Bethesda, MD – The Genetics Society of America is pleased to announce the recipients for the first place poster awards from the 17th International C. elegans meeting held June 24-28 at the University of California, Los Angeles. Eighteen posters from among the 375 graduate posters reviewed by the selection committee were selected for the first award of $55 (US).
The graduate students, who represent schools in the United States, Canada, Portugal, France, The Netherlands, Japan and Malaysia, all do research on Caenorhabitis elegans (C. elegans), a transparent roundworm with a simple genome comprising six pairs of chromosomes, but which is used as a model organism to help understand the role of specific genes and gene mutations in animals and humans.
The first place award recipients, their topic, institution and the title of their research abstract are listed below. Second and third place awards were also distributed. For a complete list of awardees, please go to http://www.genetics-gsa.org/pdf/09Worm_poster.pdf .
First Award Recipients
Aging and Stress:
Daniel Czyz, (378C) Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
Tissue-specific Proteostasis Networks in C. elegans.
Marco Gallo, (278B), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
The longevity gene misc-1 modulates apoptosis in C. elegans and human cell lines.
Behavior:
Kursheed A. Wani, (613A), University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Genetic analysis of dopamine signaling in C. elegans.
Cell Cycle:
Gary Riefler, (1066A), MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Cyclin B3 is necessary for the generation of functional microtubule-kinetochore attachments.
Cell Death:
Michael Chiorazzi (696C), Rockefeller University, New York, NY
The non-canonical cell death program governing tail-spike cell death requires the F box protein DRE-1.
Cell Fate:
Brian M. Farley (640A), University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA
Post-transcriptional regulation of early development by multiple RNA-binding proteins.
Evolution:
Fabien Duveau (817A), Institut Jacques Monod- CNRS & University of Paris, France
Characterization of the cryptic genetic variation in the vulva system of C. elegans.
Gene Expression:
Teije C. Middelkoop (834C), Hubrecht Institute, KNAW, University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands
Dissecting the spatiotemporal expression patterns of Wnt and Frizzled genes to obtain insight into Wnt-dependent processes in C. elegans.
Genomics:
Ting Han, (966C), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
A rich diversity of 3' UTR isoforms revealed by deep sequencing.
Morphogenesis:
Sihui Zhang, (1056C), Virgina Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg
Isolation and Culture of Motile C. elegans Sex Myoblast Cells for High-resolution Microscopy.
Neuronal Development:
Grace S. Kim, (469A), Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY
unc-3 is necessary for axon pioneering and guidance in C. elegans.
Organelles:
Hyeon-Cheol Lee, (1148B), University of Tokyo, Japan
mboa-7 is required for selective incorporation of polyunsaturated fatty acids into phosphatidylinositol in C. elegans.
Pathogenesis:
Song-Hua Lee, (413B), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
A genome scale gene expression analyses reveals that Burkholderia pseudomallei suppresses Caenorhabditis elegans immunity via targeting a GATA transcription factor.
Polarity:
Dorian C. Anderson, Skirball Institute and Sackler Program for Biomedical Studies, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY
Investigating PAC-1 asymmetry and the molecular control of radial polarity in the C. elegans early embryo.
RNAi:
Daniel Chaves, (937A), University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA and Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Lisbon, Portugal
PIR-1 is a 5' RNA phosphatase that interacts with Dicer and is essential for C. elegans development.
Sex and Germline:
Sarah Brisbin, (786C), Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada
A Role for C. elegans Eph RTK Signalling in PTEN Regulation.
Synaptic Function:
Alyson L. Sujkowski, (523A), The University of Toledo, Ohio
Homeostatic regulation of GABA neuromuscular synapses.
Timing and Dauer:
Victor L. Jensen, (718A), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
The novel cilia protein DAF-25 is required for DAF-11 cilia localization.
The abstracts of the titles listed here can be found at: http://www.genetics-gsa.org/celegans2009/abstracts/. Search by abstract number in parenthesis.
ABOUT THE GENETICS SOCIETY OF AMERICA
Founded in 1931, the Genetics Society of America represents nearly 4,000 geneticists and science educators whose work with model organisms – Drosophila, C. elegans, Chlamydomonas, yeast, fungi and others – provide the basic foundations for genetic research and study. Through model organism meetings, such as the annual Drosophila Research Conference and the biennial Fungal Genetics, Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology, International C. elegans and Model Organisms and Human Biology conferences and meetings and its GENETICS Journal, the Society fosters collaboration and cooperation among model organism researchers and educators. For more information about the Society and these meetings, please visit www.genetics-gsa.org.