April 24, 2013

 

Nominations are now open for the GSA Board of Directors.  GSA members who have paid their dues for 2013 are receiving e-mail invitations to nominate colleagues (or yourself) to the positions of Vice President (2014, who becomes President beginning January 1, 2015 for a one-year term and then Past President in 2016); Treasurer (3-year term, 2014–2016) and three Directors (3-year term, 2014–2016).  As you send in your nominations, please keep in mind that being an officer or a director of GSA is a responsibility to the entire genetics community.  All nominations will be reviewed by the GSA Nominating Committee, who will determine the ballot in accordance with the GSA bylaws. Deadline for nominations:  5 p.m. EDT, Friday, May 17, 2013.

Nominations for the annual GSA awards are open at the GSA website. Members may nominate colleagues for any or all of the Society’s annual awards until September 2013:

From the GSA Journals

For your next manuscript, publish in the GSA Journals GENETICS and G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics. Why? Because:

  • GENETICS and G3 are fast! Turnaround time from submission to first decision is about a month. Fast-track – where the journal lines up an editor and reviewers ahead of time, accelerating time to first decision –  is also available.
  • With GENETICS and G3's Early Online (EO), your manuscript is published online in less than two weeks of acceptance, has a DOI, and is in PubMed. EO manuscripts are free-to-read on the journal websites.
  • GENETICS and G3 are peer-edited, with scientists in the field writing thoughtful reviews and making fair decisions to increase your manuscript's long-term impact and reach.
  • GENETICS and G3 accept pre-submission inquiries: genetics-gsa@thegsajournals.org or g3-gsa@thegsajournals.org.
  • Got data? Both GENETICS and G3 are committed to open data policies. All raw data is required to accompany the article.
  • Want open access? G3 is an OA journal, and for GENETICS, an author can choose OA for a fee.
 

GSA Members in the News

Congratulations to Catherine Peichel (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Res Ctr) who was among 175 scholars, artists and scientists from among 3,000 applicants to receive a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship Award, which she will use on a sabbatical to work in the lab of Walter Salzburger (Univ of Basel, Switzerland).  An evolutionary geneticist, Peichel uses the threespine stickleback fish as a model to focus on genetic variation in body type and behavior between species.

Congratulations to former GSA Board member Susan Wessler for being named a Fellow of the American Society of Plant Biologists in recognition of her distinguished and long-term contributions to plant biology and service to her community.

DNA in the News

Ten years ago this month, scientists announced the completion of the Human Genome Project. The National Human Genome Research Institute has a series of events this year to celebrate the anniversary.

This month also marks the 60th anniversary of the publication of the Watson-Crick paper describing the structure of DNA.

For DNA Day, Thursday, April 25, GSA is teaming up with American Society for Human Genetics in the hunt for your best DNAnalogies! For example, “The genome is like a cookbook and each gene is a recipe that tells the cell how to make a particular functional product.”  Start thinking about your DNAnalogies and post them to a thread on Facebook on Thursday, or join the fun on Twitter and use #DNAnalogies.  Don't forget–don't let your DNAnalogies go awry! 

Policy

The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) is collecting feedback from the scientific community on how administrative burden affects investigators. Information collected from the survey will be included as part of FASEB’s response to a National Science Board (NSB) request for information (RFI) on Reducing Investigator’s Administrative Workload for Federally Funded Research.” Survey responses will not be attributed to individuals. Investigators are encouraged to participate in the survey and share with others.  You can also respond directly to the NSB RFI if you would like to provide additional feedback.

Career Development

FASEB is accepting applications to its Grant Writing Seminar & Practical Exercises Workshop, which will be held August 26–28, 2013 at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA.  This nationally acclaimed seminar teaches new investigators how to write a grant application and is intended for senior graduate students, postdoctoral associates, and current non-tenure track faculty members who have not previously been successfully funded.  MARC travel awards are available.  The application for the program and the travel award form are due on Friday, July 12, 2013.

Other Meetings of Interest

The 7th International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering (iCCBE 2013) in Beijing, China, September 26–28, 2013 is accepting abstracts until May 6, 2013. The goal of the conference is “to bridge the gap between researchers, scientists and experts in both academia and industry as an important vehicle for information sharing and cooperation.”  For more information, visit the website.

Registration is now open for the 18th Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics at the University of Washington, Seattle, July 6–28, 2013.  The institute is to introduce geneticists to modern methods of statistical analysis and for statisticians to understand the statistical challenges posed by modern genetic data.  For more information, visit the websiteEarly-bird registration deadline:  11:59 PM (PT), Monday, June 10, 2013.

The application site is open for the 2013 Generic Model Organism Database (GMOD) Summer School, a training course in genetic and genomic software to be held at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) in Durham, North Carolina, July 19–23, 2013. The GMOD Summer School is the best way to learn how to install, configure, and use popular GMOD tools, including GBrowse, JBrowse, Galaxy, MAKER, Tripal, WebApollo, and Chado; courses are taught by the tool developers, and there will be evening sessions for those who want to work on their own data or troubleshoot issues with the developers.  Application is competitive.  Interested participants are encouraged to apply early. Application deadline:  Monday, June 10, 2013.

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: May 3, 2013.  Send items to Phyllis Edelman, pedelman@genetics-gsa.org.