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
Genetics Otago has partnered with the Australasian Epigenetics Alliance to bring the AEpiA Conference to NZ for the first time, held 1st – 5th December 2024. The GO Symposium will begin with a shared session with the AEpiA delegates on the morning of the 5th of December and will then continue in its regular format for the remainder of the day.
As usual, the Symposium will highlight the fantastic research being done by GO members from around the country through presentations, posters and awards.
Date: Thursday 5th December 2024
Time: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Venue: Hutton Theatre, Otago Museum (for those joining from Christchurch and Wellington – a venue will be confirmed soon).
Programme
A draft programme will be available here soon.
Registration
Registration for this event is now open via the button below.
Abstract submission is part of the registration process, all abstracts must be submitted by no later than 5:00 pm on the 14th of November. Registration will close at 12:00 noon on Wednesday 20th November. Please keep the link provided at the end of your registration to make changes to your responses up until the closing date.
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.
Award nominations close at 12:00 noon on Wednesday 20th November (except for Poster and Science Communication Awards which are at 5 pm 14th of November) and should be submitted by email to go@otago.ac.nz.
Full details of the awards can be found here: Award Details.
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
Details coming soon. Proposed date: 6th December.
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.
See attached PDF for details of each weeks seminar:
This entertaining event gives thesis students the chance to present their research to a large audience while competing for a number of generous prizes, with the overall University of Otago Doctoral winner going on to participate in the online Asia-Pacific 3MT® final. We also have the opportunity to send the best Master’s contestant to represent the University in the online New Zealand Masters 3MT® National Inter-University Challenge.
The competition is open to both thesis Master’s and Doctoral students, who must communicate their research in no more than three minutes, with the help of only one static slide, with the presentation aimed at a non-specialist audience.
At this stage, the local 2021 University of Otago competition will be held in person, but arrangements are being made to revert to an online competition if necessary.
Entries close Friday 25 June
Register for this event
Have a look at past years’ events on our archive page.
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
See attached PDF for details of each weeks seminar:
The Otago Medical School Research Society is proud to host our 257th Scientific meeting, the 2021 Summer Student Awards. This will be held on 5th May 2021 at 5pm in the Barnett Lecture Theatre.
10 speakers have been selected from a range of departments. A prize of $500 will be awarded for the best presentation, and a prize of $250 will be awarded to the runner up, sponsored by the Otago Medical Research Foundation.
Please come along and support our students in their endeavours. There will be drinks and food at the end of the presentations.
The speakers and approximate timings are (click the image to enlarge):
See attached PDF for details of each weeks seminar:
HEDC Professional Development Programme
Develop a sustainable job search process
It’s a job getting a job so make sure that you come to this workshop to share ideas for getting yourself a strategy for finding a meaningful job.
The workshop will be facilitated by Yvonne Gaut, Career Development Centre.
Dates
Friday 14 May, 10.00am-12.30pm
Thursday 8 July, 10.00am-12.30pm
Friday 10 September, 12.30-3.00pm
Registration link: https://corpapp.otago.ac.nz/training/hedc/course/16757/course/0/
Assoc. Prof. Caroline Beck
Department of Zoology, University of Otago
‘Telling tales of tadpole’s tails’
Tadpoles of the clawed frog Xenopus laevis can regenerate their spinal cord-containing tails, producing a new functional tail in just one week. However, they are not always successful at this, and some tadpoles heal rather than regenerate. We have found that raising tadpoles in antibiotic media alters their skin microbiome, and also makes them less likely to regenerate. Conversely, adding heat killed E.coli or purified LPS to the tadpole’s medium after amputation makes them more likely to regenerate, hinting at a role for the skin microbiome in regeneration. We are currently undertaking a large scale analysis to determine the origin and nature of the tadpole’s microbiome. We also seek to uncover the mechanism by which commensal bacteria might influence this regeneration, through interaction with the tadpole’s innate immune system, particularly TLR4, which we have targeted with CRISPR/Cas9.
