[Coral-List] 2nd Global Invertebrate Genome Alliance (GIGA) workshop registration now open!

[Gert Woerheide]

Dear colleagues,

the Global Invertebrate Genome Alliance (GIGA) (http://giga-cos.org)
consists of over 150 researchers from multiple countries who are
committed to building an integrated, international, multidisciplinary
community for invertebrate genomic studies. We have proposed a
concentrated effort to sequence non-insect/non-nematode invertebrate
genomes and transcriptomes for thousands of species, develop new
informatics tools and provide substantial genomics and bioinformatics
resources to the invertebrate research community.

Invertebrates comprise over 95% of all animal species and are grouped
into ~35 distinct phyla, yet only very limited genomic and
transcriptomic data are currently available and primarily focus on a few
model species. GIGA will target 7,000 non-insect/non-nematode species,
with an emphasis on marine taxa because of the unrivaled phyletic
diversity in the oceans. Target species will be selected based on their
phylogenetic placement, relevance to organismal, ecological, and
conservation research and their importance to fisheries and human health.

The GIGA initiative has gained momentum after an inaugural workshop at
Nova Southeastern University in March 2013, resulting in the joint
publication of a white paper
(<http://m.jhered.oxfordjournals.org/content/105/1/1.full>). Recently
GIGA held a symposium with a broad audience at the 2014 Annual meeting
of the Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The *2^nd *Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance (GIGA) workshop** will
now take place from the 22.-24. March 2015 at the Department of Earth
and Environmental Sciences, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany.

We believe that this second GIGA will be vital to keep the GIGA
community and goals on track. We would greatly appreciate your
attendance as your insight and experience will assist the further
development and progress of the GIGA community.

Due to generous support by the German Research Foundation (DFG) we were
able to assemble an excellent set of invited speakers
(<http://bit.ly/1BSbl6f>) and keep registration costs low (100 Euros).

Attendance is currently limited to 75 participants to keep the workshop
at a manageable size.
A few seats are still available.


Registration is now open through the GIGA II workshop website
<http://www.palmuc.de/GIGAII>.

Remaining seats will be given on a first-come, first-serve basis with
respect to payment of the registration fees. Registration will close on
15 February 2015, but might be closed earlier if maximum capacity is
reached – so be quick!

Please direct enquiries abou the workshop only to the email address
given on the workshop website <giga2 at lrz.uni-muenchen.de>.

On behalf of the scientific committee of GIGA II

Sincerely,

Gert Wörheide



-- 
Prof. Dr. Gert Wörheide
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences,
Division of Paleontology & Geobiology
& GeoBio-CenterLMU
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and
Director, Bavarian State Collections of Palaeontology and Geology
Richard-Wagner-Straße 10
80333 München
Germany

Phone: +49 (89) 2180-6718
Fax: +49 (89) 2180-6601
E-Mail: woerheide at lmu.de
www.palmuc.de | www.geobiology.eu
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Tweets: twitter.com/gwoerhe

Lab publications:
www.molecularpalaeobiology.eu
orcid.org/0000-0002-6380-7421