research contacts between the laboratories involved. To foster these collaborations the EMBO World Programme fellowships provide funding for a six to nine month period."

For EMBO it is important that the selected fellows wish to return to their home countries after the training in the European laboratory. "The experience gained during the fellowship period should benefit the research of the home laboratory," explains Mary Gannon. "Since the first round of applications was very successful, the second deadline for applications will be March 1st, 2003."

European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO)