Patrick is based within the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Matrix Research at the University of Manchester. Patrick studied Biochemistry at the University of Nottingham, before undertaking a PhD at the University of Leicester and a postdoc in Jim Norman’s lab at the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research. Patrick established his lab in 2010, focussing on how cell-matrix interactions through integrins generate signals that control key cellular processes such as cell migration, differentiation and survival. The lab is specifically interested in vesicular trafficking, and has recently shown that endocytic trafficking of integrins and co-cargo receptors controls the spatial activation of RhoGTPases to modulate the actin cytoskeleton and invasion of cancer cells.

Jean Gruenberg received a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Geneva in 1980. He worked as a post-doctoral fellow in parasitology at the University of California in Riverside (UCR) until 1984 and in cell biology at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg. In 1987, he became group leader in the Cell Biology Programme of EMBL. He moved to Geneva in 1993, as Professor of Biochemistry at the University, and was chairman of the Department of Biochemistry from 1995 to 2007. He is a member of the Swiss Initiative in Systems Biology, Project LipidX since 2008, and of the National Center for Competence in Research (NCCR) in Chemical Biology since 2011. The Gruenberg group is interested in studying the principles responsible for the biogenesis and dynamic properties of endosomes, including specialized protein–lipid domains that are altered in some human pathologies. By combining Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology and Systems Biology the group aims at the characterization of components, molecular assemblies, membrane domains and principles that regulate the organization, dynamics and functions of endosomal membranes.

Dr. Maya Schuldiner was born in Israel. She completed two years of military service in 1996, and graduated magna cum laude with a BSc in Biology from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1998. She went on to complete both her MSc and a PhD in genetics, also at the Hebrew University, in 1999 and 2003. She conducted postdoctoral research in Jonathan Weissman’s laboratory at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of California in San Francisco until 2008, when she joined the faculty of the Weizmann Institute of Science as an assistant professor. For her work Dr. Schuldiner has received the EMBO young investigator award and has been chosen as one of the most promising young scientist (“40 under 40”) by the prestigious biology journal “Cell”. Dr. Schuldiner has published over 50 research articles in international, peer-reviewed journals and was recently selected as a member of the Israel Young Academy. Dr. Schuldiner is married to Dr. Oren Schuldiner who is also an assistant professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science and they have three boys: Daniel, Noam and Mattan.

Corinne Albiges-Rizo received a PhD in Cellular and Molecular biology from the University of Grenoble in 1990. She worked as a PhD student at EMBL in Grenoble and completed her post-doctoral research as a fellow in HHMI in Chicago. She moved back to Grenoble as a CNRS Scientist. Her team is based within the Institut Albert Bonniot and she also heads the department of microenvironment and cell plasticity. She is President of the French Society for Cell Biology (SBCF). Using transdisciplinary approach, her team is investigating how focal adhesions and invadosomes sense varied external cues to modulate downstream signaling networks and force transmission to elucidate the sensory mechanisms underlying invasion and tissue architecture. The lab is specifically exploring the biological and physiological relevance of integrin activation. The current project is to study how integrins, together or with co-receptors, respond to combination of chemical and physical inputs and then form signaling complexes that are arranged in time and space to specify cell contractility and transcriptional program.