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 .