WSU-UI Center for Reproductive Biology organized a retreat on May 14 and 15 at Orofino, ID. Distinguished Geneticist Dr. Robin Lovell-Badge was invited to deliver a speech on vertebrate sex determination. Dr. Terry Ned who is a renowned reproductive biologist in the nation delivered a Founder's Lecture on how to make a contraceptive to sterilize wild animals. Both speakers gave an elegant speech. Student and Trainee speakers did pretty well. The overall program was successful. At the end of the first day presentation, power went out. Everyone had a candle light dinner. Volleyball game was cancelled, otherwise WSU was said to win the game this year. UI team used to be the bold for ever though.

I participated in 5th Vertebrate Sex Determination Symposium in Kona, Hawaii from the 20th through the 24th of April, 2009. Since I flew from Pullman early in the morning, it was already 11:30 am when plane landed at Kona International Airport. Another hour was spent for catching a taxi and dropping off my luggage at the hotel. My previous mentor Dr. Yoshi Nagahama had already finished his Opening Talk, which I wanted to attend at any cost. No luck! I also missed the talk of Dr. Robin Lovell-Badge, who is the godfather of sex determination research. However, I will be able to hear this talk next month in Orofino, ID where Dr. Lovell-Badge will give a guest lecture at the CRB Retreat program of WSU&UI.
Most of the talks were on beta-catenin, Wnt4, FoxL2 and R- spondin. Non-mammalian talks were equally interesting. The molecular mechanism of differentiation of fetal and adult Leydig cells was presented by Dr. Ken Morohashi of Kysushu University, which was one of the best talks given in this meeting. My talk was well-received and the ChIP assay I developed was well-appreciated.

Meeting started at 8:30 and ended at 18:00 everyday except for 22nd afternoon. I took some pictures, which are sitting in the Picasaweb. Photo .

Fifth international symposium on the biology of vertebrate sex determination is going to be held at Royal Kona Resort in Kona, Hawaii from April 20 through April 24, 2009. The aim of this symposium is to bring together scientists and students from a wide variety of disciplines with a common interest in sex determination. I am also participating at the meeting and the title is "Neurotrophin-3, a target gene for Sry action". I anticipate meeting with renown scientists in the field. So far, in each symposium, scientists have presented at least one breakthrough in the field. I am anxiously waiting to hear another yet new breakthrough  on Sry/Sox9 signalling in the gonad. For details of this and previous meetings, please visit the following website:

Symposium website

Photogallery 2006

With Drs. Eva Eicher and Roger V. Short.