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Genomes
FungalGenomes.org Other Collections Stuff The opening for a research assistant has been filled
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12/4/09 It is starting to look like a busy meeting spring. Today the ECFG 10
announces its early registration deadline. This outstanding meeting will
be held in NH Conference Centre Leeuwenhorst in The Netherlands 29 March- 1
April, 2010. The Neurospora 2010 meeting has posted it's program online and registration starts in a few days. Neurospora 2010 will take place from April 8-11, 2010. The FGSC is coordinating this meeting for the first time. Also new at Asilomar, the company that has the contract to operate the conference facility. While some of the people are sure to be the same, we are expecting some changes to the center. Check out the new FGSC Strain and Plasmid catalog interfaces. 11/20/09
11/13/09
The FGSC has sent out over 2300 individual strains in 2009 and over 100,000 strains in arrayed sets! Thanks for contributing to our ongoing success as we approach our 50th anniversary. 10/27/09 Today I posted new content in Fungal Genetics Reports #56. Please submit lots of high impact articles there. The future of this historic journal is dependent on people using it to publish their work. Check out the new strain listing format here: Neurospora strains deposited in 2009. This takes advantage of the new online catalog scripting and allows strains to be easily grouped for presentation online. 10/14/09 It has been a busy several weeks here at UMKC (and elsewhere). I just completed my mandatory Discrimination and Sexual Harassment training. Prior to that I attended a workshop at the University of Nebraska on their Biofinity project. I was pleased to note that the Nobel prize in economics included Elinor Ostrom for her work on management of a commons. The FGSC is a good example of a scientific commons. And it is in that regard that I attended a National Academy symposium on developing a microbial commons. It was very interesting in a number of ways as it included scientists, economists, lawyers and even bureaucrats. One of the most interesting was professor Scott Stern from Kellog school of management . He has developed a metric to assess how depositing materials in a collection impacts subsequent use and publication on that material. Not surprisingly, depositing material assures that it is used and the depositor receives over two times as many citations compared to material that is not made publically available. So send your important stuff to the FGSC and watch the citations to your research pile up! 9/30/09
9/24/09
The FGSC hired a new technician. Ms. Bobbie Burgee just finished her BS in Biological Sciences here at UMKC. She was previously a member of the US Armed Services and hails from South Eastern Missouri. Bobbie started on September 1, 2009 and if you order strains from the FGSC you will have an opportunity to become acquainted with her enthusiastic attitude. 9/15/09 Fall is a time of biological diversity here in the middle west. Mushrooms pop up after every rain. Butterflies and birds are migrating, trees are starting to lose their leaves, and insects are maturing, getting ready for winter, and singing at the top of their "lungs." I've seen Chanterelles, Russula, Chlorophyllum, Suillus and various
white-spored lawn-mushrooms. I even saw one that was being parasitized by a
yellow mold! 9/11/09 I cannot believe it has been so long since an update. Perhaps it is
a reflection of how busy it has been here. Perhaps this is a good time to be involved in collections! 7/27/09 Summer is really here. We have been interviewing for the open
technician position and the applicants have been excellent. 5/27/09 It has been almost a month since posting and a lot has gone on at
the FGSC. We have distributed sets of Candida deletion mutants, finished up to plate 110 of the Neurospora Knock Out arrayed sets, identified the mutations in rip-1 and png-1, and updated the United States Federation for Culture Collections website, Driving my handsome son to his club soccer practices has allowed me to spend several early evening hours south of Kansas City where the Blue River crosses the Kansas-Missouri state line. I have used that time to brush up on my local birds, and it has been very productive birding (I also read grant proposals for the JGI community sequencing program). Yesterday was my most recent foray and the most outstanding sightings were a flock of Cedar Waxwings and a Red Bellied Woodpecker. Other birds range from the common to the rare. Of the former I am very confident, but of the latter less so. Overall I have spent about 8 to 10 hours watching birds, but the foliage is getting thicker and places that were easily accessible a few weeks ago are now dense thickets of pokeweed, poison ivy, blackberry brambles and tall grasses. An additional challenge is the growing number of mosquitoes. Common birds: Crow, Canada Goose, Starling, American Robin, Cardinal, Redwing Blackbird, Chickadee, Redtail Hawk, Eastern Bluebirds, Barred Owl, Indigo Bunting, Eastern Kingbird, Mallard, Killdeer, Bluejay, Great Blue Heron, Blue Grey Gnatcatcher, Northern Mockingbird, Eastern Medowlark, Grackle, Swallows, Vultures, and various Sparrows Less common birds: American Redstart, Eastern Phoebee, Goldfinch, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Catbird, House Wren, Cedar Waxwing, Downy Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, unidentified hummingbird Uncommon birds: Orange Crested Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Solitary Sandpiper, White Breasted Nuthatch, Common Yellowthroat The bridge over the Blue River is closed and unserviceable, although one can walk across. People use the dead-end as a place to dump old refrigerators. Recently there have been survey stakes placed and maybe the bridge will be rebuild with stimulus package monies. It is complicated by the fact that it crosses the river AND state line.
4/28/09
4/8/09 The USDA Biotechnology Regulatory Service has announced the extension of the comment period relating to their modification of the rules pertaining to the importation, interstate movement, or release of genetically engineered regulated organisms. This means that the rules for sharing knock-out strains of plant pathogenic micro-organisms are being reviewed. Take the opportunity to review the proposed changes and submit your comment (using the "add comment" button) prior to June 29, 2009. The proposed regulations are explicitely science based and define more clearly how an organism becomes subject to review and emphasize the biology of the organism being genetically engineered. They specificy consider whether the organism causes injury to plants or whether it has been engineered to be more pathogenic to plants. The also make the point that they do not govern "intrastate movements between contained facilities such as laboratories, nor do they govern such activities as creating GE organism (sic) in a contained research laboratory" Meanwhile, at the FGSC, The University of Missouri has released their
video showcasing the FGSC and the School of Biological Sciences. 4/1/09 America is named for the 15th century cartographer Amerigo Vespucci. Interestingly, "Amerigo" is the Italian form of the latin name "Emericus." English is a Germanic language. The German form of "Emericus" is "Heinrich" which is Anglicized to Henry. So, Greetings from Henryland! 3/27/09 The 25th Fungal Genetics Conference was a great success. Over 670 posters were presented in a new indoor format. The record attendance of 946 scientists were accommodated by having an audio/video feed into the Chapel so everybody could see the plenary sessions. 27 concurrent sessions and ten ad hoc workshops kept afternoons full. Eric Selker, Barry Scott and Francine Govers were newly elected to the Fungal Genetics Policy Committee and Kathy Borkovich was elected as the new chair of the FGPC. Steve Osmani and Linda Kohn were selected to be the Scientific organizers of the 26th Fungal Genetics Conference. 3/13/09 The USDA is currently holding meetings on
revisions to the regulations governing the importation, interstate
transport and environmental release of genetically engineered organisms. 2/13/09
2/9/09 The FGSC has taken another step to allow it to better serve the growing community of fungal geneticists by adding knock-out deletion sets of Candida albicans to the collection. 1/30/09 I just returned from the second
USDA/APS
workshop on developing a National Plant Microbe Germplasm System. The first workshop in November 2007 set the groundwork for this.
12/16/08 2006
Provost Bruce Bubacz 2/09 update 12/2/08 Registration for the
25th Fungal Genetics Conference is well underway. Don't miss the
opportunity to be part of this great meeting. 11/3/08 Tomorrow is election day here in the US. I will refrain from mentioning anything related to the US election, however. In preparation for a symposium on working with genetically engineered plant pathogens at the 2009 APS meeting, I came across the following table at the USDA web-site.
In each case, the company in bold at the top has acquired the companies below. The amount of consolidation in the agricultural biotechnology industry is truly staggering. 10/16/08 The FGSC grant from the NSF was renewed, as mentioned last August.
I got a chance to see the reviews yesterday and they were pretty good. 10/3/08 It is difficult to believe that it is already October, but all the students here at UMKC are busy with classes and exams, the birds are migrating south, and the trees are even beginning to change colors. UMKC continues its administrative spasms. The Chancellor, Guy Bailey, has stepped down to take a position closer to home, in Georgia. We have a new Provost in Dr. Gail Hackett who came from the University of Arizona. Whenever there is a new Administrator here at UMKC they inevitably visit the School of Biological Sciences. Dr. Hackett, who has a background in Psychology and gender, visited the FGSC for a few minutes a week or so ago. Of all the administrators who have come by to see the FGSC, she seemed to understand both what we do and why we would do it. Good administrators are key to the health of a university and while we are in the midst of a Chancellor search, at least we have a strong and intelligent Provost. 8/29/08 Yesterday I left work to ride my bike home with thunderstorms threatening to catch me. I had checked the radar and thought I had enough time. I rode on the trolley trail, but the storm caught me. Because the trail gets muddy, I turned east to go up into the neighborhoods. They are hillier, but the tree cover and pavement make for an easier ride in the rain. The cloudburst was over in about 3 minutes and I only got partly wet, but apparently other creatures had decided to head for the hills as well. As I reached Wyandotte at 58th St, I saw a young, wet Red Fox. I have had the pleasure of travelling a bit this summer and it has helped me see the FGSC in different perspectives. I attended the Society for Industrial Microbiology annual meeting at San Diego and gave a talk in their USFCC session. The topic was 'Specialized Academic Culture Collections as Resources for Industrial Development" and some of other speakers represented mostly smaller collections run by dedicated individuals with specialized interests. H.A. Barton talked about cave micro-organisms and how many will grow if you reduce the sugar in the medium by 100 fold. K.L. Boundy-Mills showcased the Phaff Yeast Culture Collection at U.C. Davis and Russell Vreeland of West Chester University of Pennsylvania talked about the Ancient Biomaterials Institute. Just having received an additional five year grant from the US National Science Foundation and with a nearly 50 year history of support, the FGSC seemed like the big kid on the block and I was very proud of being associated with this outstanding resource. Flash forward a week and on August 19, I visited the USDA National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. The NCGRP was having a open-house to commemorate their 50th anniversary. I went there with the message that there is a growing effort among people in the plant pathology and microbiology communities to develop expanded resources for culture collections in the US. The NCGRP has more back-up capacity than the is taken up by the entire FGSC collection. They have ten times as many accessions as the FGSC and have room for more than double this. They are building for the future and extending their interactions abroad, including with the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. From this perspective, the FGSC almost looked like a small hobby collection. 8/25/08 Yesterday was the Jackson County Triathlon. It was a beautiful morning at Longview Lake. The image of the sunrise over the lake will carry me through many dark winter swims. There was a flock of Killdeer protesting the invasion of their field by about 500 cars. I had a pretty good result, although when I did the same race 5 years ago, I finished about 13 minutes faster. In 2004, I did the long course. 8/6/08 Yesterday was our primary
election here in Missouri. I was volunteering for a candidate for the
Missouri House of Representatives in
the 44th District. The happy ending is that the candidate I was supporting won with 68% of the vote. 7/10/08 I came across an interesting site today. It is called the
Symbiotic Fungi Genome
Database. I found it because I was looking up protocols for DNA
5/23/08
5/20/08 It has been a beautiful spring here in Kansas City. The flowers
bloomed and then it was cool so they did not fade too quickly. It also
did not rain too much and so the flowers did not get their petals knocked
off. Now our lettuce is up, the Dogwood, Dafodils, flowering pears, and
Tulips have all come and gone. Mullberry trees are shedding pollen all over
the place now. Birds are migrating. We had a Barred Owl in the yard and have
seen wrens, flickers, kinglets, vireos and the usual variety of robins,
cardinals, grackles, In other news, we heard that the FGSC grant from the NSF was re-funded for 3 years. We do not have out budget yet, but it is coming. I have had the opportunity to do some runs this spring. I started off
with the Groundhog run
which I was very happy to be accompanied by my beautiful children. A couple weeks later I did the Sabates Eye Centers Trolley Run. It has the distinction of being the fastest 4 mile run in the US and supports the Children's Center for the Visually Impaired. I used to do more races, and a bunch of triathlons, but in recent years
most races gone from being charities to being run by for-profit events
management companies. So, I let my membership in USA Triathlon lapse. Nor did I renew my membership in TriKC. I do not really think that I will be missed. |
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