On August 6 Gijs van Rooijen, will lead a presentation and discussion on what may be the most important issue of the 21st century – genomics at the Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery. Dr. van Rooijen is Genome Alberta’s Chief Science Officer. Whether a large audience, or in a one on one discussion, Gijs van Rooijen will convey to you his enthusiasm and wide-spread knowledge. You will come away from this presentation with an excellent understanding of this new century’s hottest scientific topic.

As my alarm went off this morning, I could hear the announcer interviewing Dawn Bielskis about the use of stem cells to assist the sight of her son Jakob who was born with Optic Nerve Hypoplasia. At this time, this is a very controversial procedure which is not done in Canada. Dawn and Jacob will be going to China for this procedure. Interestingly, this was one of the many issues discussed by Dr. Pliny Hayes (Chemistry, Red Deer College) and Dr. Guillermo Barron (Philosophy, Red Deer College) at their discussion on Genetics and Ethics held as part of the MAG Café: Genome sponsored in part by Genome Alberta.

The Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery has done a fantastic job of curating the The Geee! in Genome, after leaving Edmonton earlier in the year. The exhibition will be in Red Deer from June 14 to September 1.

I’m including a table of the events that have been prepared to supplement this exhibit. I’m sure that if you are in the Red Deer area, or plan on passing through on the appropriate date, these are some events on the “not to miss” list. Some are panel discussions, many are movies followed by discussion. I highly recommend the presentation by Janice Cooke one of the Principal Investigators in Genome Alberta’s Mountain Pine Beetle Genomics project, She is a professor at the University of Alberta her presentation will discuss how researchers are using genomics tools to give the people making decisions about these outbreaks advanced tools to help them make better decisions.