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Pig Genome Newsletter #118
From: "Rothschild, Max F [AN S]" <mfrothsc@iastate.edu>
To: angenmap@animalgenome.org
Subject: US Pig Genome Newsletter #118
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 13:10:07 -0500
Pig Genome Update # 118:
- PDF version is available at
http://www.animalgenome.org/pig/newsletter/pdf/No.118.pdf
- Web version is available at
http://www.animalgenome.org/pig/newsletter/No.118.html
- Plain text version is appended below:
P I G G E N O M E U P D A T E
_________________________________________________________________
A Periodic Newsletter of the U.S. Pig Genome Coordination Program
************** No. 118 **************
* *
* September 25, 2013 *
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1. The NRSP 8 project has been reviewed and now has been approved
2. Congratulations and best wishes go to Chris Tuggle and Cathy Ernst
3. I announced earlier this year I had decided that after 20 years it was
time for someone else to take this important position of Swine Genome
Coordinator
4. NIFA-USDA is one the members of the Animal Genomics Program Officers
5. Upcoming meetings ( 5 items )
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Great news! The NRSP 8 project has been reviewed and now has been approved.
The Experiment Station Directors met on September 25 and approved it for
another 5 years beginning October 1, 2013.
o o o o o o o o o o o
Congratulations and best wishes go to Chris Tuggle, ISU and Cathy Ernst, MSU,
who have been chosen to be the next swine genome co-coordinators starting
October 1. Congratulations also go out to all the new co-coordinators: Mary
Delaney and Hans Cheng, Poultry; Ernie Bailey, Molly McCue and Samantha
Brooks, Horse; John Liu and Caird Rexroad III, Aquaculture; Noelle Cockett and
Stephen White, Sheep and Small Ruminants; Juan Medrano, Alison Van Eenennaam,
and Jerry Taylor, Cattle; and Jim Reecy, Sue Lamont, Chris Tuggle, Max
Rothschild and Fiona McCarthy, Bioinformatics. Please help them be successful
by contributing to the NRSP8 plans and activities.
o o o o o o o o o o o
I announced earlier this year I had decided that after 20 years it was time
for someone else to take this important position of Swine Genome Coordinator.
This is my last newsletter and, hence, I have a few comments in departing.
Most importantly, there are many people to thank for their contributions,
hard work and support. There is always the danger that when one starts
naming names some are forgotten and there are hard feelings. I apologize in
advance if I have missed someone. First, I thank all the scientists here in
the US and worldwide who participated in the pig genome project. The advice,
help and support provided by my colleagues in the US have been outstanding,
and the collaborations with organizers and participants of the former PiGMaP
consortium and the International Swine Genome Sequencing Committee have also
been superb. Second, I thank all my colleagues and database experts (Lizhen,
Yuandan and Zhiliang) who have helped at ISU in organizing the early database
activities and later transferring them to the bioinformatics coordination
effort. Third, the other genome coordinators, Noelle, Jim, Ernie, Hans,
Jerry, Juan, James, John and Caird, have been great to work with. We also
have had an outstanding group of administrative advisors from the various
experiment stations and USDA leaders who have supported our efforts and they
deserve a big thanks also.
Many of you know that over the past eight years or so I have been
redirecting my genomic research efforts in two ways. I have taken on more
projects in other species, which now include pigs, cattle, shrimp, sheep,
goats, chickens, dogs, cats and horses. Furthermore, I have been working more
and more in developing countries, especially Sub-Saharan Africa, on food
security issues. My year at USAID, which concluded just over a year ago,
helped me to focus my efforts. I am drawn by the enormous challenges that
exist in feeding an estimated 9.6 billion people in the near future with
dwindling resources and the need to maintain sustainability. Certainly modern
genomics can provide some answers if we devote our abilities to understanding
native livestock and poultry and production systems in harsh environments.
I am far too young to retire, and there is far too much still to do to
help contribute to efforts to feed a hungry world. Here at Iowa State
University we have initiated a new Global Food Security Consortium which
combines researchers from around the globe and efforts both in plants and
animals to look for ways to find solutions to a hungry world. New
partnerships are always welcome, and I hope many of you will devote part of
your research efforts to broader uses of genomics, especially those related to
improving food security for the world's poorest crop livestock and aquaculture
producers. It has been a great 20 years for livestock genomics. We in swine
and other species have accomplished a great deal and helped to unlock the
black box that confronted us. Still much is to be done, and I challenge all
of you to continue to work together and contribute. Finally, I again thank
all of your for your support and contributions and wish each of you well!
o o o o o o o o o o o
NIFA-USDA is a member of the Animal Genomics Program Officers working group
that has members from various federal agencies (USDA (NIFA and ARS), NIH
(NHGRI, NCI, NICHD, NIGMS), NSF (DBI, MCB, IOS), DOE (BER), and USAID (BFS).
This working group has explored common scientific areas of interest that are
within the mission for the individual federal agencies. NIFA wishes to solicit
your inputs to develop activities across agencies that are relevant to animal
agriculture. The working group considered cyber-infrastructure to be one of
the areas of common interest to all federal agencies. During a recent
teleconference, one of the program officers from NIH highlighted the RFAs
(given below) that would bring the biomedical and animal agriculture
communities together.
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-HG-13-009.html
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-RM-13-013.html
Please consider collaborating with the biomedical community and possibly
developing a proposal on a comparative genomics data center that supports
systems biology efforts. Please contact Lakshmi Matukumalli, National Program
Leader, if you would like to discuss more about this or to help connect with
the other program officers from NIH on the working group who are also managing
these programs (Kindly provided by Lakshmi Matukumalli).
o o o o o o o o o o o
Upcoming meetings (see:
http://www.animalgenome.org/pigs/community/meetings.html)
Plant & Animal Genome Conference, PAG XXIII, Jan. 11-15, 2015, Town & Country
Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, CA. Information is available at
http://www.intlpag.org/ .
PAG ASIA, May 19-21, 2014, Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, Singapore.
Details at http://www.intlpagasia.org
International Society for Animal Genetics, July 27 - Aug. 1, 2014, Xi'an,
China. See http://isag2014.com for more information.
10th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, August 17-22,
2014, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. See http://wcgalp.com/
Max Rothschild
U.S. Pig Genome Coordinator
2255 Kildee Hall,
Department of Animal Science
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa 50011
Phone: 515-294-6202
Fax: 515-294-2401
mfrothsc@iastate.edu
http://www.animalgenome.org/pig/
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Supported by Multi-State Research Funds to the National Research Service
Program (NRSP-8). National Animal Genome Research Program (NAGRP),
Lakshmi Matukumalli, NAGRP Director, NIFA, USDA
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Web: http://www.animalgenome.org/pig | Mail: angenmap@animalgenome.org
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