Take a deep dive into the latest topics in our field over lunch at the 59th Annual Drosophila Research Conference. Each discussion at the Community, Connections, & Lunch event will be moderated by established and up-and-coming community leaders, who will explore the latest scientific findings, such as presentations from the conference and hot topics in…

Yeast and zebrafish are among the lab organisms being recruited to the search for rare disease cures. Rare diseases are not so rare. About 300 million people worldwide live with the more than 7000 individual diseases that are designated “rare” by the US government. But because each of these affect so few individuals, the usual…

The Genetics Society of America (GSA) is pleased to announce the latest cohort of student and postdoc leaders joining the Early Career Scientist Leadership Program. Participants receive training and mentoring and serve on committees charged with understanding the interests, concerns, and challenges of early career scientist members of the GSA. As part of this leadership and professional development program,…

New Faculty Profiles allow GSA members who are establishing their first labs to introduce themselves to our wider community. If you’d like to submit your profile, please complete this form.   Jian Ding Professor (since 2017) Xi’an Jiaotong University Lab website Briefly describe the ongoing and expected research projects as your lab gets up and running. The genetic…

GSA is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2018 Victoria Finnerty Undergraduate Travel Award. This award, which honors the memory of Victoria Finnerty, supports travel costs for undergraduates engaged in research to attend the 59th Annual Drosophila Research Conference. Congratulations, undergrads! We’ll see you in Philadelphia. Leah Anderson The Ohio State University “I’m studying the binding properties…

Biologists rely on animal models to answer important questions that can’t be addressed with cells in a dish. Often, these animals are deliberately inbred; a less diverse population of animals means that data obtained from experiments with these animals will be less noisy and easier to interpret, so fewer animals are needed for meaningful results.…

AAAS Science, Technology and Policy fellow Maryam Zaringhalam started community engagement activities during her PhD that helped her transition into a career in science policy and communication. She is currently a leadership member of 500 Women Scientists and a DC producer for The Story Collider. In the Decoding Life series, we talk to geneticists with diverse career…

We’re taking time over the following weeks to get to know the members of the GSA’s Early Career Scientist Committees. Join us every week to learn more about our early career scientist advocates.           Giovanna Collu Co-chair, Policy Subcommittee Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Research Interest For functional tissues…

Consider the papercut—a minor injury best known for the disproportionate amount of pain it can cause. That a wound so inconsequential can sting so terribly is curious, but perhaps even more surprising is the fact that it heals at all. To heal a wound, even one as trivial as a papercut, the cells involved in…

Beer, doughnuts, and genetics textbooks have one thing in common: they were all made possible by collaborations between humans and yeast. Our fungal ally Saccharomyces cerevisiae resides not only in breweries, bakeries, and laboratories, but also sometimes in our own bodies—where, on rare occasions, it betrays us. S. cerevisiae is increasingly being reported as an…

Fruit fly mutants can sometimes be grisly. Ecdysteroid hormones control aspects of fly development, including molting and metamorphosis; because aberrations in these genes lead to embryos with a ghastly appearance, they have been collectively dubbed “Halloween genes.” In a study published in GENETICS, Uryu et al. investigated how the expression of these genes is regulated.…