FEBS Network

Planning your scientific training for next year? The first FEBS Advanced Courses for 2027 have now been approved, bringing together researchers from across the molecular life sciences for intensive learning, scientific exchange and collaboration.

The structure-dynamics-function relationship is essential for protein biology, as proteins are inherently dynamic and adopt multiple conformations that allow them to fold, catalyze substrates, bind molecules or transmit a signal. However, watching them work across timescales ranging from femtoseconds to hours continues to pose significant challenges.

FEBS Open Bio is launching a new initiative aimed at facilitating Early Career Researchers’ participation in the peer-review process, the Early Career Reviewer Hub. This initiative is aimed at PhD students and postdocs interested in scientific publishing and who wish to learn more about the peer-review process by actively participating in it.

Research Interest Biophysics Popular contributions

By 2050, global cancer cases are anticipated to rise 61%, reaching 30.5 million. This surge is driven not just by aging, but also due to late-stage diagnosis. In my research on CAR-NK cell therapies for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and neuroblastoma, the data is undeniable: Early-detected AML yields a 70% five-year survival rate, while late-stage cases plummet to 10%. Similarly, localized neuroblastoma survival exceeds 95%, falling to 40% once metastatic.

Cancer does not announce itself. It begins silently, when a single cell acquires a mutation, then another, over months or years, before any symptom emerges. For generations, by the time we heard its name spoken aloud in a clinic, it meant cancer already won the first battle. By 2050, that silence will no longer be cancer's greatest weapon. It will be ours. The transformation will begin with what we already know works.

Stress is a near-constant feature of life in academia, but that doesn’t mean it’s automatically a bad thing. Benchwork. Teaching. Supervising. Administration. Seminars. Conferences. Long hours. Over-reaching. Publication pressure. Career pressure. Time pressure. And much more. The sources of stress in academia are many and varied, and operate with varying distributions but probably equal intensity throughout the career stream.

By 2050, the "war on cancer" will have undergone a fundamental shift—moving beyond reactionary interventions to prevent cancer before it begins. Cancer preventive care today still relies on detecting a clinically established yet asymptomatic cancer—a brief window that, once missed, results in symptomatic, advanced disease resistant to cure.

Research Interest Metabolism Metabolomics Microbiology Popular contributions

In the past, the future was envisioned through flying cars; few paused to imagine the revolution of human health. By 2050, diseases are no longer a matter of fate. We no longer wait for symptoms to scream; instead, we listen to the molecular whispers of our cells. Cancer is no longer defined as a disease that begins when a tumor becomes visible. Rather, it is understood as a dynamic, measurable, and modifiable biological process that begins decades before manifestation.