Genome Alberta's Official Newsletter

Genome Alberta Newsletter GeneSnips - February 3, 2009

Genome Alberta News

Forest Health Workshop

In January 2008 Genome Alberta and Genome British Columbia got together and funded the Mountain Pine Beetle System Genomics research project in response to the epidemic that has already swept across 13 million hectares of pine forests in Western Canada.  The two organizations are now working to develop a Canadian Forest Health Genomics Initiative and look at ways and means to fund the effort.  The initiative is to be much broader that the current Mountain Pine Beetle project and will include additional forest pests and host species important across the country.

On March 30^th and 31^st the joint BC-Alberta steering committee is holding a workshop in Toronto featuring speakers and attendees from government, industry, community groups, and academic institutions to share views and information on all aspects of the national issues surrounding invasive species.

The objective of the workshop is to determine what support and research capacity exits within Canada to use genomics as a way to mitigate current and future forest health threats.

This is an invitation only workshop but if you’d like more information or want to be involved contact Genome Alberta’s Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Gijs van Rooijen at vanrooijen@genomealberta.ca 

For more information on the joint Mountain Pine Beetle project visit www.thetriaproject.ca 

You can also engage in the discussion about the Mountain Pine Beetle by visiting our Blog pages at www.genomealberta.ca/blogs or searching for Mountain Pine Beetle on Facebook.

Nobel Laureate in Calgary

We have some space available at another invitation only event in Calgary sponsored by Genome Alberta. You don’t often get the chance to spend some time with a Nobel Laureate but on February 9^th Dr. Luc Montagnier will be speaking about Global Genomics and its impact on Alberta.  Our province has a great opportunity to diversify its economic base by investing in genomics research relevant to public health and by accelerating the application of advances in genomics to get the work out of the lab and into everyday life. This Roundtable Discussion will explore the opportunities for commercialization using new genomics technologies and the challenges faced from ethical, legal, and social issues.

Politicians, researcher leaders, health care community employees or companies involved in biotech products or research will all find Dr. Montagnier’s views interesting and useful.

Dr. Montagnier is the co-recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine and is perhaps best known for his 1983 work in discovering the human immunodeficiency virus or HIV.

If you would like to be part of the Roundtable please contact Genome Alberta’s Director of Communications Mike Spear at mspear@genomealberta.ca or by calling 403-503-5222.  

Age of Personalized Genomics

The website for the Age of Personalized Genomics Conference is ready at www.genomealberta.ca/APG

This is the 5^th International DNA Sampling Conference and it is taking place in Banff, Alberta from September 16-19^th  of this year.

Some of the key areas being addressed at the conference include:

• Current state of the science
• Research ethics and governance challenges 
• Integration of personalized genomics into health care
• Media and popular representation of personal genomics
• Commercialization of personalized genomics and regulation of direct-to-consumer genetic testing 

 Go to www.genomealberta.ca/APG for the complete agenda or to register for the Conference

National BioEducators Conference

If you are a teacher interested in aspects of Science Education there is a conference coming up later in February that is taking a unique approach to involve as many educators as possible. The conference is being held simultaneously in Saskatoon, Toronto and Halifax. The program will address current research developments in bioethics, biodiversity, biopharmaceuticals, agri-foods, and  nanotechnology with speakers both onsite and by webcast.

Go to http://cberc.ca/national-bioscience-educators-conference/ for complete information and registration details. Genome Alberta will be posting blog entries of some of the hi-lites as well as putting out some of the information out through our  Genomics application on Facebook.

Genome Canada and the Federal Budget

Though Genome Canada was not mentioned in the Federal Budget released last week it does not mean an end to large-scale genomics research or to Genome Canada, as all projects now underway or already committed to are fully funded.

There are currently two, five-year agreements in place with the federal government covering 2008-2012 for 100 million dollars and for 2009-2013 for 140 million dollars. Genome Canada has also been busy raising funds from other strategic partners in the private, publics and philanthropic sectors.

If you have any questions please give our office a call at 403-503-5220 or visit the Genome Canada website at www.genomecanada.ca
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GE³LS Digest

This is a sample from the GE³LS Digest put out on a regular basis by Genome Alberta’s GE³LS team. If you’d like to receive the full digest, email rhyde-lay@genomealberta.ca

New research puts blood test for BSE in sight: Calgary scientist – January 29, 2009
http://technology.sympatico.msn.cbc.ca/News/ContentPosting?newsitemid=bse-study&feedname=CBC-TECH-SCIENCE-V3&show=False&number=0&showbyline=True&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc&date=True
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease as it is more commonly known, is a condition that effectively pokes holes in the brains of cattle. Scientists believe cattle can become infected with mad cow disease if they eat the tissue of an animal that had the disease. Infected animals can be carriers of the disease for years and not show any symptoms. Traditionally, tests for mad cow disease could only be done post-mortem. In the past, entire herds have had to be slaughtered because of the suspicion of infection. But the researchers say that they have come up with a method to determine if cattle are infected months before they show any symptoms. "We ... envision that we could establish a testing pipeline next to the slaughterhouses for the animals that come in there to certify them as BSE-free," Christoph Sensen, the principal investigator from the University of Calgary, told CBC News. Sensen, collaborating with other Canadian experts and scientists from German universities, analyzed animal CNAs - DNA molecules that are circulating in blood in response to an outside stressor, like an infection.

What’s Race Got to Do With It? Nine clinical trials around the world are studying treatments in groups defined by race, gender or both:  – January 3, 2009
http://www.newsweek.com/id/177737
It is the question that almost never gets raised in polite company, although almost everyone has an opinion about it. Often, in fact, two opinions, one public and one private. There are many ways of asking it, but perhaps the most neutral way is: what, if any, are the significant genetic differences between racial groups, besides the obvious superficial ones, such as skin color, that we use to define "race" in the first place? That sentence took me a half hour to compose, and I hope I got it right, because this is as touchy a subject as there is in America, or most other countries with populations of mixed ancestry. For decades, it was virtually a closed question in academia, where the reigning scientific paradigm, expressed by Harvard geneticist Richard Lewontin in 1972, held that almost all the variation in the human genome represented differences between individuals. This notion fit well with the social consensus that the question was better not asked, because it could lead toward racial comparisons that almost invariably end badly for one group or another. And there the matter might have rested, but for the march of medical progress, which has been accumulating data on the differential health risks and drug responses of population groups.

Stimulus Bill Holds Billions for NIH, CDC –January 20, 2009
http://www.genomeweb.com/node/910396?emc=el&m=295911&l=1&v=42c8152690
The Federal economic stimulus package that awaits both Congress and newly-inaugurated President Barack Obama includes billions of dollars in new funding for the National Institutes of Health and other research agencies, as well as a major funding plan for a health information technology program. The stimulus package, which currently is in the US House of Representatives, offers $3.5 billion to NIH, $460 million for renovation at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a total of $20 billion to back health information technology initiatives, and billions for other agencies that fund biomedical research and genomics, according to the House Ways and Means and Appropriations Committees. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009, which was drafted to "prevent the loss of millions of jobs and get our economy moving," will be considered over the next two weeks, according to a statement from the office of House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey (D-Wis.).In its current draft, the package seeks $1.5 billion to fund NIH research and $500 million to implement a repairs and improvement plan for NIH campuses. Another $1.5 billion in the bill would go through NIH to renovate university research facilities and “help them compete for biomedical research grants.”

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