Community Voices

Guest post by C. Brandon Ogbunugafor, Assistant Professor at Brown University. John Maynard Smith, born in London on January 6, 1920, was one of the great iconoclasts of the post neo-Darwinian synthesis era, a cult figure whose life was defined by notable contributions across a wide breadth of subfields [1]. He not only authored numerous…

As COVID-19 spreads across the world, members of the GSA community have had to face unprecedented challenges in their professional and personal lives. To stay connected during this socially distant time, GSA invites the scientists in our community to share how they are meeting these challenges, as well as their questions and worries.  If you…

Guest post by Alyssa Scott, Amanda Engstrom, and Teresa Lee.   As scientists, we know that social distancing is the best way to combat COVID-19. But as human beings, we’ve found that social distancing is an efficient way to quickly drain our mental health. We have a friend who, Castaway-style, puts a sticky note on the…

GSA’s Executive Director explains why and how we’re taking TAGC 2020 virtual.   For several years, we at GSA have been planning The Allied Genetics Conference (TAGC), originally set for DC in late April 2020. After a successful inaugural meeting in 2016, organizers and GSA staff sought to bring communities together by focusing on scientific…

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. Katherine Thompson-Peer Assistant Professor, Developmental & Cell Biology University of California, Irvine Lab website   Briefly describe the ongoing and expected research projects. My lab is interested in…

Last week, the GSA Board of Directors cancelled The Allied Genetics Conference (TAGC), an event we had all been eagerly anticipating. It was a heartbreaking end to four years of work and planning by many people across our community.  Although painful, the decision was clearly the socially responsible thing to do. The Board voted unanimously…

Get to know the TAGC 2020 Keynote Speakers through our interview series. Cassandra Extavour obtained an Honors BSc at the University of Toronto with a specialist in Molecular Genetics and Molecular Biology. She obtained her PhD with Antonio Garcia Bellido at the Severo Ochoa Center for Molecular Biology at the Autonomous University of Madrid. She…

Get to know the TAGC 2020 Keynote Speakers through our interview series. Jon R. Lorsch is the director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS). In this position, Lorsch oversees the Institute’s $2.9​ billion budget, which supports basic research that increases understanding of biological processes and lays the foundation for advances in disease…

We’re taking time to get to know the members of the GSA’s Early Career Scientist Committees. Join us to learn more about our 2019 early career scientist advocates. Ana Mesquita Policy Subcommittee Albert Einstein College of Medicine Research Interest Autophagy is a catabolic process that occurs in all eukaryotic organisms analyzed to date. It is critical…

Guest post by from Kenneth C. Burtis (University of California, Davis) and Mariana F. Wolfner (Cornell University). We note with great sadness the death of one of the giants of 20th century genetics, David Swenson Hogness, who passed away in Stanford, California on December 24, 2019 at the age of 94. The title of this blog, Genes…

Guest post by Charleen Adams. The Trump administration has proposed legislation that would make it legal to forcibly collect DNA from hundreds of thousands of migrants held in detention centers at the US-Mexico border [1,2]. This type of mass genetic surveillance is unprecedented. The closest comparison we have for it is the routine screening of…