James D Murray, Organizer of the 8th UC Davis Transgenic Animal Conference
James D Murray (Department of Animal Science, UC Davis, and ISTT member) must be praised once again for having organized another successful edition (8th) of the highly interesting and stimulating Transgenic Animal Research Conference in Tahoe, a spectacular and most scenic high-mountain area in Northern California. Over 100 scientists, PhD students, biotechnologists and members of regulatory agencies have discussed, during three and a half days (August 7-11), the most recent advances in the generation, use and applications derived from geneticall modified animals, with a focus in non-rodent large animal models. The International Society for Transgenic Technologies (ISTT) is proud to have co-sponsored this conference, highly relevant for those working with transgenic pigs, sheep, cows, goats, chicken and fish, among other species. Several ISTT members have participated in this meeting, as invited speakers, session chairs or delegates. The abstracts of this meeting as well as a scientific report will be published in Transgenic Research, the scientific journal associated with the ISTT, freely available online to all ISTT Members.
ISTT supporting the 8th Transgenic Animal Research Conference
In its guidance document, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) outlines specific data requirements and the methodology to be followed for risk assessment should applications for food and feed derived from GM animals be submitted for market authorisation in the European Union (EU). The risk assessment approach compares GM animals and derived food and feed with their respective conventional counterparts integrating both food and feed safety as well as animal health and welfare aspects. All stakeholders and interested parties are invited to provide their comments through an online public consultation that runs until 30 September 2011.
Prof. Xiao-Yang Zhao, 1st ISTT Young Investigator Award - 2011
The International Society for Trangenic Technologies (ISTT) is pleased to announce the first ISTT Young Investigator Award, generously sponsored by inGenious Targeting Laboratory. From the four excellent candidates nominated by ISTT Members, the Award Committee chose Prof. Xiao-Yang Zhao, from the State Key Lab of Reproductive Biology (SKLRB), Institute of Zoology (IOZ), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, PR China, [nominated by Prof. Qi Zhou (ISTT Prize award 2004)]. The Award Committee felt his research was exciting and has great potential to impact the field of animal transgenesis, through his impressive work and publications on induced-pluripotent stem cells (iPS).
Dr. Xiao-Yang Zhao developed a system to generate induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells that showed 100 fold improvement in efficiency over the control method. iPS cells show great promise in applications to develop regenerative medicine applications and generation of experimental animal models. Dr. Zhao’s breakthrough research proved that iPS cells could be used to generate viable mice by tetraploid complementation. This demonstration of complete iPS cell pluripotency was published in Nature in 2009 and received much attention from stem cell biologists and the popular media. Time Magazine named this research as the fifth most important medical breakthrough 2009 in a list of the top ten medical advances.
Dr. Xiao-Yang Zhao was born in 1980, in Southwest China. He received his PhD degree in Developmental Biology from Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academic of Sciences in 2010. After that, he was recommended and awarded to be the Young Principal of Investigator of IOZ, CAS. Dr. Xiao-Yang Zhao and colleagues found that some iPS cells failed to generate iPS mice by tetraploid complementation. However, when their nuclei were transferred to enucleated oocytes, cloned animals could be generated. This combination of using iPS cells from transgenic animals and nuclear transfer technologies will accelerate studies of transgenesis in non-rodent animals, specifically in agriculturally important species.
Award committee:
Dr. Thom Saunders, Univ. Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, Vice-President of ISTT, Chair
Prof. Francis Stewart, Biotechnologisches Zentrum, TU Dresden, Germany, ISTT Prize award 2010
Prof. Brigid Hogan, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA, ISTT Prize award 2008
Dr. Lisa Aronov, inGenious Targeting Laboratory, ISTT Young Investigator Award Sponsor
Once again, and correspondig this year to its 8th edition, the biennial UC Davis Transgenic Animal Research Conference, organized by Prof. James Murray, UC Davis and ISTT Member, will be held at the beautiful location of Lake Tahoe, in Northern California, starting next Sunday, August 7, until August 10. Once again, the International Society for Transgenic Technologies (ISTT) is pleased to co-sponsor and promote this event.
This will be the eight international meeting hosted by UC Davis to bring together representatives from the leading laboratories worldwide doing cutting edge work on transgenic research in non-murine animals, including livestock, fish and poultry species. The upcoming conference will again focus on state-of-the-art science in the field of transgenic research. Presentations will address cutting-edge methodology, technical improvements, and current progress towards producing transgenic animals for biomedical and agricultural applications. The intent of these conferences is to bring together scientists to discuss progress, problems, and potential application of transgenic technology for animal applications.
The list of accepted speakers and topics include:
Goetz Laible, New Zealand, Opening talk
Daniel Salamone, Argentina, methods to increase efficiency of transgenesis
Scott Fahrenkrug, Minnesota, USA, transposon for making GE pigs
Lluis Montoliu, Spain, Boundary elements
Mark Tizard, Australia, miRNA tgs to mature immunity in chick embryos
Michael Roberts (Bhanu Telugu) Missouri, USA, reprogramming msenchymal stem cells
Elizabeth Maga, Davis, USA, In vivo bacteriacidal effects of lysozyme milk
Mike McGrew, Roslin, UK, germline transmission of TG chickens from PGCs
Rob Etches, Crystal Biosciences, interspecies use of PGC cells in birds
Jacob Bentzon, Denmark, hypercholesterolemic minipigs
Björn Petersen, Germany, ZFN pigs
Zsuzsanna Bosze, Hungary, transgenic rabbit systems
Cesare Galli, Italy, European xenotransplantation pig project
Charlotte Sorenson, Denmark, HR in nuclear donor cells for SCNT cloning in pigs
Darek Moreau, Canada, GXE interaction of GH Atlantic Salmon
Kevin Wells, Missouri, USA, targeting-dependent selection
Mingjun Lui, China, Lentivirus vectors in sheep
Xavier Lauth, AquaBounty, USA, GE sterile fish
Roland Buelow, OMT, USA, antibodies from TG rats
David Stolz, Iowa, USA, cystic fibrosis pigs
Eddie Sullivan, Hematech, USA, Increasing Transgenic Protein production when using transgenic animals as bioreactors
Helen Sang, Roslin, UK, Flu resistant chickens
Ron Stotish, AquaBounty, USA, Science for regulatory approval
Li Ning, China, shRNA resistance to foot and mouth in pigs
