Report on 37th American Cytogenetics Conference
The Program and Abstracts for this meeting are published in Cytogenetics
& Genome Research 2002;97:261-275 (DOI: 10.1159/000066630)
MEETING REPORT
The 37th Biannual American Cytogenetics Conference was held on April 25-28,
2002, at the La Fonda Hotel in Santa
Fe, New Mexico.
Co-hosts of the meeting were Sue Ann Berend, Laurel Estabrooks and Kathleen
Rao. There were approximately 150 registrants including participants from Canada, India,
Germany and France. In
keeping with the tradition of this meeting, all submitted abstracts were
accepted for platform presentations which provided a dynamic and diverse
assortment. The presen-tations covered a wide range of topics including general
mechanisms, as well as animal, cancer, prenatal and postnatal cytogenetics.
The recipient of the 2002 Distinguished Cytogeneticist Award was Dr. Catherine
G. Palmer from Indiana
University. Dr. Palmer
was recognized for her significant role in teaching as she has trained many of
the currently practicing clinical cytogeneticists in the US. After a
dinner held in her honour, several of her previous students and colleagues
shared personal tributes regarding her passion for cytogenetics and role as a
mentor.
The two student award winners for this year’s conference were Judith Brown from
the University of Connecticut for her abstract “mdm2 amplification associated
with double minute chromosomes in an interspecific Mus hybrid” and Deidre
Parish from Texas Tech University for her abstract “Distribution of LINES and
other repetitive elements in the karyotype of the bat Carollia: Implications
for X chromosome inacti-vation”.
There were four invited speakers represen-ting the various session categories.
Dr. Oliver Ryder from the San Diego Zoological Society spoke on “Comparative
mammalian cytogenetics: Applications to endangered species and conservation in
the era of genomics”. Dr. Thomas Cremer from Ludwig
Maximilians University
(Munich) spoke
on “Higher order chromatin arrangements and their dynamics: Evolutionary and
functional aspects”. Dr. Allen Lamb from Genzyme Genetics spoke on “Subtelomere
FISH stories: Are all endings meaningful?” Dr. Susana Raimondi from St. Jude
Children’s Research
Hospital provided a nice
overview on “The cytogenetics of childhood acute leukemias”.
Dr. Peter Jacky and Dr. Debra Saxe agreed to co-host the 2004 American
Cytogenetics Conference. The site for the conference will most likely be in
Port Ludlow, Washington, a scenic region of the Olympic Peninsula.
Address of the author:
Laurel Estabrooks
Genzyme Genetics
10421 University Center Drive,
Suite 100
Tampa, FL 33612
U.S.A.
Tel.: +1 800 966-4440
Fax: +1 813 972 4632
e-mail: Laurel.Estabrooks@Genzyme.com
