Calendar of events, awards and opportunities

Who among you loves tweeting about lipids?

The ASBMB's Journal of Lipid Research invites graduate students, postdocs and early-career investigators to take over the JLR Twitter account (@jlipidres) for a day apiece to talk about their favorite lipids. To express interest, fill out the JLR #LipidTakeover application. Also, the ASBMB Lipid Research Division just started its own Twitter feed. Check it out at @AsbmbLrd.

July 21–23: Extracellular vesicle studies: From benchtop to therapeutics

Extracellular vesicles are secreted, membrane-bound compartments containing DNA and cytoplasmic constituent molecules of all types that are thought to act as mediators of intercellular communication. They are classified by both size and location/mechanism of cellular origination. They are thought to be produced by an ever-expanding diversity of cell types and species. However, there is also considerable skepticism related to their existence and utility, as it can be difficult to isolate EVs since there is no EV-specific molecular marker to target. (Editor's note: See this ASBMB Today feature on EVs by former science writer Rajendrani Mukhopadhyay.)

A primary focus in recent years has been to describe the mechanisms of molecular sorting that would allow researchers to target proteins produced from exogenously introduced DNA to EVs for cellular secretion and uptake. The potential value of EVs to therapeutics is thought to be enormous, thanks to the role of EVs in cell–cell communication as a robust, native delivery vehicle.

This event will appeal to a broad audience, including molecular biologists, biochemists, biophysicists, secretion experts, cell–cell communication specialists, clinicians, physiologists and others. The registration deadline is July 16. Visit the event homepage.

GSA seminar series on gene function across organisms

The Genetics Society of America is hosting a free series of seminars from June through November exploring gene function across humans and model organisms. GSA's president, Hugo Bellen, explained the impetus for this series in an op-ed in May. He wrote, in part, "We believe that these seminars will be useful to investigators at all career stages and across different model organisms, as well as for human biologists. We hope this will add a new dimension to research, reveal unanticipated phenotypes, speed up discovery, allow new funding opportunities, and lead to the discovery of new fundamental aspects of biology." Below is the schedule of seminars. See the speakers and register here.

July 26 — Matching interests across research teams: GeneMatcher and ModelMatcher

Aug. 23 — MARRVEL: Mining genetic and genomic data across model organisms and human

Sept. 20 — Mining model organism data in the Alliance of Genome Resources Portal

Oct. 4 — Monarch Initiative: Cross-species phenotype comparison for disease diagnosis and discovery

Nov. 1 — Unraveling the links between hereditary and viral microcephaly

Aug. 1: Propose a workshop for the 2022 ASBMB Annual Meeting

The ASBMB annual meeting will be held in person in Philadelphia in April. We're accepting proposals through Aug. 1 for workshops at the meeting. This is your chance to shape the content and nature of our most important conference of the year. Please consider submitting a proposal for a 60- to 90-minute interactive event. Here's the form.

Also: The 2021 annual award lectures are now available on demand. Tune in for talks on research, education and diversity.

Call for virtual scientific event proposals

The ASBMB provides members with a virtual platform to share scientific research and accomplishments and to discuss emerging topics and technologies with the BMB community.

The ASBMB will manage the technical aspects, market the event to tens of thousands of contacts and present the digital event live to a remote audience. Additional tools such as polling, Q&A, breakout rooms and post event Twitter chats may be used to facilitate maximum engagement.

Seminars are typically one to two hours long. A workshop or conference might be longer and even span several days.

Prospective organizers may submit proposals at any time. Decisions are usually made within four to six weeks. 

Propose an event.