Workshop: Mapping Future Applications of ‘omics in Antarctic Research

Calling Antarctic life scientists, genome scientists, informaticians, evolutionary biologists, experimentalists and computational biologists.

The “Mapping the future applications of ‘omics in Antarctic research” workshop will be an important community-building and initiative-planning event.

Workshop Details:
When: Oct. 18-19 2022 from 8-14:00 Pacific/11-17:00 Eastern time.
Application Deadline: Sept. 26, 2022.

We are seeking to develop a new research initiative for those with expertise and interest in applying ‘omics approaches to address key research questions on adaptation, evolution and diversity of Antarctic life.

This workshop aims to foster new collaborative and interdisciplinary research within the context of the ‘Mapping the future applications of ‘omics in Antarctic research’. The workshop seeks to draw scientists from various fields of Antarctic research as well as those with expertise in various ‘omics research approaches to address research into unraveling how biota evolve and adapt to the extreme and rapidly changing Antarctic environment. This workshop is intended to catalyze a key research need (Priority II) identified in A Strategic Vision for NSF Investments in Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research (NASEM, 2015).

The workshop will be interactive and integrative across life science disciplines and aims to broaden the diversity of Antarctic life scientists. As a collective, we aim to identify priority research questions that span across Antarctic biota. A primary goal of the workshop is to synthesize knowledge on Antarctic life and ecosystem sciences and to use this to identify priorities to pursue during the next 5-10 years as part of an NSF initiative. Anticipated outcomes include (i) developing a network of interdisciplinary life scientists interested in applying ’omics to address Antarctic research questions, (ii) determining a unifying, synthetic research theme upon which to focus this initiative, (iii) identifying technical challenges and knowledge gaps that are barriers to Antarctic ‘omics science, and (iv) establishing collaborative working groups for future proposal submissions. A summary report will be produced following the workshop and will be disseminated broadly.

Further information and application information can be found here: https://apply.hub.ki/lifeinantarctica/

If you have further questions, please contact Alison Murray, or one of the other members of the organizing committee.

Workshop organizing committee:
Alison Murray, Desert Research Institute, NV, (Chair), alison.murray@dri.edu
Rauri Bowie, University of California, Berkeley, CA, bowie@berkeley.edu
Patrick Chain, Los Alamos National Laboratory, NM, pchain@lanl.gov
Allyson Hindle, University of Nevada Las Vegas, NV, Allyson.hindle@unlv.edu
Rachel Morgan-Kiss, Miami University, OH, morganr2@miamioh.edu
Rachel O’Neill, University of Connecticut, CN, rachel.oneill@uconn.edu
Tatiana Rynearson, University of Rhode Island, RI, rynearson@uri.edu
Oscar Schofield, Rutgers University, NJ, oscar@marine.rutgers.edu
Arvind Varsani, Arizona State University, AZ, Arvind.Varsani@asu.edu