"We expect 110 scientists from around the world to attend the workshop," said Peter Atkinson, associate professor of entomology at UC Riverside. "We will discuss research on genetics and insect genomics and study ways to genetically manipulate insects that are pests -- for example, mosquitoes, fruitfiles, and moths -- with the aim of furthering our knowledge about controlling the population of these pests."
The keynote address -- "Transgenic control of insect pests: promise, peril, politics" -- will be given by Daniel Hartl, Higgins Professor of Biology in the department of organismic and evolutionary biology at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., whose research interests include molecular genetics, molecular evolution, and population genetics.
More than 50 scientific papers will be presented at the workshop. Some of the topics for discussion include 'Anopheles gambiae: from the genome to the population,' 'The Honey bee genome project,' 'Transgenesis and reverse genetics of mosquito innate immunity,' and 'Ecological challenges to the application of transgenic mosquitoes for disease control.' The workshop will address the control of mosquito-borne diseases and the interruption of malaria transmission by genetic manipulation of anopheline mosquitoes. Research on the housefly, the Mediterranean fruitfly, ladybird beetles, and silkworms will also be discussed.
The workshop is being organized by Alfred Handler from the USDA -- Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), Peter Atkinson and Ale
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Contact: Iqbal Pittalwala
iqbal@citrus.ucr.edu
909-787-2645
University of California - Riverside
9-May-2003