Transgenic Technologists form a network across Oceania
The 1st Oceania Transgenic/Cryopreservation Symposium took place at the University of Queensland, Brisbane Australia on the 31st October -1st November 2013. This meeting was initiated by Elizabeth Williams and has grown out of workshops on cryopreservation of reproductive materials and in-vitro fertilization (IVF) that were run in conjunction with ANZLAA annual conferences (Hobart 2011 & Brisbane 2012). Through these activities it was recognized that there was a need for more local networking, collaboration and communication amongst transgenic technologists across Australia and New Zealand.
The meeting drew 53 participants representing twenty-six different organisations. 14 of the participants were locals from the Brisbane area, but there were also 33 interstate and 6 international delegates; mostly from New Zealand, but with one colleague visiting from Japan. The Australian Institute for Biotechnology and Nanotechnology generously provided the meeting venue and facilities.
The organizers Elizabeth Williams (University of Queensland Biological Resources, Brisbane), Karen Brennan (Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Sydney), Andrew Brown (University of Auckland, Auckland), Paul Scowen (University of Tasmania, Hobart) and Kevin Taylor (Australian Bioresources, Moss Vale), all ISTT members, had canvassed topics from potential participants ahead of the meeting and ran informal discussions under the session headings Cryopreservation, Transgenic and Knock-Out Production, Administrative Issues, Husbandry, New Technologies/Techniques, and Rederivation.
Rapid conversion of EUCOMM/KOMP-CSD alleles in mouse embryos using a cell-permeable Cre recombinase. (Figure 1 from Ryder, Doe et al. Transgenic Research, 2013 Nov 7. DOI: 10.1007/s11248-013-9764-x)
Our colleagues from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, UK, most of them ISTT members, have just published a very interesting paper in Transgenic Research, the scientific journal associated with the International Society for Transgenic Technologies (ISTT), describing the use of a cell-permeable Cre recombinase for the rapid conversion of EUCOMM/KOMP-CSD alleles directly in mouse embryos, hence avoiding the traditional breeding of mice produced with the original tm1a alleles with Cre-transgenic mouse lines to produce non-conditional knockout alleles (tm1b allele). This innovative procedure saves time, money, and, most importantly, many animals, thus contributing to animal welfare.
All posters accepted and presented at a TT meeting will be eligible for these ISTT Best Poster Awards. An ISTT Best Poster Awards committee will be established by the ISTT in order to select the awarded posters among among all presented communications submitted to a TT meeting as Posters. This committee might include members of the ISTT Council, members of the Local Organizing Committee and any other willing ISTT member and will have a Chair. The ISTT Council will nominate the members of this Committee and its Chair. The number of Posters to be awarded might vary, from TT meeting to TT meeting, although the figure of selecting the three best posters presented might be used as a reference. The scientific and technical quality of the Poster, he novelty of the results presented, as well as the artwork applied and the overall layout of the Poster will be judged by this Committee, among any additional criteria, at its sole discretion. The ISTT will define the nature of the presents to be given to the presenters of the selected awarded Posters.
The next TT meeting where the ISTT Poster Awards will be given is the 12th Transgenic Technology meeting, TT2014, to be held on 6-8 October 2014 in Ediburgh, Scotland, UK.
