March 27, 2013

GSA Conferences The 54th Annual Drosophila Research Conference gets underway in Washington, D.C. on April 3 and continues until April 7, 2013.  Nobel Laureate Jules Hoffmann (CNRS) is the keynote speaker.  Onsite registration is available at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel beginning Wednesday, April 3.  For more information, visit the website. Participate in the online discussion from the meeting by using the hashtag #DROS2013 on Twitter. Register today for “Federal Funding Opportunities & the Proposal Review Process,” a pre-conference GSA Career Development workshop available to attendees of the 2013 Drosophila Research Conference.  The workshop will be held from 3-5 p.m. on Wednesday, April 3 at the conference hotel in Washington.  Abstract submission and registration is open for the 19th International C. elegans Meeting at the University of California, Los Angeles, June 26-30, 2013.  Deadline for abstract submission:  Friday, April 12, 2013.  Housing registration will open in April.  Victor Ambros (Univ of Mass Med Sch), GSA member and past Board member (2007-2009), will present the keynote address. For more information, see the website. Congratulations to the 15 recipients – three postdoctoral researchers and 12 graduate students – of GSA Poster Awards at the 27th Fungal Genetics Conference held March 12-17, 2013 in Pacific Grove, CA.  More than 900 scientists from 40 U.S. states and 39 foreign countries who specialize in fungal genetics attended this conference. For the names and projects of the posters winners, click here. You can also see photos from the conference on the GSA Facebook page and review the many Tweets from the meeting by searching for the hashtag #FUNGAL2013. The GSA Journals Interested in fewer days between acceptance and getting your peer-reviewed research disseminated? Submit your next paper to G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics, which now publishes accepted manuscripts Early Online within one week of acceptance! The GSA Journals will be at the Drosophila Genetics Conference from April 3-7! Visit us at our Booth (#108), or seek out one of the many GENETICS or G3 editors who will be there wearing ribbons on their name badges, including: Mark Johnston (EIC, GENETICS), Brenda Andrews (EIC, G3), Adam Wilkins (Perspectives Editor), Dan Barbash, Jim Birchler, Julie Brill, Steve Chenowith, Lynn Cooley, Dirk-Jan De Koning, Pam Geyer, Kim McKim, Rob Kulathinal, Brian Lazzaro, Lauren McIntyre, Helen Salz, Trudi Schüpback, Jeff Sekelsky, Mariana Wolfner, Scott Hawley, and GSA’s Executive Editor Tracey DePellegrin Connelly.  We’d like to see you and learn about what’s going on in your lab!

Included in this Issue: GSA Conferences The GSA Journals Trainee Travel Awards Policy Funding Opportunity Other Meetings of Interest     March Issue March Issue

Also, if you’re attending Drosophila 2013, please come to the Getting Published Breakfast on Thursday, April 4, from 7:15-8:30 a.m. in the Virginia Suite on the Lobby Level. Editors from GENETICS and G3 will be there to talk about publishing and answer your questions!

Trainee Travel Awards

The deadline to apply for the GSA Undergraduate Travel Award has been extended to April 12, 2013. This award provides financial support to undergraduate GSA members who will be presenting their research at a GSA conference.  The current round of applications is for students attending the 19th International C. elegans Meeting.

For graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, the application deadline is approaching to apply for the DeLill Nasser Award for Professional Development in Genetics. This $1,000 award supports travel costs to attend any conference or course occurring between July 1 and December 31, 2013.  For more information about the award and its criteria, visit the website.  Application deadline:  April 5, 2013.

Policy

GSA Vice President Vicki Chandler visited Congressional offices along with representatives of other FASEB-member societies on Tuesday, March 19, 2013, to explain the value of federal investment in research to Members of Congress and their staff members (see picture below).

Jon R. Lorsch, Ph.D. has been selected as Director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Lorsch is a professor in the Department of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry at Johns Hopkins University. His research, which NIGMS has funded since 2000, focuses on the initiation of translation in eukaryotes. During his tenure at Hopkins, he was also heavily involved in graduate and medical education, including curriculum reform, mentoring, and spearheading new biomedical education initiatives. He expects to start his new position this summer. For more information, read the news release. GSA is partnering with more than 100 other organizations for the Rally for Medical Research in Washington, D.C., April 8, 2013.

This call to action is expected to bring together thousands of advocates, researchers, clinicians, business leaders, survivors and the general public who speak for sustained investment in the National Institutes of Health to improve health, spur more progress in medical research, inspire hope and help save more lives.  You can get involved even if you can’t make it to the rally:  contact your elected representatives, discuss the importance of medical research on their Facebook page or Twitter feed, write an op-ed letter to a newspaper editor, or ask to meet with a staff member at your Congressional district office.

The U.S. House and Senate have approved bills that fund the government through the end of the fiscal year on September 30, 2013. The bills incorporate the dramatic cuts imposed by sequestration, but also include small increases to soften the blow for the nation’s science agencies. Still, the NIH budget will be nearly $1.5 billion below last year and NSF’s will decrease by $356 million. See the GSA website for information about how agencies are responding to sequestration.

Funding Opportunity

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) will appoint up to 15 scientist-educators to its next class of HHMI professors. Each will receive $1 million over five years to create activities that integrate their research with student learning in ways that enhance undergraduate students’ understanding of science. Several from the GSA community are among the 40 leaders who have been selected as HHMI professors in past competitions. Prospective applicants must begin the process by June 4, 2013.

Other Meetings of Interest

The XI International Fungal Biology Conference will take place September 29 – October 3, 2013 in Karlsruhe, Germany in the Rhine valley, an area known for its wineries.  This international conference focuses on exciting new fields at the frontier of fungal biology, often developed by young scientists who are chosen as speakers at this conference. The meeting will be combined with the biannual German Molecular Mycology Meeting. For more information, visit the website.

Do you have a brief announcement to submit to GSA e-News? E-news items include news about GSA members – new positions, book publication, awards or grants received and obits; short policy items; brief research news items and grant programs; and, award nomination announcements. Deadline for next issue: April 5, 2013.  Send items to Phyllis Edelman, pedelman@genetics-gsa.org.