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This version of NSU News has been archived as of February 28, 2019. To search through archived articles, visit nova.edu/search. To access the new version of NSU News, visit news.nova.edu.
This version of SharkBytes has been archived as of February 28, 2019. To search through archived articles, visit nova.edu/search. To access the new version of SharkBytes, visit sharkbytes.nova.edu.
NSU Oceanographic Center Professor Presents at International Genomics Conference
Jose Lopez, Ph.D., a professor at NSU’s Oceanographic Center, is also the co-founder of the Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance (GIGA.) He recently attended and introduced the Alliance’s second workshop, held in Munich Germany, March 22-24, 2015.
This international consortium had its inaugural meeting in 2023 at NSU’s Center of Excellence in Coral Reef Ecosystem Research. This second workshop (www.palmuc.de/GIGAII) picked up where the group and first white paper left off (full copy here: http://m.jhered.oxfordjournals.org/content/105/1/1.full): to increase awareness of marine invertebrate genomics, formulate strategies to obtain funding for diverse invertebrate genome sequencing, prioritize and create better inventories of candidate invertebrate species (such as corals and deep sea crustaceans and cephalopods), and develop optimal strategies and biological questions surrounding deep genome sequencing of relatively understudied marine invertebrates.
Nearly 90 scientists attended the two-day workshop. GIGA is open to all biologists, and Deep-Pelagic Nekton Dynamics of the Gulf of Mexico (DEEPEND) members including NSU researchers Matt Johnston, Ph.D. and Stephen J. O’Brien, Ph.D. (who attended and presented updates on the vertebrate Genome 10K project.) DEPEND is an NSU-led research consortium that is being directed Tracey Sutton, Ph.D., an associate professor at NSU’s Oceanographic Center. The research of the consortium will be focused on the pelagic (open ocean) realm, from the surface to depths of over one mile, which is by far the largest ecosystem component of the Gulf of Mexico.
