ABOUT US
The Sphingolipid Club is a non profit association of researchers interested in the improvement and development of scientific research on Sphingolipids. The Sphingolipid Club stands as a tight mesh network among all Scientists who are knowledgeable about or simply curious to know sphingolipids biology and aimed at involving worldwide participation of interested researchers.
The Sphingolipid Club focuses on promoting collaborations, sharing ideas and expertise, creating multidisciplinary interest on Sphingolipids research.
Biannual meeting are organized with the primary aim to allow all the participants to present their research activity and to create occasions for fruitful exchanges.
The Sphingolipid Club website offers a link to support communications and collaborations as well as announcements.
The Sphingolipid Club cherishes the need to promote young scientists formation and advance in their career. In this sense, oral presentations by young researchers are highly encouraged and fellowships are assigned at meetings, and occasionally throughout the web site. Advanced courses are organized by senior members for younger participants. The friendly and lay atmosphere and accessibility of the meetings are intended to attract and emphasize students and post-doctoral fellows. Moving young PhD students from one laboratory to another to complete their education in the field, Sphingolipid Cub always encourages young people in cultural exchanges between different countries.
In line with the collaborative spirit of the Association, the Sphingolipid Club established a scientific consortium with the International Ceramide Conference (iCC) organization, another Sphingolipid research community born in US. The iCC and the Sphingolipid Club organize routinely joined meetings, that attract all Sphingolipid researchers from worldwide countries.
A few decades ago, Sphingolipids molecules were still poorly understood and a small number of scientists was interested in the field. In a short time this research area extended its horizons, leading to increasingly numbers of high quality publications, impact factor and involved scientists. In a few decades, basic scientific knowledge on Sphingolipids has been translated to clinic, producing innovative strategies for diagnosis and cure of human diseases. The broad spectrum of applications make the Sphingolipid research a fascinating, primary and crucial scientific task.
The Sphingolipid Club was founded on 31st October 2001 by a group of five Italian researchers with the idea of bringing together all researchers involved in sphingolipids. The association was legally registered in Perugia, Italy.
Since then, several meetings have been organized: 2002 Perugia-Italy, 2003 Sale Marasino-Italy, 2004 Florence-Italy, 2005 Bertinoro-Italy, 2006 Calella della Costa-Spain, 2007 Bilbao-Spain, 2008 Leiden-Netherlands, 2009 Glasgow-UK, 2011 Favignana-Italy, 2013 Assisi-Italy, 2015 Cesme-Turkey (joint with the International Ceramide Conference), 2017 Trabia-Italy, 2019 Cascais-Portugal (joint with the International Ceramide Conference).
Today the Sphingolipid Club counts on an organizing and administrative staff, on a Scientific Board of international experts and six Honorary Members, who are pioneers in the field.
The Sphingolipid Club welcome you: join us!
Download the Constitutive act and Statute [ PDF file – italian version ]
STAFF
SCIENTIFIC BOARD
- Hans Aerts (Leiden, The Netherlands) j.m.f.g.aerts@lic.leidenuniv.nl
- Christoph Arenz (Berlin, Germany) arenzchr@hu-berlin.de
- Maurizio Del Poeta (Stony Brook, USA) maurizio.delpoeta@stonybrook.edu
- José Fernandez-Checa (Barcelona, Spain) checa229@yahoo.com
- Tiago Gil Oliveira (Braga, Portugal) tiago@med.uminho.pt
- Antonio Gomez-Munoz (Bilbao, Spain) antonio.gomez@ehu.es
- Markus Graeler (Jena, Germany) markus.graeler@med.uni-jena.de
- Andrea Huwiler (Bern, Switzerland) andrea.huwiler@pki.unibe.ch
- Mark Kester (Charlottesville, USA) mkester@virginia.edu
- Toshihide Kobayashi (Strasbourg, France) toshihide.kobayashi@unistra.fr
- Lola Ledesma (Madrid, Spain) dledesma@cbm.csic.es
- Mirek Machala (Brno, Czech Republic) machala@vri.cz
- Elisabetta Meacci (Florence, Italy) elisabetta.meacci@unifi.it
- Dagmar Meyer Zu Heringdorf (Frankfurt, Germany) heringdorf@med.uni-frankfurt.de
- Christian Mueller (Erlangen, Germany) Christian.Mueller@uk-erlangen.de
- François Paris (Nantes, France) francois.paris@inserm.fr
- Melissa Pitman (Adelaide, Australia) Melissa.Pitman@unisa.edu.au
- Alessandro Prinetti (Milan, Italy) alessandro.prinetti@unimi.it
- Julie Saba (San Francisco, USA) jsaba@chori.org
- Bruno Segui (Toulouse, France) bruno.segui@inserm.fr
- Paola Signorelli (Milan, Italy) paola.signorelli@unimi.it
- Liana Silva (Lisboa, Portugal) lianacsilva@ff.ulisboa.pt
HONORARY MEMBERS
- Myles Cabot (Greenville, USA) mylescabot@gmail.com
- Gemma Fabrias (Barcelona, Spain) gemma.fabrias@iqac.csic.es
- Yusuf Hannun (Stony Brook, USA) Yusuf.Hannun@stonybrookmedicine.edu
- Thierry Levade (Toulouse, France) thierry.levade@inserm.fr
- Sarah Spiegel (Richmond, USA) sarah.spiegel@vcuhealth.org
- Gehrild Van Echten-Deckert (Bonn, Germany) g.echten.deckert@uni-bonn.de
YOUTH BOARD
Mission statement
Curiosity, interest in given topics and a strong passion for science are usually what makes young scientists willing to invest their time, efforts and energy in their work. It’s what drives them and fills their minds with questions that are just waiting to be asked. At the beginning of their scientific careers, though, young scientists lack two important things: experience and connections. The former will come to them with time. Scientific societies can help with the latter. Successfully offering support however requires the knowledge of these scientists needs on the societies part, and a knowledge about what is being offered on the young members part. This is where the Sphingolipid Club Youth Board comes into play. A team of young scientists from all over the world, represent PhD students and early career Postdocs, listen to their ideas and their needs in order to bridge the gap between young members and the secretaries and officers of the society. The Sphingolipid Club is highly supportive of its young members and cherishes the need to promote young scientists’ formation and advance in their career. However, a lot of those who could benefit from this support are not aware of the opportunities the Club offers. To increase the awareness about these benefits and to make them more accessible and easier to understand is one of the aims of the Youth Board. Moreover, it is intended to create an active, collaborative network connecting the new generations of researchers in the sphingolipid field, thus giving the chance to all young scientists to be involved and feel heard in the well-established scientific community.
YOUTH BOARD MEMBERS
Sara Grassi, coordinator
Milan, Italy.
Career: PhD in Biochemical sciences at the University of Milan (March 2017) on the identification of the lipid antigens recognized by a remyelination-promoting antibody
Current position: Postdoc at the University of Milan (since March 2017)
Research interest: Role of membrane sphingolipids in the molecular mechanisms underlying demyelination/remyelination
sara.grassi@unimi.it
Valentine Yolander
Virginia, USA.
Career: Clinical and Translation Science PhD Candidate, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA
Current Position: Graduate Research Assistant
Research Interest: Role of S1P/SphK1 in brown adipose tissue mitochondria.
Anne Montfort
Toulouse, France.
Career: PhD in physiopathology at Paul Sabatier University of Toulouse (June 2011) on the role FAN and the sphingomyelin/ceramide-dependent pathways play in immuno-inflammatory responses
Current position: Postdoctoral researcher at the Cancer Research Centre of Toulouse (CRCT)
Research interest: How TNF and the sphingomyelin/ceramide pathways modulate anti-melanoma immune responses
Shah Alam
Bonn, Germany
Career: Masters in Molecular biotechnology at the University of Bonn (2014-2016)
Current position: PhD student, LIMES Institute, University of Bonn (since 2017)
Research interest: Working with tissues and primary cell cultures from neural targeted S1P lyase deficient mice
Johannes Morstein
New York City, USA
Career: M. Sc. at LMU Munich in Chemistry and Biochemistry
Current position: Ph.D. Student at New York University (since January 2017)
Research interest: Chemical Tools for Lipid Biology
THE SLC LOGO
The SLC logo with the representation of the sphinx has been drawn from an original Rhodian plate
(6th century BC pottery from Pithos burial)
Archaeological museum of Rhodes, Greece.
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