It’s almost time to hit the road, for a trip to Seattle for the RNA 2010 Meeting. I’m not one for blogging meetings or stuff like that, but I can provide a bit of a taste for what will be happening.
The topical line-up includes:
- Alternative splicing
- Bioinformatics
- Catalytic RNAs
- Genome wide analysis (HITS, CLIP, etc)
- Interplay between transcription and post-transcriptional processes
- mRNA quality control
- mRNA transport and localization
- mRNA turnover
- Prokaryotic non-coding RNAs
- Ribosomes and translation
- Riboswitches
- RNA editing
- RNA helicases
- RNA-protein complexes
- RNA structure and folding
- RNP granules
- snRNAs and snoRNAs
- Splicing mechanisms
- Transcriptional and post-transcriptional gene silencing (siRNAs, miRNAs, piRNAs)
- Translational control
- 3′ end processing
- Viral RNAs
The list of invited speakers and subjects:
- David Bartel – miRNA Mediated Gene Regulation
- Ronald Breaker – Riboswitches
- Christopher Burge – Informatic Analysis of Alternative Splicing
- Kathleen Collins – Structure and Function of Telomerase
- Elena Conti – Exosome Structure and Function
- Adrian Ferré-D’Amaré – New Insights into RNA Structure
- Susan Gottesman – Bacterial Small RNAs
- Brenton Graveley – Regulation of Alternative Splicing
- Dan Herschlag – RNA Enzymology
- Michael Ibba – Transfer RNA
- Eckhard Jankowsky – RNA Helicase Structure and Function
- Alan Lambowitz – Protein Assisted RNA Catalysis
- Jon Lorsch – Mechanism of Translation
- Reinhard Lührmann – Splicing Composition and Function
- James Manley – 3′ End Processing
- Lynne Maquat – RNA Decay and NMD
- Harry Noller – Ribosome Structure and Function
- Robert Singer – RNA Localization
- Nahum Sonenberg – Initiation of Translation and Its Control
- Eric Sontheimer – The CRISP and Cas System
- Joan Steitz – Viral Non-coding RNAs
- David Tollervey – Ribosome Synthesis
- Phillip Zamore – Biogenesis and Function of piRNAs
No question about it – this is going to be interesting ….
If anyone reading this is going to be in Seattle for this meeting, or for any other reason between June 22 and 27, let me know. I’m always up for sharing a brew or coffee or whatever.
The RNA Underworld 
I want tweets. (Just kidding, but I have taken to following meetings that way, and I won’t be going this year.)
Any discussion of PTEN and PTENP1? Uncommonn Descent is all excited about it. Any bets on how long it will take Jonathan Wells to claim that Intelligent Design has found a cure for cancer?
It seems to me that PTENP1is still a pseudogene in that it does not code for PTEN. The fact that it sucks up the miRNA sequences that otherwise would prevent PTEN production by the PTEN gene doesn’t change this or make PTENP1 any less “vestigial”. It just turns out to now have a different noncoding function that might help prevent cancer. There’s a whole lot of nonsense hitting the internet on this so I’d appreciate any comments in case I’m not getting this right.
So Art, how was the conference? Did it live up to expectations?
Hi all.
Clem, the conference was great. Hopefully, after July 12, I will find time to put together an essay that will do it justice. But to briefly recap here – the structure of the meeting was a bit different, with plenary speakers being asked to give overviews (rather than detailed summaries of recent work in their labs). The concurrent sessions were interesting, and then poster sessions were well-done.
(Of course, I must admit to sneaking off once, since I took this trip as an opportunity to celebrate an extended Father’s “Day” with my oldest daughter, who drove from Missoula.)
Steve, sorry, no tweets. I had a delightful visit with Xiao-Ning. Overall, the “plant contingent” was small but nicely representative. (This is always a problem for me – RNA meetings are good for talking with researchers who are studying polyadenylation and processing, but not plant science and the RNA processing-agriculture interface. Plant meetings are good for visiting with colleagues who work on gene expression mechanisms in plants, but by and large I find that interest in 3′ ends and splicing is not very great.)
Jim, I plan on doing a PT entry that described the “presence” (cough cough) of the DI and Biologic Institute at this meeting. As my discussion at UD showed, it’s hard to make sense of the IDists claims or ideas when it comes to these things. When the “best” ID commentator at UD mixes up the product of a retro-transposition event with retrotransposons, then it doesn’t seem possible to have a productive conversation. (BTW, Jim, thanks for stopping by. If I had any geographic sense at all, I would have contacted you before my visit to Biola so that we might have had a chance to visit with each other. I didn’t know how close Fullerton is to La Mirada.)
One more thing – having the World Cup on in the morning sure curtailed the excitement that usually is found at meetings that are held at World Cup time. It’s not the same when you can’t be knocking down pints while watching (or yelling, or cheering, or using the ubiquitous vuvuzela). And pints of ale at 8AM – not that easy to do, even in Seattle. (Coffee, that’s another matter entirely.)
That was my sense of things, at least.