Mid of July our lab retreat took place at the the Max Planck Castle: Schloss Ringberg.
Our Lab retreat this year was truly something special. In the picturesque and academic environment of Schloss Ringberg, built by the money and minds of Duke Luitpold and Friedrich Attenhuber, we shared our science with one another, quizzed, problem solved, networked, and even solved a murder or two.
Joining forces with Prof. Hassan Salem’s and Prof. Thomas Böhm’s groups, we headed to the special location of our scientific excursion: Schloss Ringberg.
Overlooking the Tegernsee at the foothills of the Bavarian Alps, this beautiful castle became the setting of our scientific discussions, posters and presentations.
Beginning construction in 1913, the estate was the passion project of Duke Luitpold in Bavaria accompanied by friend, architect and artist Friedrich Attenhuber. It was bequeathed to the Max Planck Society on the duke’s death in 1973 to support our endeavours. Its architecture and interior design unite a whole host of 18th, 19th and early 20th century sensibilities, creating truly riveting environment for academic dialogue.
After our bus winded up through the trees to our new home (for three days), we launched our retreat off with a presentation by Prof. Hassan Salem on beetle-microbe mutualisms, specifically that between the tortoise leaf beetles and Stammera capleta. Following this, members of his lab gave wonderful posters describing their work unravelling these symbiotic interactions. After the afternoon of interesting discussions, we finished off the evening after dinner with a (scientific) quiz!
Prof. Ruth Ley started the next day detailing her exciting journey from field biologist to director: from studying grasses in Hawaii to a field season in Antarctica, from America to Europe. Her talk was full of inspiration and advice. Our group leaders then gave informative talks: James Marsh with the microbiome engineering team and Alex Tyakht’s microbiome informatics group. Project Leaders Hagay Enav and Stacey Heaver then discussed their work on microbiome bioinformatics and bacterial lipidomic respectively. Finally, the remainder of the lab gave short three minutes flash talks – Anna Bryson even did the splits!
To crown off the day, we enjoyed a suspenseful night of murder mystery! Who done it? Why did they do it? We all got into our costumes and characters, mingled and gossiped, and then had to solve the tragic (or perhaps not) murder of one of our fellow townsfolk.
On the final day, Thomas Böhm detailed to us his thrilling life experiences and career, giving us an insight into his groups work on the evolution of the adaptive immune system in the basal vertebrates. Before we had to leave, we went on a brief walk to a local cheese producer, got ourselves some local produce, and said goodbye to the beautiful Schloss Ringberg.
Although we had to leave such a scenic environment, the great memories, new connections and shared research conversations will stay with us for a long while ahead.