Posts tagged: Conferences

Genome Biology at Non-coding RNA, epigenetics and transgenerational inheritance 2013

Laura Fulford on April 23, 2013 at 5:01 pm - 0 Comments

This year's Abcam conference on 'non-coding RNAs, epigenetics and transgenerational inheritance' had a distinct Lamarckian flavor with conference Chair and 2013 Hooke medal recipient, Eric Miska, recommending Arthur Koestler's 'The case of the midwife toad' as extracurricular reading. In addition to his literary recommendations Miska discussed his recently published observations on the ability of piRNA phenotypes to be inherited through generations in C. elegans. The nematode and RNAi theme was continued in Scott Kennedy's talk, which focused on his recently published work on identifying genes required for RNAi inheritance in C. elegans. He identified such genes through screening for mutants defective in transmitting RNAi phenotypes to the next generation, but which are still able …

Camus enters the clinic: Genome Biology at Genomic Disorders 2013

Naomi Attar on April 17, 2013 at 11:19 am - 1 Comment

It is not unusual per se for Nobel laureates to be quoted at genomics conferences, but it is perhaps a little out of the ordinary when the Nobel Prize in question is for Literature. But, then again, the Wellcome Trust's 'Genomic Disorders 2013: From 60 years of DNA to human genomes in the clinic' was not your run-of-the-mill conference; instead, a mesh of current research and historical (and futuristic) perspective paid tribute to the 60th anniversary of Watson and Crick's discovery of the double helix.

So it was not entirely out of keeping with expectations when philosopher (and former candidate for Slovene of the year) Renata Salecl stepped onto the podium and asked:

'Should I kill myself, or have …

COPEing with publication ethics issues – notes from the European Seminar

Shreeya Nanda on April 15, 2013 at 2:19 pm - 0 Comments

The Biology and Medical Editors recently attended the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) European Seminar, held at Charles Darwin House, London. The theme of the seminar was “Publication ethics from student to professional”, and the talks ranged from the role of institutions in investigating research misconduct to plagiarism at the student level.

Professor Pieter Drenth, Honorary President of the All European Academies, provided an in-depth discussion of institutional responses to violations of research integrity. We Editors rely heavily on institutional support in dealing with issues such as authorship disputes and allegations of research misconduct. It was useful to gain an insight into the guidance available for institutions, including for funding agencies and academies of science in addition …

Critical Care publishes two new supplements – free to access

Kathryn Smith on March 25, 2013 at 4:23 pm - 0 Comments

Critical Care has just published two new collections to coincide with the 33rd International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (ISICEM). All articles in both collections are free to access.

The first collection features poster abstracts from the 33rd ISICEM, published as a supplement to the journal. View a full list of the 545 abstracts presented at the conference. ISICEM also provides its delegates with a one year free subscription to Critical Care as part of their registration. All you need to do is register on the Critical Care website using the email address you used to register for ISICEM.

The second, a selection of 10 articles from Springer’s Annual Update in Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine 2012 have …

E unus pluribum (out of one person, many genomes): Genome Biology at the CSH Single Cell Analyses meeting

Naomi Attar on March 14, 2013 at 3:53 pm - 2 Comments

You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
Eminem, 'Lose Yourself'

Hip hop has-been Marshall Mathers III may or may not have been musing on the technical challenges of single-cell sequencing when he uttered these words, but he might as well have been. Because each cell only gives up its contents one time, and any material lost during your sequencing protocol is gone forever. No pressure.

So if single-cell sequencing is such a torment, why bother? Genome Biology sent an intrepid explorer, or editor if you will, to Cold Spring Harbor's Single Cell Analyses meeting in order to find out.

Mind-boggling mosaics
It turns out that sequencing individual genomes in a population reveals a rich tapestry …

Making dementia a global health priority

Kathryn Smith on February 12, 2013 at 10:26 am - 0 Comments

Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy is newly affiliated to Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI), the international federation of national Alzheimer organisations.

ADI provides a global voice for dementia, empowering national Alzheimer associations to promote and offer services and support for people with dementia and their carers. ADI works globally to focus attention on the Alzheimer’s epidemic, by hosting an annual conference and campaigning for policy change from governments and the World Health Organisation (WHO). For example, ADI commission a number of World Alzheimer Reports and were involved in the recently launched report Dementia: A Public Health Priority by the WHO. Read the highlights of the report in Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy.

Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy shares …

Epigenetics & Chromatin: Interactions and processes – a BioMed Central conference

samrose on January 25, 2013 at 5:19 pm - 0 Comments

BioMed Central will be hosting this inaugural conference in association with its journal Epigenetics & Chromatin at Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA, on the 11-13 March 2013.

The conference will have a strong focus on how epigenetic components come together to regulate cellular processes. “Epigenetics research is progressing from a listing of component parts to a fuller understanding of dynamic processes,” states Steven Henikoff (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center), conference organizer and co-Editor-in-Chief of Epigenetics & Chromatin. Henikoff continues that “Many disease states are increasingly recognized as having both a genetic and an epigenetic basis, and chromatin regulators are often found to be cancer driver genes,”. This conference will highlight how the discovery of these epigenetic changes …

This time it's personal: Genome Biology at PGMG 2012

Naomi Attar on November 23, 2012 at 12:39 pm - 0 Comments

We are all prisoners of our own genomes, but our genomes are cages that we cannot see. What if you were given a magic wand that could extract your genome from its shroud of invisibility? Would you choose to use it? And, if you did, would you be any less the prisoner?

Well, such a magic wand is now yours (in beta) for $1,000 or so, and these questions have become very real. The new reality of genomics as a tool for describing the individual, rather than a species, made for an inspirational set of talks at this year's Cold Spring Harbor "Personal Genomes & Medical Genomics" meeting (held on November 14-17), which saw a series of speakers echo …

Beyond the genome and onto the web

Rebecca Furlong on October 9, 2012 at 5:00 pm - 0 Comments

Organising a conference feels a bit like the final stages of a PhD: spending months scouring the scientific literature, a gradual increase in stress levels, followed by three manic days on a diet consisting entirely of coffee.

As an organizer of the third Beyond the Genome meeting, hosted by Genome Medicine and Genome Biology and recently held in Boston MA, I had much this experience despite having little to worry about. Thanks to the sterling work of the BioMed Central commercial and events teams, the meeting ran very smoothly, and the committee of James Lupski, David Dooling, Oliver Rando and John McPherson had assembled a fantastic speaker program packed with world-leading researchers.

However, I was so busy …