Invitation from ASHG President and Program Committee

Dear Colleagues:

The ASHG Program Committee and Board of Directors invite you to submit your most exciting research for presentation, and to attend the 58th Annual Meeting of The American Society of Human Genetics in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to be held from Tuesday, November 11, through Saturday, November 15, 2008, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

The Program Committee has developed an exceptional and exciting program that will provide the highest quality scientific and clinical information to address the needs of our diverse audience. The Committee has worked to balance basic, translational, and clinical research with educational and social issues. The scientific sessions of invited speakers and contributed papers are relevant to clinicians diagnosing and characterizing birth defects and developmental disorders; to counselors informing and supporting patients and families about these disorders; to basic scientists deciphering the pathogenesis of Mendelian disorders; to geneticists dissecting contributions to complex traits including the latest genome-wide association studies; to researchers translating the wealth of genomic information into function; and to all of us translating the wealth of genomic information into function.
 

In addition, updates on research will be highlighted for epigenetics, non-coding RNAs, triplet expansions, pharmacogenetics, and therapy for genetic disorders. A new addition to this year’s meeting will be two hands-on training sessions in the use of the UCSC Genome Browser, an increasingly essential tool for interpreting genetic and genomic information. We encourage you to register early for these training opportunities.
 

The majority of the scientific program involves plenary, platform, and poster presentations by authors of abstracts. The Program Committee will again select platform abstracts from diverse disciplines to be grouped together in thematic and cross-topic sessions. ASHG members have found these sessions valuable, as they encourage interaction among the different subspecialties of our Society.
 

The scientific program will be highlighted by 14 superb invited scientific sessions. There will also be a special hour-long symposium to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Hardy-Weinberg Law. We have made some changes to the format this year. The Presidential Symposium: Four Genome Stories will be held on Thursday, November 13, from 8:00 pm until 10:00 pm instead of on Friday evening. The Distinguished Speakers’ Symposium: Systems Biology, Regulatory Networks and Disease, will be held on Friday, November 14, from 4:00 pm until 6:00 pm instead of on Saturday afternoon. The Saturday program will include several platform sessions, a special invited session on genome-wide association studies, and the annual awards ceremonies.
 

Trainee Events: In addition to the Trainee-Mentor Lunch and the Job Fair on Wednesday, November 12, there will be a special session on Wednesday evening for trainees interested in networking and learning more about the professional development process.
 

We continue to attract attendees from other professional societies who enhance scientific, educational, and social interactions within our Society. We encourage you to communicate your ideas and comments to ASHG and to share this Call for Abstracts/Meeting Information site (www.ashg.org/2008meeting) with your nonmember colleagues. ASHG values the contributions of its members and we look forward to receiving your abstracts and seeing you in Philadelphia!
 

Sincerely yours,