[Coral-List] First circular: Nonbilaterian Animal Model Organisms 2008
Gert Wörheide
gert.woerheide at geo.uni-goettingen.de
Thu Feb 21 11:20:17 EST 2008
1. Circular
International symposium:
NONBILATERIAN ANIMAL MODEL ORGANISMS 2008
www.namo2008.de
October 17-20, Altes Schloss Dornburg/Saale, Jena, Germany
SYMPOSIUM RATIONALE: Study of the early evolution of multicellular
animals (Metazoa) holds the key to some of the most important
questions in Evolutionary Biology. In recent decades gene and genome
data have strongly influenced our understanding about the phylogenetic
relationship of the main metazoan clades and of their developmental
biology, but other fields such as comparative morphology and
physiology have also provided new insight into animal organization.
The use of model organisms has greatly contributed to our expanding
knowledge of animal body plans, but the most widely used model
organisms (Caenorhabditis, Drosophila, Danio, Xenopus, Mus and Gallus)
are all representatives of bilaterian animals; there is a serious
absence of models to use for understanding early metazoan evolution.
The need for new widely available nonbilaterian model organisms has
become pronounced, and while some models have been identified for
Cnidaria, none exist for the Porifera.
The fully sponsored NAMO2008 symposium (final funding commitment
pending) aims at catalyzing the process of choosing models for
research on early evolution of metazoan organization. Recent progress
but also the most important questions, tasks and the first steps that
nonbilaterian animal research should take will be addressed. NAMO 2008
will bring together scientists from various disciplines who are all
specialized in different nonbilaterian animal groups and catalyze the
process of establishing new nonbilaterian animal model organisms that
can be studied in detail by every lab worldwide. We also aim at input
from existing bilaterian model organism communities (e.g. the
Caenorhabditis elegans community).
VENUE: The symposium venue, the 1000 year-old castle Altes Schloss
Dornburg near Jena, will help to create an exclusive working
environment for a unique, interdisciplinary team of experts. The
castle provides the ideal retreat for exchange of ideas across
disciplines and for fostering new alliances and pathways. Two days of
combined presentations (invited perspectives) and workshops
(discussion and exchange of ideas) will result in a synopsis of the
current questions and proposed new directions for future research. In
addition NAMO2008 will put together recommendations concerning the
selection of new animal models as well as mechanisms to promote use of
these experimental models world-wide.
PARTICIPANTS: The symposium will be open for a limited number of
participants: 21 invited contributors and 45 assorted participants
representing graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and senior
scientists, who will be chosen by their excellence of research and
expression of interest plus an abstract.
FURTHER INFORMATION: visit www.namo2008.de for further information and
our symposium poster.
MAILING LIST: You will be able to register for our mailing list to
make sure you will not miss the 2nd Circular and the opening of the
registration.
COVERED PERSPECTIVES & KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
ORIGIN OF MULTICELLULAR ANIMALS
Claus Nielsen, Denmark
THE NEED FOR NEW MODEL ORGANISMS
Ronald A. Jenner, Great Britain
PALEONTOLOGY OF NONBILATERIAN ANIMAL GROUPS
Andrew H. Knoll, USA
SELECTED TOPICS: PORIFERA
Maja Adamska, Norway
Noriko Funayama, Japan
April Hill, USA
Sally P. Leys, Canada
Michael Nickel, Germany
Gert Wörheide, Germany
SELECTED TOPICS: CNIDARIA & CTENOPHORA
Thomas Bosch, Germany
Allen G. Collins, USA
Mark Martindale, USA
Katja Seipel, Great Britain
Uli Technau, Austria
SELECTED TOPICS: PLACOZOA
Ana Signorovitch, USA
GENOMICS OF NON-BILATERIAN ANIMALS
Claire Larroux, Australia
John R. Finnerty, USA
Dennis Lavrov, USA
LESSONS FROM BILATERIAN MODEL ORGANISMS
David C. Hall, USA
Peter Ladurner, Austria
Sheldon McKay, USA
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE:
Maja Adamska, Sars Centre, Bergen, Norway
Dennis Lavrov, Iowa State University, Ames, USA
Sally Leys, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
Michael Nickel, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany
Gert Wörheide, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany
LOCAL ORGANIZER:
Michael Nickel
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
Institut für Spezielle Zoologie und Evolutionsbiologie
Erbertstr. 1
07743 Jena
Germany
Email contact via webpage form at www.namo2008.de
----
Gert Wörheide
Junior Professor for Molecular Geobiology
Courant Research Center Geobiology
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Goldschmidtstr.3
37077 Göttingen, Germany
phone: +49-(0)551-3914177
mobile: +49-(0)178-5372233
fax: +49-(0)551-397918
Skype: spongegert
gert.woerheide at geo.uni-goettingen.de
www.geobiology.eu
www.spongebarcoding.org
www.geobiologie.uni-goettingen.de
Project "Deep Down Under"
www.deepdownunder.de
Selected lab publications:
http://www.molgeobio.uni-goettingen.de/papers.php
Support the International Year of the Reef 2008!
www.iyor2008.de
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