NCGR to host eighth annual NMBIST symposium on March 22-23, 2012

The National Center for Genome Resources (NCGR) announced today that it will host the eighth annual New Mexico Bioinformatics, Science and Technology (NMBIST) symposium on March 22-23, 2012. The two-day symposium features a diverse lineup of speakers who will highlight cutting-edge genomic research addressing "Functional Genomics." Multi-factorial diseases like type-2 diabetes will be featured, using integrative research strategies that study variation at the DNA, RNA, epigenome and protein levels to elucidate functionally important changes and their molecular mechanisms. Other topics include post-translational mechanisms of regulation, gene expression patterns of cancer initiation, and gene network study with computational and high throughput laboratory methods. Speakers include:

• Matthew Fields, Ph.D., Montana State University, Bozeman, MT
• Sridhar Hannenhalli, AP., University of Maryland, College Park, MD
• Monica J. Justice, Ph.D., Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
• Carmen Sapienza, Ph.D., Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
• Dong Xu, Ph.D., University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
• Brian Bothner, Ph.D., Montana State University, Bozeman, MT
• Qingshun Quinn Li, Ph.D., Miami University, Oxford, OH
• Michele Nishiguchi, Ph.D., New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM
• Brenda Andrews, Ph.D., University of Toronto, Canada

The New Mexico Bioinformatics and Science symposium attracts over a hundred research scientists, university and college faculty and students, as well as high school students from the Southwest and beyond. The purpose of the symposium is to inform, educate and promote the latest developments at the intersection of bioscience, technology, software development and mathematics. In particular, the symposium offers students from southwestern states and research centers in minority-serving institutions a regional opportunity to present their research in a poster session and to compete for a student speaking slot in the plenary session.

The symposium will be held at the Inn and Spa of Loretto in downtown Santa Fe, New Mexico. It is organized by NCGR and is sponsored by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, a division of the National Institutes of Health through the New Mexico IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence program (NM-INBRE). Other sponsors include Illumina, JMP Genomics, Pacific Biosciences, Life Technologies, OpGen and Agilent Technologies. To find out more information and to register, visit http://www.nminbre.org/index.php/register-for-nmbis.