Special Seminar Merriman

Professor Andrew Pask (School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne) is visiting Dunedin next week and will be giving a special seminar on Tuesday 23rd August at 1 pm in the D’Ath Lecture Theatre.

Prof. Pask has worked on marsupial development and genetics for over 20 years. He heads up the Thylacine integrated genomic restoration research lab (TIGRR) and the evo-devo-repro lab in the School of BioSciences. His research is exploring novel ways to conserve marsupials and de-extinct the thylacine.

See attached poster for full details and Zoom link.

Bunce Seminar

Please note the change in time and venue for this seminar due to the Stop Work meeting being held from 12 – 2 pm on the 9th of May.

It’s a team game: a research journey in infection and immunity

About Professor James Ussher’s research

James is an immunologist and a clinical microbiologist (at Southern Community Laboratories) whose research programme is focussed on the immune response to infection and on antibiotic resistance.

His laboratory is investigating the role of innate-like T-cells in anti-bacterial immunity and how they might be harnessed to prevent infection. They also contribute to several vaccine development projects. In addition, his laboratory uses whole genome sequencing of antibiotic resistant bacteria to identify outbreaks and track transmission pathways to enable interventions.

He is involved in collaborative research projects in New Zealand, the Pacific, Asia, and the United Kingdom.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, he co-led the establishment of the Vaccine Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand – Ohu Kaupare Huaketo (VAANZ), a multi-institutional team of researchers and industry focused on building New Zealand’s capability and platforms for vaccine development. He was a member of the Government’s COVID-19 Vaccine Taskforce and is a member of the COVID-19 Vaccine Technical Advisory Group.

Streaming information for Professor James Ussher

This event will be live-streamed, from 5:25pm Thursday 25th May 2023, at the following web address:

Professor James Ussher’s IPL video stream

Test your connection to the streaming service here

This online workshop is delivered by Genomics Aotearoa and NeSI, and will be taught from 10:00am-4:00pm NZT on the Thursday 15th of June, 2023. It is for New Zealand researchers interested in RNA-seq data analysis.

The focus of this workshop is to analyse RNA-seq data with the aim to identify differentially expressed genes.

Some of the topics covered in the workshop are:

– Quality assessment

– Trimming and filtering

– Mapping and read counts

– Differential expression analysis

– Over-representation analysis

Who this workshop is for

This is a beginner-friendly workshop which assumes you are familiar with the basics of R ( e.g., you can copy basic functions like head, tail, or colSums, you are aware of how R stores files as Objects) and bash (e.g., can change directory with cd command, make a new folder with mkdir command, view contents using less command). If you would like a refresher on R you can find one here. If you would like a refresher on bash you can find one here.

Setup

This is a fully online, hands-on workshop. This workshop material will be run on the NeSI High Performance Computing (HPC) platforms – there is no need to install any software for this workshop. Instructions on how to access the NeSI HPC service will be sent out with the confirmation letter to registrants.

The material for this workshop can be previewed here: https://genomicsaotearoa.github.io/RNA-seq-workshop/

Participants must have their own laptops and plan to participate actively. You will require a working web browser.

If you have any questions about these workshops, including whether they are suitable for you, please contact tyler.mcinnes@otago.ac.nz.

Events

Friends in Focus
Dr Nic Rawlence is the Director of the University of Otago’s Paleogenetics Laboratory. He spends his days excavating fossil sites and examining specimens in museum basements, all the while methodically analysing, researching and teaching on Aotearoa’s biggest and tiniest taoka.

With a research background in ancient DNA, the evolution of New Zealand’s extinct biodiversity, and the impacts climate change and humans have had on this prehistoric ecosystem, Dr Rawlence has plenty of insight into a world lost to time.

In this month’s edition of the Friends in Focus talk series, he will dive into what the latest discoveries using ancient DNA can tell us about the evolution of New Zealand’s taoka species and their future in a fast changing world.

Come along and hear from a leading New Zealand expert on this fascinating subject.

12.10pm, Tuesday 20 June
Barclay Theatre
Free – Koha Appreciated