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Sydney Brenner famously noted that progress in genetics “depends on the interplay between new techniques, new discoveries, and new ideas, probably in that order of decreasing importance.” In the 40 years since those words were recorded, new techniques have propelled the field of molecular biology to heights barely imagined at its inception. This year’s recipient…

GENETICS and G3: Genes | Genomes | Genetics are pleased to announce four new editors: Leah Cowen, Michael Goddard, Joseph Heitman, and Hongyu Zhao. GENETICS Leah Cowen Leah Cowen is Vice President of Research at the University of Toronto (UofT), Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics, co-Director of the CIFAR Fungal Kingdom: Threats &…

GSA President Hugo Bellen announces a new seminar series on tools and resources for exploring gene function across organisms.  Some of us are worried about the future of the research enterprise, especially funding support for science in our favorite model organism. Why worry? One of the main drivers of this concern is that some believe…

Failure of chromosomes to segregate properly results in severe medical conditions, or even death. Yet for a long time, it was challenging to study exactly how chromosomes carry out their complex choreography, due to a lack of robust tools for combining chromosome visualization and genetic experiments.  Douglas Koshland spent his postdoc studying mammalian chromosome biology…

GENETICS is pleased to announce four new editors for the Experimental Technologies and Resources section of the journal: Markus Affolter, Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, Kristin Tessmar-Raible, and Julie Hayner Simpson. Markus Affolter Markus Affolter is a developmental biologist at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel and his lab has been interested in how cells form…

Ed Smith knows the power of having footsteps to follow. Six of his older brothers earned PhDs, he says, and observing their experiences helped him set his course. “It was important to me to learn from them,” he says. “If you have a good role model, you’ll be able to follow their paths, and you…

GENETICS is pleased to announce eight new editors for the Neurogenetics & Behavior section of the journal: Arantza Barrios, Tamara Caspary, Catherine Kaczorowski, Karla Kaun, Kyuhyung Kim, Roger Pocock, Hongyan Wang, and Jill Wildonger. Arantza Barrios Arantza Barrios is an Associate Professor/Reader in Neurobiology at University College London.  Her lab uses the C. elegans male to investigate…

One of life’s great mysteries is how a single egg cell can contain all the information needed to create a fully specialized complex organism, including more egg cells. Ruth Lehmann, director of the Whitehead Institute at MIT, has done a tremendous amount to solve that mystery. Beginning in her graduate student days, she uncovered a…

To promote excellence in undergraduate research and education, GSA established the Undergraduate Travel Award, which supports travel costs for undergraduate members who are presenting at and attending a GSA conference. Congratulations to the Fall 2020 awardees! Susan Afolabi University of Maryland Baltimore County I am studying the effect of ferritin an iron storage molecule in…

GENETICS is pleased to announce six new editors for the Computational Resources, Software, & Databases section of the journal: Anastasia Baryshnikova, Judith Blake, Michael Brent, Todd Harris, Marian Walhout, and Valerie Wood. Anastasia Baryshnikova Anastasia is a Principal Investigator at Calico Life Sciences LLC, an Alphabet-founded research and development company focused on understanding the biology of…

After giving a talk in Seattle about chromosome pairing, Chao-ting (Ting) Wu boarded the redeye flight back to Boston and settled in to read a new research paper on an odd new discovery in the human genome. “It was so exciting, I had to get up and walk around on the plane,” she says. “I…