NASCE 2011: The inaugural meeting of the North American Society for Comparative Endocrinology (La Societé Nord-Americaine d'Endocrinologie Comparée; La Sociedad Norteamericana de Endocrinologia Comparada)

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, July 13 - 16, 2011

NASCE 2011 Panels and Workshops

Panels

P1: Career opportunities and survival strategies for new scientists. This session is intended for graduate students, postdocs and new faculty. The panel will focus on skills important for early career development such as how and when to publish your research; grant proposal writing; navigating federal science funding agencies; the job search; interviewing skills; project management; peer review; mentoring; how to manage a research group, etc. Opportunities and challenges that are perhaps unique to the field of comparative endocrinology will be addressed.

Panelists: Dr. Lynn Riddiford, Howard Hughes Institute for Medical Research; Dr. Vance Trudeau, University of Ottawa; Dr. David Lovejoy, University of Toronto; Dr. Yun-Bo Shi, National Institutes of Health

P2: Publishing in Elsevier journals. This panel will offer an opportunity to discuss with the publisher and editors-in-chief of the journals General and Comparative Endocrinology and Hormones and Behavior about the publication process. Topics will include: how to get published, how to review a paper, measuring journal prestige, author's rights and responsibilities, etc.

Panelists: Shamus O’Reilly, Publisher, General and Comparative Endocrinology, Hormones and Behavior; Dr. Robert Dores, Editor-in-Chief, I; Dr. Ian Henderson, General and Comparative Endocrinology; Dr. Elizabeth Adkins-Regan, Editor-in-Chief, Hormones and Behavior

P3a: Funding opportunities in comparative endocrinology - NSF. Representatives from the National Science Foundation of the United States will discuss funding opportunities in the life sciences and answer questions about proposal preparation, proposal review, etc.

Panelists: Dr. John Wingfield, Interim Director, Integrative and Organismal Systems (IOS), NSF; Dr. Hannah Carey, Program Director, Physiological and Structural Systems (PSS) Cluster, NSF

P3b: Funding opportunities in comparative endocrinology - NSERC. Representatives from the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada will discuss funding opportunities in the life sciences and answer questions about proposal preparation, proposal review, etc.

Panelist: Dr. Mario Lamarca, Program Director, NSERC

Workshops

W1: Model systems and emerging technologies for endocrine disrupter research and screening

This session will provide an overview of recent and emerging technologies and approaches in the field of endocrine disrupter research.  We have invited a number of experts with diverse expertise that will give presentations ranging from mechanistic omics research to population-based assessments and modeling approaches. Furthermore, novel and provocative testing concepts and methodologies involving micro- and high-throughput technologies will be introduced. With this session we hope to spark a discussion of current trends, challenges, as well as research and regulatory needs in the field of endocrine disruption.

Co-chairs: Dr. Dan Villeneuve, US EPA, Mid-Continent Ecology Division, Duluth, MN; Dr. Markus Hecker, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

Invited Speakers
Dr. Dalma Martinovic, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN USA Application of transcriptomics and metabolomics to study endocrine mediated dominance behaviors in fish
Dr. Steven Wiseman; University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada Use of whole transcriptome sequencing in fish to characterize endocrine activity associated with oil sands process water
Dr. Nil Basu, University of Michigan, MI USA Development of a cell-free neurochemical screen to predict adverse outcomes in mammals, fish, and birds.
Dr. Cheryl Murphy, Michigan State University, MI USA Linking endocrine disruption to population level impacts via computational modeling
Theresa Kissane, University of Illinois, and US Army Corps of Engineers, CERL, Champaign, IL USA Hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis on a chip

 

W2: Proteopedia and other tools for easily accessing structural biological information

Chair: Dr. Wayne Decatur, University of New Hampshire (w.decatur@unh.edu)

Proteopedia is an online 3D encyclopedia of proteins, nucleic acids and other macromolecules, as well as a structural biology resource. Wayne Decatur, a member of the editorial board of Proteopedia, will present an overview of Proteopedia and several related tools.

The catalog of atomic level structures of macromolecules critical to endocrinology continues to expand. However, there are many barriers to incorporating data from structural biology into one's research, studies, and/or teaching. Proteopedia and the related, free tools that will be the focus of this workshop aim to lower or eliminate such barriers, and facilitate understanding and communication of structural and functional knowledge of macromolecules and their interactions. The workshop will briefly cover the range of content available at Proteopedia.org, and illustrate by demonstration several of the powerful resources and options available via Proteopedia, such as interactive exploration of biologically relevant structures, generation of custom molecular scenes, and identification of functional regions in proteins by analysis of evolutionary conservation profiles in a structural, 3D framework. A quick, facile route to publication-quality structure images will also be presented. Additionally, ideas for incorporating some of the approaches and resources into lab meetings, journal clubs, and the classroom will be touched upon. The workshop is designed for scientists at all levels interested in macromolecules. No computer is necessary for the workshop; however, participants should feel free to bring their own laptops for exploring some of the content and getting technical guidance following the formal presentation.


W3: Genomic tools and applications in comparative endocrinology

Co-chairs: Dr. Jeramiah Smith, Benaroya Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA and Dr. Caren Helbing, Univ. Victoria, BC, Canada

This workshop will explore state-of-the-art genomic tools and resources for comparative endocrinologists including genome-wide association and gene expression analysis using high throughput sequencing and the bioinformatic tools necessary for analyzing the massive amounts of data generated by such methods, and the means for annotating and analyzing recently sequenced genomes of diverse organisms. This workshop will also consider genomic resource needs for studies of diverse species.