Genome Alberta's Official Newsletter

Genome Alberta Newsletter GeneSnips - October 17, 2008

Genome Alberta News

Genome Canada International Conference

There isn’t much time left to make your plans to attend the Genome Canada International Conference in Vancouver October 22^nd to the 24^th at the Four Seasons Hotel. The theme for the conference is 2020 Vision: The Impact of Science on Society. There is a wide range of speakers and the full conference program and registration information can be found at www.genomecanada.ca/conference2008  Updates and pictures from the conference will be available on the Genome Alberta website and through Facebook by using the Genomics application.

If you can’t attend the full conference but you are in the Vancouver area, there is a Public Forum on the evening of the 22^nd at the Telus World of Science. The Genetic Test Results Are In... Now What? starts at 7:30p and the expert panel will feature Dr. Elaine Mardis, Washington University at St. Louis; Dr. Wylie Burke, University of Washington and Dr. Darren Platt, human genomics scientist and former Senior Director of Research at 23 & Me. Genome Alberta’s Director of Corporate Communications will be there to offer a first-hand experience of getting a personal genetic test done and the results of that test are available in advance at http://www.genomealberta.ca/PersonalGenotyping/default.aspx

For more information on the Forum and to register please go to www.genomebc.ca

Génome Québec Multidisciplinary Mini-Symposium

Genetic testing : The power of Knowledge will be held at the Hôtel Opus Montréal in Montréal, Québec on November 7, 2008

Registration is free and places are limited so reserve your seat now. Session titles include:

• The more you know the better one’s life can be: The challenges of direct-to-consumer genetic tests
• Genetics risk prof les: A Tool for Prevention?
• Expanded newborn screening: Ethics, evidence and the public’s health
  
• and many more topics that will be part of a busy and interesting day

 For more information contact Anick Dubois at adubois@genomequebec.com

New Head for Alberta Ingenuity In Situ Centre

Dr. Steve Larter stepped down as co-director of the Alberta Ingenuity Centre for In Situ Energy (AICISE) effective October 1, 2008 and Dr. Pedro Pereira Almao will assume the directorship of the Centre. Dr. Larter will continue to be actively involved as a principal investigator with the Centre. He will also work in close collaboration with Dr. David Keith and Dr. David Layzell in developing 'Carbon Management Canada', a concept national Centre of Excellence that will focus on research and commercialization of carbon capture and storage technologies, as well as those associated with carbon-efficient fossil fuel recovery and processing.

Science Cafes

Genome Alberta was pleased to play an online role in the recent Science Cafe held in Edmonton.  There were 40 or so people on hand to hear and talk about Nanotechnology. Meanwhile we were hard at work updating the online world using Twitter, a  ‘micro-blogging’ tool that allows you to update events, people or whatever else choose using your mobile phone, laptop or home computer.  If you are already a Twitter user look for #SciCafe and you can see what was said. If you want to try out Twitter head on over to www.twitter.com and sign up. It is painless and why not use it for the next Science Cafe titled -  Grey Matters: Prions and their affect on the brain . It is on November 4^th starting at 6:30 at the Good Earth Cafe in Campus Towers in Edmonton and if you can’t be there in person you can ‘tweet’ away instead.

(pictures from the October 6^th Science Cafe can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/MikesGene/ScienceCafes# )

Calgary Technologies Open House

Genome Alberta is located in the Alastair Ross Technology Centre and we will  be part of the Calgary Technologies Inc. Open House on October 30^th from 4:00 - 7:00p.  We are located at 3553 - 31 Street NW in Calgary which is just across the street from the University of Calgary on the North side. The Open House will showcase companies located in the Alastair Ross building and is an opportunity for visitors to see some undiscovered gems that are part of Alberta’s high tech community. Along with the booths and exhibits from the established companies there will be a  ‘Tech Lounge’ where you can meet informally with representatives from smaller businesses. There will also be a ‘Pitch Corner’  where founders of new companies will pitch their product or service at regular intervals. The event is free and there is plenty of parking so plan on joining Genome Alberta and many more interesting and innovative companies and organizations for the Tech Showcase and Open House on Thursday,  October 30^th starting at 4:00p

Imagining Science

You can get your first peek into the Genome Alberta co-sponsored Imagining Science Exhibit and publication by going to http://www.festivalofideas.ca/imagining-science.cfm for information on the essay and art contributors. The exhibit opens at the Alberta Gallery of Art on November 15^th with a series of panel discussions the next day. It will run until February 1^st and every Thursday evening there will be special tours and blog discussions led by a variety of guests. Genome Alberta will be featured on January 22^nd with the topic to be announced.

The GE3LS Alberta team has put a lot of work into getting the exhibit and the book off the ground, and deserve a  pat on the back for their efforts.  They have collected an amazing array of talent for the essays and artwork including Francis Collins, Jay Ingram, Hank Greely, Adam Zaretsky, Sean and Timothy Caulfield, Bartha Maria Knoppers and Jennifer Willet.

Strategic Research Themes Announced  for 2008-20099

Genome Canada has announced  the two Strategic Research Themes that will be included in the second Genome Canada Strategic Research Investment Portfolio, a detailed investment proposal intended for submission to the federal government.

Theme:   Agriculture – Animals
Position Paper:   Aquatic and Terrestrial Animal Genomics
Theme Leaders:   Dr. Andrew Potter (VIDO, University of Saskatchewan), Dr. Stephen Moore (University of Alberta), Dr. Ben Koop (University of Victoria), Dr. Matthew Rise (Memorial University)

Theme:   Child Health Genomics
Position Paper:   Child Health Genomics: An Investment in Canada’s Future
Theme Leaders:   Dr. Janet Rossant (The Hospital for Sick Children), Dr. Guy Rouleau (CHU Sainte-Justine), Ronald Lafrenière (CHUM Research Centre)

This announcement is the culmination of the second cycle of a process launched in November 2007 to identify research themes of national importance. The approach was successful in choosing position papers that describe the application of genomics and proteomics research to an identified biological problem to create applications that will benefit all Canadians.

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

Spitting Into The Wind – October 2, 2008
http://www.forbes.com/sciences/forbes/2008/1027/070.html?feed=rss_technology_sciences
In September Google cofounder Sergey Brin blogged about a distressing bit of news: He carried a genetic marker associated with a higher risk for Parkinson's disease. That intimation of mortality generated sympathy for Brin, of course. It also provided a p.r. boost for 23andMe, the Mountain View, Calif. company that markets the $400 "custom genome scan" that Brin had taken, a company that happens to have been cofounded by his wife, Anne Wojcicki. Brin certainly deserves the sympathy. But 23andMe doesn't deserve the good publicity. The company is marketing an expensive bit of medical technology with little proof that it will do any good. Just 11 months old, 23andMe has already become one of the tech world's cool companies, largely because of the Wojcicki-Brin connection. Rupert Murdoch and Harvey Weinstein crowded into a Manhattan lobby last month for a 23andMe-sponsored "spit party" (saliva is used in the test) designed to create buzz.

Publish or Patent? Knowledge Dissemination in Agricultural Biotechnology – October 6, 2008
http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/dp/ifpridp00795.asp
Plant transformation research has achieved outstanding progress in the development of transgenic crops over the past decades, and the research results have been spread through journal publications and patents. With the recent emergence of stronger intellectual property rights, investments in crop research and the landscape of plant transformation research have changed, along with the patterns of knowledge dissemination. In this paper, we discuss the recent trends in plant transformation research by examining patent and journal publication data during the last decade. The data analysis shows that there have been significant shifts toward applied research by developing countries and toward patenting as a means of knowledge dissemination during the past few decades, reflecting the increasing role of the private sector in developing countries in crop improvement research.

Researchers find easier way to make stem cells – October 12, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE49B2M320081012
Researchers trying to find ways to transform ordinary skin cells into powerful stem cells said on Sunday they found a shortcut by "sprinkling" a chemical onto the cells. Adding the chemical allowed the team at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute in Massachusetts to use just two genes to transform ordinary human skin cells into more powerful induced pluripotent stem cells or iPS cells."This study demonstrates there's a possibility that instead of using genes and viruses to reprogram cells, one can use chemicals," said Dr. Doug Melton, who directed the study published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

Melton said Danwei Huangfu, a postdoctoral researcher in his lab, developed the new method. "The exciting thing about Danwei's work is you can see for the first time that you could sprinkle chemicals on cells and make stem cells," Melton, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, said in a statement.

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Genome Alberta in Pictures

You don’t often get to see the Mountain Pine Beetle with wings outstretched but we have added this picture along with many more to our Picasa pages at http://picasaweb.google.com/MikesGene/MountainPineBeetleProject#   (photo courtesy of Lorraine MacLaughlin )

We have added some information on the Tria project as it is now called, along with links to media reports, to the Genome Alberta site at www.genomealberta.ca 

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