A special Biosystematists meeting, May 9th, 2000:

"Towards a new synthesis of genomics and phylogenetics"

at The Carnegie Institution of Washington
Stanford University

The Biosystematists is a venerable, inter-institutional discussion group of organismal biologists, geneticists, paleontologists, and systematists interested in evolution and biodiversity that has been meeting monthly in the San Francisco Bay area since the mid 1930s (see History of the Biosystematists at http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/bryolab/babs/early_history.html). Founders of the group were mainly located at the Carnegie Institution of Washington at Stanford University (Jens Clausen, William Hiesey, and David Keck) and at the University of California in Berkeley (Harvey M. Hall, Ernest B. Babcock and G. Ledyard Stebbins, Jr.).

This special meeting will thus take place at one of the ancestral homes of the Biosystematists; there is a nice symmetry to having a reunion at the Carnegie Institution of two fields (genomics and phylogenetics) that are both new and cutting edge and yet in their previous incarnations (as cytogenetics and systematics) were first linked together in a novel way by the Bay Area Biosystematists group in the 1930's and 1940's but then became estranged over time.

The goal of this meeting is to explore the ways in which comparative phylogenetic studies can inform functional genomic studies, and vice-versa. Both communities of researchers are individually well-coordinated, but there are almost no linkages between them at the present. Genome biologists are very keen on making comparisons among organisms, and are indeed already starting, but are initially proceeding rather naively without talking advantage of current phylogenetic techniques and results. Likewise, most phylogeneticists are naive about just how fast the data is coming from the genomics projects and the power of some of the new technologies. So, both groups of researchers would benefit greatly from increased communication and collaboration.

One spin-off of this meeting will be discussion of a planned submission to the new NSF program "Research Coordination Networks (RCN) in Biological Sciences" to link plant genomics and plant phylogenetics. Check out the website at http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?nsf0056.

PROGRAM:

Following an introduction, there will be four 10-minute presentations of different aspects of these subjects, then conversation should take it away from there.

Chris Somerville (Stanford University): welcome and overview of the history of the Carnegie Institution and its transformation to the present, current research, etc.
Brent Mishler (UC Berkeley): the background on phylogenetics, and how it can inform functional studies.
Shauna Somerville (Stanford University): the background on genomics, current progress, and the future.
Pam Soltis (Washington State University): a phylogenetics case study, chromosomal evolution in the flowering plants.
Virginia Walbot (Stanford University): a genomics case study, what are we learning from maize?

RECEPTION AND DINNER:

We will have dinner on the back lawn of the Carnegie Institution, 260 Panama Street on the Stanford campus. There will be some big round tables set up on the lawn, which is immediately adjacent to a seminar room which holds 60 people. There will be a selection of Chinese food available buffet style (paper plates etc). There will be beer and wine before and during dinner, and informal tours will be given of the Carnegie during the reception. Price of dinner and drinks will be $10 per person, graciously subsidized by Dr. Chris Somerville, Director of the Carnegie Institution Department of Plant Biology.
5:30: reception
6:30: dinner
7:30: presentations -- will be held in the Carnegie seminar room if less than 60 attend; if more than 60 we will walk to Herrin Hall room 175 (about 2 blocks to the east).

**** please RSVP to Brent Mishler at "bmishler@socrates.berkeley.edu"
**** we need to have a tally of how many are coming.
**** Send no money, $10 will be collected at the door.

PARKING AND DIRECTIONS:

Plenty of parking will be available near the Carnegie Institution after 5:00.
Directions from the East Bay and San Francisco: take I-280 south to Sand Hill Road exit. Follow Sand Hill Road East about a mile and a half to a 4-way intersection. Bear right (it's either Alpine Rd or Junipero Serra), and immediately left on Junipero Serra Blvd. At the next light, turn left on Campus Drive West. Follow Campus Drive about 3/4 mile, and then park in the medical school lots on the left side, or turn the corner onto Panama Street and park just past the Carnegie. A campus map is provided at http://www.stanford.edu/home/visitors/campus-map.html.