Progress 09/15/06 to 09/14/07
Outputs
The symposium 'Gene Silencing: The Biology of Small RNAs and the Epigenome' was held January 18-20, 2007 at the Riverside Convention Center in Riverside, California. The hosting organization for the symposium was the Institute for Integrative Genome Biology (IIGB) at the University of California, Riverside (UCR). IIGB was established in 2000 to pioneer solutions for hunger, disease and environmental sustainability by encouraging collaborations among life and physical scientists, mathematicians and engineers from such diverse fields as genomics, public policy studies, and the medical sciences. 'Gene Silencing: The Biology of Small RNAs and the Epigenome,' the 24th Symposium in Plant Biology at UCR, was the first major conference convened by the Institute for Integrative Genome Biology. Organizers of the symposium were: Xuemei Chen, Associate Professor of Plant Cell and Molecular Biology; Shou-Wei Ding, Professor and Plant Pathologist; and Jian-Kang Zhu, Professor of
Plant Cell Biology. All three are participants in the Center for Plant Cell Biology (CEPCEB) in the UCR Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, as well as pioneers in the investigation on small RNA biogenesis and the role of miRNAs in plant development. Total symposium attendance was 319, making it the best attended UCR Symposium in Plant Biology. The symposium program included 38 invited session speakers, including 11 early career investigators and one industry representative. The early career investigator speakers were selected by the organizers from the abstracts subtracts submitted online, with two of these 11 speakers from UC institutions. Due to the overwhelming response by attendees to submit their work in poster format, 100 posters were presented at the four poster sessions scheduled throughout the symposium, including 19 by UC graduate students, postdocs and faculty. In addition to the promotion of scientifc exchange and collaboration, the symposium also served as an
educational tool, promoting interactions among graduate students and postdoctoral researchers with some of the world's leading senior-level investigators of microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) in plant and non-plant organisms. In particular, graduate students enrolled in the Gene Silencing course (GEN206) were able to attend the symposium and learn about gene silencing from experts at the forefront of the field. These graduate students were from diverse graduate programs at UC Riverside, including Botany and Plant Sciences, Plant Pathology, Genetics, Genomics and Bioinformatics, and Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology.
Impacts
It is safe to say that the symposium was the best in the past five years in both comprehensive and in-depth coverage on the topic of small RNAs and epigenetics in plants. Many of the invited speakers are the leading international figures in the field. Examples include, but are not limited to, David Baulcombe (who was the first to detect small RNAs in association with gene silencing), David Bartel (who was one of the first to show that numerous microRNAs are present in animals), James Carrington (who first isolated endogenous small RNAs from plants), Vicki Chandler (who is famous for her studies on paramutation in maize), Marjori Matzke (who was one of the first to have discovered transcriptional gene silencing), and Shou-Wei Ding (who was the first to demonstrate that RNA silencing is an antiviral defense mechanism in animals). Among the invited speakers and speakers selected from registrants were also young, emerging stars in the field. These included Steve Jacobsen,
Olivier Voinnet, Yijun Qi, Xuemei Chen and Jiankang Zhu. Many participants at the symposium expressed a strong interest in having such symposiums on a regular basis in the future. Several journal editors and two NSF officers were at the symposium. This provided researchers a rare opportunity to interact in person with people who make decisions on publication or funding issues related to their research. In summary, this symposium provided a great platform for presenting cutting edge research and sharing unpublished results and an opportunity for forging collaborations and bonding among colleagues.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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