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Events

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.

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VISG Seminar Series


The Virtual Institute of Statistical Genetics (VISG) Hub is a key part of Genetics Otago, providing a platform for researchers to collaborate and exchange knowledge and expertise in statistical genetics. The VISG Hub hosts seminars, workshops, and other events to promote statistical genetics research and foster collaboration between researchers.

We’re excited to announce our monthly genetics research seminars, aimed at connecting researchers in the field. The seminars will commence in May 2023 and will be hosted by GO’s Virtual Institute of Statistical Genetics (VISG) Hub along with the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Otago. These seminars will be available in person or via Zoom, and all are welcome.

Date: 3rd Thursday of the month
Time: 11:00 am – 12:00 pm

Schedule

  • May: Associate Professor Phil Wilcox, University of Otago
  • June: Professor Mik Black, University of Otago
  • July: Dr Ludovic Dutoit, University of Otago – please note that this seminar will be held on the 27th of July rather than the 20th due to ICG.
  • August: Dr Setegn Alemu, AgResearch
  • September: Ee Cheng Oi, Abacus Bio
  • October: Franziska Weik, Beef + Lamb NZ Genetics – Cancelled
  • November: Dr Jane Symonds and Dr Megan Scholtens, Cawthron – please note that this seminar will be held on the 17th of November rather than the 16th due to the Genetics Otago Annual Symposium.

Zoom Details
If you would like the Zoom details for this event, please contact us.

Next Seminar

The next seminar will be held on Friday the 17th of November, 11 am in Biochemistry Seminar Room G13 and will be given by Dr Jane Symonds and Dr Megan Scholtens, Cawthron Institute.

Title: Environmental resilience in aquatic species

Abstract: The New Zealand aquaculture sector faces growing vulnerability due to climate change, with marine heatwaves already causing elevated summer mortality rates in Greenshell mussels and king (Chinook) salmon. To tackle these challenges, selective breeding and genomic selection offer long-term solutions. Temperature challenge models, implemented in controlled tank environments, have been developed for both species. So far, this approach has been applied successfully to test more than 230 pedigree king salmon families and 21 Greenshell mussel families. Heritabilities for time to death at elevated temperature were high (0.34 to 0.48) suggesting that selection for improved thermotolerance is possible.

Megan Scholtens

Megan is a geneticist within the Aquaculture Group at Cawthron and is involved in a number of research projects across the ‘Shellfish Aquaculture’ and ‘Finfish Climate Change Adaptation’ platforms. Megan specialises in the application of genetic and genomic methodologies to enhance the understanding of how genes affect traits such as growth, development, behaviour, reproduction and immunity to improve the efficiency, resilience and survivability of aquatic species. In addition, Megan contributes to research activities of the Aquaculture team by integrating the experimental biology with commercial production to help provide solutions for clients and deliver tangible outcomes for the aquaculture industry.

Jane Symonds

Jane is a Senior Scientist and Team Leader in the Aquaculture Group at Cawthron. Jane’s focus is the application of research to enhance sustainable commercial production with a specific interest in king salmon farming and selective breeding. She has over 30 years of experience in this field. As a science programme leader she oversees a wide range of multi-disciplinary collaborative projects with internal and external partners, including salmon feed efficiency, genomics, behaviour, health, physiology, microbiomics, climate change adaptation, data science and developing trials to selectively breed resilient and efficient king salmon. Implementation of research for sustainable and profitable aquaculture development is a key driver for Jane. Dr Symonds is also a Senior Adjunct Researcher at the University of Tasmania and helps supervise multiple post-graduate students.

If you have any questions about this seminar series please contact us.

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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.


Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
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Genomics Aotearoa Training: Long-Read Genome Assembly 10:00 am
Genomics Aotearoa Training: Long-Read Genome Assembly @ Online
Mar 6 @ 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Long-Read Genome Assembly This online workshop is delivered by Genomics Aotearoa and NeSI, and will be taught from 10:00am-4:00pm NZT on Wednesday the 6th of March, 2024. It is for New Zealand researchers interested in learning how to carry out genome[...]
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Genomics Aotearoa Seminar Series: “Privacy and the World of DTC – Data Breaches are already happening” 3:00 pm
Genomics Aotearoa Seminar Series: “Privacy and the World of DTC – Data Breaches are already happening” @ Online
Mar 8 @ 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Genomics Aotearoa is pleased to announce its Friday seminar series starts with Andelka Philips and Jan Charbonneau (University of Tasmania) on Friday, March 8 at 3pm, talking on “Privacy and the World of DTC – Data Breaches are already happening.”[...]
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Genomics Aotearoa TRAINING: RNA-seq Data Analysis 10:00 am
Genomics Aotearoa TRAINING: RNA-seq Data Analysis @ Online
Mar 20 @ 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
RNA-seq Data Analysis This online workshop is delivered by Genomics Aotearoa and NeSI, and will be taught from 10:00am-4:00pm NZT on the Wednesday 20th of March, 2024. It is for New Zealand researchers interested in RNA-seq data analysis. The focus of[...]
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Genomics Aotearoa Seminar Series: “Seeing evolution through a cladistic blindfold; the challenges of thinking about evolving lineages in a world of taxa.” 10:00 am
Genomics Aotearoa Seminar Series: “Seeing evolution through a cladistic blindfold; the challenges of thinking about evolving lineages in a world of taxa.” @ Online
Mar 22 @ 10:00 am – 11:00 am
On Friday March 22 at 10 am we present another international speaker – Ronald Jenner, Principal Researcher at the Natural History Museum in London. Ronald researches the evolution of animal venoms and the conceptual history of phylogenetics, and is the author of Venom: The secrets[...]
Genomics Aotearoa SEMINAR: Seeing evolution through a cladistic blindfold; the challenges of thinking about evolving lineages in a world of taxa 10:00 am
Genomics Aotearoa SEMINAR: Seeing evolution through a cladistic blindfold; the challenges of thinking about evolving lineages in a world of taxa @ Online
Mar 22 @ 10:00 am – 11:00 am
SEMINAR: Seeing evolution through a cladistic blindfold; the challenges of thinking about evolving lineages in a world of taxa   Tēnā koutou katoa We are pleased to invite you to our first Genomics Aotearoa seminar for 2024, online on Friday, February 23 at[...]
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Genomics Aotearoa Training: Introduction to Bash Scripting and HPC Job Scheduler Online 10:00 am
Genomics Aotearoa Training: Introduction to Bash Scripting and HPC Job Scheduler Online @ Online
Mar 27 @ 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
This online workshop is delivered by Genomics Aotearoa and NeSI, and will be taught from 10:00am-4:00pm NZT on Wednesday the 27th of March, 2024, and is for New Zealand researchers interested in learning to write scripts and submit jobs to[...]
Asia-Pacific Genetics Seminar: Surveillance and countermeasures against coronaviruses with potential spillover from wildlife. 4:00 pm
Asia-Pacific Genetics Seminar: Surveillance and countermeasures against coronaviruses with potential spillover from wildlife. @ Online
Mar 27 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Tēnā koutou katoa Please join us on Wednesday, March 27 at 4pm (NZDT) for the next seminar in the Asia-Pacific Genetics Seminar Series. Register in advance to receive an email with a link to the seminar. Dr Shi Zhengli will be presenting on Surveillance[...]
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