Upcoming events hosted by or involving Genetics Otago will be listed here. Please check back regularly for updates. A calendar of events that may be of interest to our members can be found at the bottom of this page and in the sidebar of other pages on this site, please note that this includes events hosted outside of Genetics Otago.
- GO Annual Symposium
- Zebrafish Hub Annual Meeting
- Oxford Nanopore Technology Workshop
- CRISPR Workshop
- Calendar of Events
GO Annual Symposium – POSTPONED
As usual, the Symposium will highlight the fantastic research being done by GO members from around the country through presentations, posters and awards.
Date: New date TBC (tentatively 20th February 2025)
Time: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Venue: TBC
Programme
A draft programme will be available here soon.
Registration
Registration for this event will open closer to time.
Registration Fee
Due to budget constraints, we will be charging a $50 per person registration fee for all attendees to subsidise the costs associated with the Symposium. We have received confirmation that this registration fee can be paid from S accounts, and if you are in a position to make a donation on top of this fee, we would gladly receive it. However, we do not want the payment to be a barrier to attendance, so if you are not in a position to make a payment, please contact us go@otago.ac.nz.
Payment Methods
Payments from an S account (or other University account) can be journaled to Genetics Otago account GL.10.LH.A14.2541 via your finance associate. Please include the surname(s) of the registrants that the payment covers in the narration.
If you need to make payment using funds from outside the University this can be arranged via the Cashier’s Office. Please contact us for details (go@otago.ac.nz).
Awards
The Annual Genetics Otago Awards including The Genetics Otago Award, Outstanding Mentor Awards, Student Supervisor Award, Publication Awards, Poster Awards and Science Communication Prize will be presented at the conclusion of the Symposium and nominations for these are now open.
All award nominations should be submitted by email to go@otago.ac.nz.
Full details of the awards can be found here: Award Details.
Zebrafish Hub Annual Meeting
Date: Wednesday 27th November 2024
Time: 10:00 am – 1:00 pm
Venue: Octagonal Room, Dunedin Hospital
Agenda: Zebrafish Hub 2024 Agenda
Generously sponsored by:
Oxford Nanopore Technology Workshop
Join us at Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, Dunedin, for a one day Oxford Nanopore Technology symposium. This event, jointly hosted by Genomics Aotearoa and the Genetics Otago ONT hub, will feature research talks highlighting different ONT use cases, a technical sequencing demonstration and an EPI2ME workshop.
This is an in-person event being held on Friday, December 6th at the Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka / University of Otago campus.
Registration for this event is free of charge.
This event is sponsored by ONT, and is supported by the Otago Genomics Facility.
Contact tyler.mcinnes@otago.ac.nz for any queries.
CRISPR Workshop
This event is designed to cater to the diverse community of researchers at the University of Otago who are using or interested in using the CRISPR-Cas diagnostics toolkit. We warmly welcome everyone to attend.
For the workshop, you will need a laptop with either a macOS or a Windows operating system (with Windows Linux subsystem installed). Optionally, it would be advantageous if you have Geneious Prime software installed (a free trial time can be obtained on the official website)
Date: Wednesday 13th December 2024
Time: 9:00 am – 2:00 pm
Venue: Hunter Centre, Room 1.18
Programme: CRISPR-Dx Programme
Please register your attendance using the button below. The workshop will only go ahead if >10 people register, with a cap limit of 20. A final decision will be delivered on December 4th if it goes ahead with the corresponding detailed programme.
Calendar of Events
The below is a calendar of events hosted by GO as well as events hosted by others that may be of interest to our members. If you have an event you would like us to include please contact us here.
Dr Louise Bicknell, Department of Pathology, University of Otago
Genetic insights into human brain and body development
We are interested in how genetic variation in our genomes influences our development and lifetime health, with a particular focus on rare Mendelian disorders of brain and body growth. We use exome and genome sequencing of NZ and overseas patients as a starting point to identify and characterise candidate disease-causing variants using a variety of molecular biology techniques. Our studied conditions are “one-in-million”, so we rely heavily on international collaborations to strengthen our genetic evidence.
In this seminar I will give an overview of the different research projects we are undertaking, linking together the clinical, genetic and molecular knowledge we have gained from our study of human genetic syndromes. Particular emphasis will be on our long-term study on Meier-Gorlin syndrome and DNA replication, and our more recent research into NZ families with microcephaly (reduced brain size), where we have discovered novel disease genes such as a splicing component, and histones.
This one-day symposium will bring together researchers from a wide range of applications of quantitative genetics in the Otago region (including collaborations), such as
- Genetic improvement for primary industries, e.g., horticulture, viticulture, forestry, or farming.
- Biomedical and forensic research, where quantitative genetics is used extensively in research and forensic applications, and increasingly for medical diagnostics and interventions.
- Conservation and biosecurity sectors, particularly for the management of rare and/or endangered species, and for utilisation of host resistance for post-border responses to biosecurity threats.
More info here: https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/go/events/
See attached PDF for details of each weeks seminar:
Early & Mid Career Scientists and Postgraduate Students are invited to meet with Kiel before his seminar, to find out how he got to where he is today. Bielschowsky meeting room, 12-1pm (snacks included!) Please RSVP to Glen Reid (glen.reid@otago.ac.nz) as there is a limited capacity.
Interspecies electron transfer mediates energy generation in pathogen- commensal communities
Dr Kiel Hards
Department of Microbiology & Immunology University of Otago
The human microbiome is a consortia of microorganisms in and on our bodies that is often called our most underappreciated organ. In reality, the microbiome is far more complex than a single organ and issues in our microbiome can affect diverse health issues including cancer, diabetes, mental health, infections and sleep quality. Several studies have been able to describe what makes up our microbiome, defining our “good” and “bad” bacteria, but few studies have investigated how these microbes interact with each other and ourselves. Recently, it has been suggested that metabolic interactions within the microbiome may influence our ability to acquire community- and hospital-acquired infections, including those by Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus agalactiae and Enterococcus faecalis. This has highlighted a process where different bacteria make and share electricity for generating energy by cellular respiration, known as interspecies electron transfer. In this talk, I will discuss recent data from my group that suggests the common probiotic Lactococcus lactis stimulates respiratory energy generation in S. agalactiae by interspecies electron transfer. This suggests that genes from other bacteria may be essential for opportunistic pathogens in vivo. By understanding the critical functions of our microbiome, we can better understand the various diseases affected by microbiome dysfunction and design microbiome directed treatments for these disorders.
See attached PDF for details of each weeks seminar:
See attached PDF for details of each weeks seminar:
Visit the HEDC Website for details and registration for this event and all other HEDC workshops. Places are limited.
Please find attached an invitation to attend the Fulbright NZ Scholar Award Information Session for academic staff on Tuesday, 4 May 2021 at 10.30-11.30am.
Please circulate this widely.
Penelope Borland, Executive Director of Fulbright New Zealand, will be introducing this session, and Magnolia Wilson, Programme Manager will provide an overview of the Fulbright Scholar Awards.
Date: Tuesday, 4 May 2021
Time: 10.30am-11.30am
Venue: University of Otago Staff Club (downstairs)
If you are interested, registrations are essential – RSVP: dvc.research@otago.ac.nz
