Join 2009 Conferences now!

This blog has been inactive lately. The thing is there's fewer activity going on in campus (is it so?). Another thing is I'm busy. I have been involved in the organizing committee of IUFRO Joint Conference 2010 (excuses excuses!). Plus, I'm still not done with posting Taman Negara Merapoh (bla bla bla).

There are quite a number of conferences in Q3 2009. Here's some:

The 8th Malaysia Genetic Congress,
Date: 4-6 August 2009
Venue: Awana Genting Resort, Pahang
For more information, visit http://www.persatuangenetikmalaysia.com/

Agricultural Biotechnology International Conference (ABIC) 2009
Date: 22-25 Sept 2009
Venue: Bangkok, Thailand
For more information, visit http://www.abic.ca/abic2009/home/About.php

Not forgetting International Conference on Bioinformatics InCoB 2009. View my post here.

Here's another one:
Agriculture Congress 2009
Theme: Tropical agriculture in a changing climate and energy scenario
Date: 27-29 October 2009
Venue: Palace of the Golden Horses, Selangor
For more information, visit http://www.agri.upm.edu.my/agcongress09/index.html

Read more...

PGM seminar summary

Who would have guess UPM have 3 different locations of Fakulti Pertanian? And, who would have thought that the Pak Guard gave the wrong direction? For the first time, I don’t even feel ashamed upon late arrival.

The first talk is on “using molecular markers to explore rice genetic diversity” by Dr.Leocardio S.Sebastian. He’s a very experienced and well-known rice researcher in Philippine. Looking at his bibliography makes me think that the PGM should organize one session focus only on his experience as rice breeder. He is now working with Bioversity based in Serdang. I missed the front part of the presentation but I can tell that his talk is all about Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) and Association Mapping in rice varieties.

Next, Ass. Prof Dr. Zilfalil started his talk about medical genetics. The Human Genome Center in USM which he directed has been involved in research on less known diseases that affect Malaysia populations. He explained why gene-based approach should be given attention in clinical trials and gave some examples on SMN1 and NAIP gene which play a big role in Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) disease. The speaker also shared some Pan Asia SNPs initiative results on Malay populations. They found out that the Malay in Kelantan might be “the first Malay” in Malaysia. A small portion of their genes are similar to Indian genes while the DNA of Malays from south Peninsular Malaysia is closest to Indonesians. When all the major ethnic groups in Asia are compared, Chinese is the closest group to Malay. This didn’t come as a surprise because migration hypothesis and previous studies have supported this theory.

The last talk is on fish breeding, triplody induction and sperm cryopreservation. The species of interest is Catfish such as Baung, Keli and Patin (local names of different catfishes). It was only last week I was told that ikan Keli is a hardy fish that can survive without water for a period of time and live in dirty water ( such as drain and muddy area). That’s why very few people want to eat ikan Keli. But things are changing now with the advancement in aquaculture. So why breed triploid fish? Triploid fish is sterile. Most hybrids will have larger size than the parental species. In theory, the energy used for gonad growth is shifted towards somatic growth. Thus, explains the higher growth rate. Dr. Anuar, the speaker later relate to us how Patin (Pangasius sp.) turned into “Cinderella” in Vietnam.

New: Powerpoint presentations can be obtained at http://www.persatuangenetikmalaysia.com/articles.htm

Read more...