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.

I have already blogged about the retirement of Dr. Yoshitaka Nagahama from his position at National Institute for Basic Biology, Japan. To honor and celebrate his contribution to the field of Fish Reproductive Biology and Development, an International Symposium on "Sex Determination and Gametogenesis in Fish: Current Status and Future Challenges" will be held in Honolulu, Hawaii on May 30~June 1, 2008. The event is arranged in such a way that collegues attending "SSR 2008" or "1st World Congress on Reproductive Biology" in Kona will also be able to participate in.
For details, please contact Dr. Penny Swanson at Northwest Fisheries Center or Dr. Graham Young at University of Washington, Seattle. I have recieved a flyer for the symposium which you may download by clicking the link (first announcement).

Dr. Md. Saydur Rahman, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Marine Science Institute of University of Texas -Austin (Port Aransas), is a good friend of mine. By profession, he is a  Fish Physiologist. He says "Coastal waters have low level of dissolved oxygen (condition of hypoxia) throughout the world over the past few decades, as a result of increased run-off from human agricultural and industrial activities". His research focuses on how hypoxia affects growth and physiology of marine fishes.  Recently, his team reported that fish inhabiting these coastal waters had little ovarian and testicular growth, low egg and sperm production, and low levels of reproductive hormones during the time when they would normally be increasing in preparation for reproduction. Laboratory studies showed that hypoxia caused endocrine disruption through decreasing levels of serotonin in the brain. If such a situation persists, it will affect the entire population of fish and other coastal organisms, and ultimately the marine ecosystem as a whole. 
His major publications 
Other publication links
Marine Science Institute 

My previous host professor, Dr. Yoshitaka Nagahama , a prominent fish reproductive biologist , at National Institute for Basic Biology, Japan is about to retire in March, 2008 after his three decades of contribution to the field. A number of special symposia will be held in honor of his retirement around the globe. His absence in the field will undoubtedly disappoint us, but there are hopes that more energetic and smart scientists will be coming up soon to replace. 
I am planning to go to Japan in March to attend his retirement ceremony, where I will have an opportunity to meet with my PhD supervisor Prof. Kohei Yamauchi, host professor from University of the Ryukyus, Dr. Masaru Nakamura, and many colleagues from around the globe. Among the colleagues, I am excited to meet Dr. Kataaki Okubo and his family in Okazaki. Hope this grand meeting will be exciting. 

Dr. Kataaki Okubo, Myself, Dr. Yoshi Nagahama and Dr. Kohei Ohta.


A picture taken during retirement ceremony of my PhD supervisor, Dr. Kohei Yamauchi. 

Dame Anne McLaren, a geneticist and reproductive biologist at the University of Cambridge, UK, who was one of the first to culture mouse embryos outside the womb, was killed in a car crash outside London on July 7. She was 80 years old.
She was a master in mammalian development research. I met her in the Vertebrate Sex Determination meeting in Kona, Hawaii, in April 2006. She was pretty healthy and actively particiapating in the meeting. When I introduced myself to her, she said that I was the first Nepalese scientist she ever met, and also that I would possibly be the last, as well. She was a very good person. Although I did not have enough time to discuss about research, her few words were very precious to me. Thanks Dr. Eva Eicher for introducing me to her and many others in the meeting.

Her biography and research findings are available in the following websites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_McLaren  
http://www.gurdon.cam.ac.uk/mclaren.html

Condolences:
http://www.gurdon.cam.ac.uk/anne-mclaren.html