{"id":65098,"date":"2012-09-06T13:09:53","date_gmt":"2012-09-06T17:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=65098"},"modified":"2015-09-11T12:04:03","modified_gmt":"2015-09-11T16:04:03","slug":"uconn-jackson-lab-symposium-features-genomics-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/09\/uconn-jackson-lab-symposium-features-genomics-research\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn-Jackson Lab Symposium Features Genomics Research"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"President<\/a>
President Susan Herbst gives opening remarks at the UConn\/JAX Genomics Symposium, held at the Student Union Theater on Sept. 6. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More than 300 scientists gathered in the Student Union Theater on Thursday for the first of what many hope will be an annual UConn-Jackson Laboratory Genomics Symposium.<\/p>\n

The two-day conference brought together researchers from the UConn Storrs campus, the UConn Health Center, and Jackson Laboratory<\/a> in Bar Harbor, Me. The schedule included talks<\/a> on aging, cancer, personalized medicine, emerging human genomic technology, computational biology, and many other topics in genomics.<\/p>\n

UConn President Susan Herbst opened the conference, remarking that the Jackson Lab collaboration represents \u201cour state\u2019s best and brightest in medical genomics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Frank<\/a>
Frank Torti, executive vice president for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, gives opening remarks. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThis is our strength, our intellectual capital, here in this room,\u201d she told the crowd. \u201cWe\u2019re ultimately improving and saving lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Frank M. Torti, the Health Center\u2019s executive vice president for health affairs and dean of the UConn School of Medicine, said, \u201cThis initiative will enable Connecticut to assume a position of global leadership in developing new medical treatments tailored to each patient\u2019s unique genetic fingerprint.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson Laboratory, whose new location at the UConn Health Center in Farmington broke ground in June<\/a>, has traditionally focused on mouse genetics. But by partnering with UConn, they will expand into whole-genome research, with direct impacts for human health.<\/p>\n

\"Edison<\/a>
Edison Liu, president and chief executive officer, The Jackson Laboratory speaks at the symposium. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jackson Laboratory President and CEO Edison Liu said that besides the economic and contributions the partnership will make to both states, there is a major role for education in the collaboration of a genomics institute and a university.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing something very new here that will launch a new construct in American education and research,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re building one of the most innovative and forward-thinking genomics programs in the country, because we\u2019re starting from scratch.\u201d<\/p>\n

The conference includes more than 40 talks and several strategy sessions, including researchers from the three locations.<\/p>\n

\"Rachel<\/a>
Rachel O’Neill, left, and Linda Strausbaugh, both professors of molecular and cell biology, and Marc Lalande. chair of genetic and developmental biology and senior associate dean for research planning and coordination at the UConn Health Center, speak between sessions of the symposium. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Michelle Williams, associate dean for the life and behavioral sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and a member of the planning committee, said that the conference will help the Jackson Lab and UConn researchers to get to know each other\u2019s strengths and how they can work together.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur faculty do a lot of interdisciplinary research \u2013 it\u2019s our hallmark,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThe conference will help the UConn-Jackson Lab collaboration move forward with a clear agenda. We\u2019re asking: what strengths do we have, and how can we expand them?\u201d<\/p>\n

Dipak Dey, associate dean for the physical sciences, commented on the potential for developing new educational enterprises.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people at national labs don\u2019t get to teach, and most college students aren\u2019t taught by people who work at national labs,\u201d Dey said. \u201cWe\u2019ll be identified as one of the few universities that has a genomics institute.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson Laboratory researchers will be able to seek joint appointments with UConn to get involved in education, a prospect that Liu said he will make a priority in the early stages of the project.<\/p>\n

\"Edison<\/a>
Edison Liu, president and chief executive officer, The Jackson Laboratory, center, speaks with Rachel O’Neill, professor of molecular and cell biology, and genetics and genomics graduate students between sessions. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Working together, UConn faculty and Jackson Lab researchers will likely develop varied and progressive courses aimed at learning genetics for undergraduates and graduate students, Dey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo do and teach next-generation genomics, you really need to be interdisciplinary,\u201d he said. \u201cYou need scientists, engineers, clinicians, theorists, ethicists, computational researchers, and so many more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Williams, \u201cAlthough research is our main emphasis, we\u2019re also training the next generation of genomic scientists.\u201d<\/p>\n

To learn more about the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Suzy<\/a>
Suzy Torti, professor of molecular, microbial, and structural biology, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, gives a presentation about her research. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Yijun<\/a>
Yijun Ruan, director of JAX Genomic Sciences, The Jackson Laboratory speaks at the UConn\/JAX Genomics Symposium. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Fernando<\/a>
Fernando Ferrer, associate professor of surgery and pediatrics, UConn School of Medicine. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Neal<\/a>
Neal Goodwin, director, research and development, In Vivo Pharmacology Services, The Jackson Laboratory. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rachel<\/a>
Rachel O’Neill, professor of molecular and cell biology, University of Connecticut. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Koichiro<\/a>
Koichiro Inaki of The Jackson Laboratory. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Storrs, Farmington, and Jackson Laboratory researchers get together for two days of talks and strategy sessions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":65147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,2076,179,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[42],"class_list":["post-65098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gallery","category-research","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-05 21:48:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65098"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65427,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65098\/revisions\/65427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/65147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65098"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=65098"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=65098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}