Geneticists from across the world and many disciplines will convene at the University of Otago in July, for the Genetics Society of AustralAsia's Annual Conference, to be held with the New Zealand Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
New Zealand's unofficial genetics capital, Dunedin, is hosting the conference for the first time, and will welcome a fantastic multi-disciplinary line up of international researchers.
Two of the speakers are from the pioneering biomedicine focused Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard: Elinor Karlsson, who leads the Darwin's Dogs project, and Daniel MacArthur co-director of the Broad's Program in Medical and Population Genetics. Also from the US will be Hugo Bellen, of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Baylor College of Medicine, who researchers neurons and the aging process in animals and human diseases.
Ancient DNA expert Tom Gilbert of the University of Copenhagen Centre for GeoGenetics will speak at the invitation of Otago's renowned AllanWilson@Otago researchers, who explore the health and histories of New Zealand populations using evolutionary genomics.
Conservation geneticist Rebecca Johnson, co-chief investigator of the Koala Genome Consortium and Director of the Australian Museum Research Institute, leads a strong conservation theme, which will include a public panel at Dunedin's Orokonui Ecosanctuary.
Headlining a strong biochemistry and molecular biology stream will be Antony Dean, Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at the University of Minnesota, who researches the molecular basis of natural selection.
Other invited speakers will cover exciting genetics, genomics, biochemistry and molecular research from universities across Australia and New Zealand. The wide ranging conference will be a fantastic opportunity for Australasia's ever growing genetics community to build stronger connections at the frontiers of genetics research.
Researchers are invited to submit abstracts for oral presentations and posters, and these should be submitted by 27 March 2017.
Visit the conference website for more information.
