Molecular Biology and Quartier Latin

The best lecture of the day was about the protein TOR, which signals cell growth and is the target of rapamycin (it was isolated from a soil sample from Easter island (Rapa Nui). If the protein is knocked out, cells do not achieve their full size. TOR is regulated by i.a. insulin and there is a feed-back mechanism, by which TOR down regulates this pathway, leading to insulin resistance. Hence rapamycin could re-introduce insulin sensitivity. Experiments with rapamycin on test animals (after full development) demonstrates longer life expectancy w/ the drug. The mechanism is thought to be the same as for calorie restriction as TOR is regulated by abundance of nutrients.

With reduced level of TOR: perfectly proportional reduction in size of the fly

I had lunch in another brasserie close to the conference venue. It was a very nice place, very French, with the usual old people having lunch there, all dressed up. I had a club sandwich [Klyb saowish] with fries and freshly fried bacon. It looked great but the taste was a bit ... Like, hm McDonalds.

At the cafe Oresto: Beautifully served with freshly made french fries and bacon. But the sandwhich was, hm, not fantastic.

After the lectures, I went on sight seeing. First, I took the train to St. Germain des prés, where Hiroko and I had seen a fantastic performance by a male soprano, singing Ave Maria in the vault of the ancient church, 20 years ago. I had a look at the church and sat down inside.

St. Germain des prés - the oldest church in Paris (Romanesque style). It holds the grave of René Descartes.

 The vault where we heard the fantastic Ave Maria sung by a male singer about 20 years ago

Across the street I looked at the author's cafe Les Deux Magots (Charles Dickens, Simone de Beuvoir and others). There were so many people, that I really didn't feel like trying to get a coffee there. Instead I continued along the path suggested in my old guide book. It took me past another church, St Sulpice, an enormous baroque church. I had actually told myself, that I didn't want to see too many churches in Paris this time. But they are impressive, and I couldn't resist taking a closer look at this one...

St. Sulpice, a gigantic Baroque church. Once converted to a "temple of victory" by Napoleon.

The space in the nave is enormous. I am glad, I took a look.

I passed the Jardin du Luxembourg (Senate in the back) and sat down on one of the many garden chairs that are available. The sun was shining and a lot of people were enjoying their Sunday afternoon there.

In the latin quarter, I found a small restaurant, where I had a fabulous 3-course meal: smoked salmon (picture), entrecote with potatoes fried in garlic butter (really good, have to try it at home), and a crème brûlée which was as thick as butter.

Panteon under renovation.

Gargoyles of St. Severin, closer to the river bank.

Bonjour, Paris!

What better way to greet Paris than with a good steak at a Brasserie? The place advertised the food as "pièce du boucher" (not a piece of the butcher, which would be cannibalism, but rather "Butcher´s choice" which indicates that it should be an unspecified but good piece of meat). It was indeed good, and I was starved after a long travel from Munich. It seemed to take forever to get from the airport to Paris. I am always reminded how run-down and shabby the tube in London is, when I am there. Well, the metro in Paris is worse. I guess we are pretty well off in Munich, even though we often fail to appriciate it. Anyway, I didn't get to the hotel before well over four and by the time I was at the restaurant it was well over five and I had had no lunch, so that steak sure hit the spot.

After the food, I went to a local supermarket for some snacks for the hotel room and then headed up to the "Palais des congrès". The conference had already started with some introductory BS about the organizers (FEBS and EMBO). I got a good seat in one of the foremost rows (had forgotten my newly purchased glasses at home). Five minutes later an old chum was rolled down from the stage in a wheelchair and the introductory part was over - perfect timing!

Human origins. A neandertal perspective.

This is what I came for! The presentation by Svante Pääbo.

The out-of-Africa hypothesis: The logic is simple - our (non-African) DNA can be traced back to that of Africans. Africans on the other hand have sequences that we don´t have. Hence, everything must have started in Africa. Statistics tells us that we exited Africa about 100,000 years ago.

But about 40,000 years ago, contributions where added from Neandertals (which the Africans don´t have). Hence, we must have "met" them as we migrated.

Svante Paabo gave a very good and fascinating lecture about all the conclusions which could be made based on the sequencing of the complete genome of a Neanderthal. Not surprisingly, some of the differences between us and Neandertals have to do with neurodevelopment. But some immunological features also appear to have been added, which could have conferred improved resistance to infection in the environment that "we" were moving to. 

 After the presentations: Me in front of the Palais de congres, which is a gigantic concrete bunker, where the conference takes place.

The view from my room. The tower is the hotel which is a part of the palais de congres. It got bad reviews in booking.com so I chose mine instead, which is "across the street" (a very wide street). If it hadn't been for the hotel tower, I could probably have seen the Eiffel tower in this direction.

In the evening, I used the hotel gym and had my post work-out snack in the hotel room while writing this. The hotel gym was OK. Everything brand new, but the strength training equipment was based on the usual (in hotel gyms) multi-purpose bull shit machine, which is never any good (although this seemed to be a top-of-the-line model). The gym also had a set of free weights, which improved the situation a bit ;-).