Biologist Jeffrey Boore to Discuss Ongoing Genetic Research Nov. 17
Boore will discuss why certain genomes have been targeted for sequencing before others, and what progress is being made on the sequencing
Jeffrey L. Boore, head of the evolutionary genomics department at the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, will present an overview of genomics research at the institute during a lecture Nov. 17 at Duke University.
Boore's talk, "Will Your Favorite Genome Be Sequenced?" will be at 7 p.m. in Love Auditorium at the Levine Science Research Center.
The talk, which is free and open to the public, kicks off the Fall 2004 Nicholas Environmental Leadership Forum, 'Landscapes, Genomics and Transgenic Conifer Forests," to be held Nov. 17-19 at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences.
In his speech, Boore will explain why certain genomes have been targeted for sequencing before others, and what progress is being made on the sequencing. The Joint Genome Institute is one of the leading centers for producing and analyzing DNA sequences in the United States. Its processing capability exceeds 55,000 nucleotides a minute, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"Large-scale sequencing efforts are now complete, underway or planned for hundreds of genomes," Boore writes in his talk's abstract. "Soon, young biologists will wonder how research was done before the availability of large amounts of sequenced DNA, as some do now when reflecting on the days before computers."
Nonetheless, he notes, "Much of the scientific community is unaware of the processes used for selecting genomes to target and the important considerations that must be addressed for a successful genome sequencing."
The three-day forum features talks and panel discussions by more than 30 scientists and policy-makers. They include Jesse H. Ausubel, director of the Program for the Human Environment at Rockefeller University and program director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; Ann Bartuska, deputy chief for research and development at the USDA-Forest Service; Joseph Jen, USDA undersecretary of agriculture; and Maurice Lex, of the European Union Commission on Biosafety.
Claire Williams, visiting professor at the Nicholas School, is chair and organizer of the forum.
For more information about the forum, or to register online, go here.