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October 13, 2006

ASHG: More bad news

Last night, NIH director Elias Zerhouni warmed up the geneticists with a sure-fire crowd-pleaser: a joke about the mishaps of Vice-President Dick Cheney, who's in town for a Republican fund-raiser. Zerhouni apologized for the bad traffic yesterday, which was all tangled up due to Cheney's motorcade. Zerhouni said he'd asked Cheney to divert his motorcade away from the convention center. In reply, Cheney invited Zerhouni on a hunting trip. "But I said no - I have a prior commitment to the American Society of Human Genetics," Zerhouni said, adding after a small pause: "That was an act of self-preservation."

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Posted by Erika Check at 02:43 PM |

October 12, 2006

ASHG: Recovering from Katrina

Even just walking to and from the convention center here in New Orleans, it's impossible to miss the fact that this city is still recovering from the mass disaster of Hurricane Katrina last year. Lots of businesses are empty or shut down. Workers are still clearing away rubble and there's small damage on some of the buildings. And this isn't even the part of town that was most affected by the storm.

Today, a handful of geneticists talked about their work to help the city recover. The geneticists were part of the team that tried to reunite families with their lost loved ones - whether dead in the storm or missing in its wake.

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Posted by Erika Check at 07:36 PM |

ASHG: Jobs or bust

At least 250 postdocs and grad students attended a networking session here Tuesday night, in the ASHG’s new drive to provide content for younger members. The message was sobering: available academic positions are decreasing, and the number of PhD’s keeps increasing. What to do?

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Posted by Nicola Jones at 10:32 AM |

ASHG: Fab facts

A quick sampling of three Fab Facts I learned today:

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Posted by Erika Check at 05:19 AM |

October 11, 2006

ASHG: What we stand to GAIN

OK - so genetics hasn't delivered a slam dunk cure for fat. You still have to give up chocolate cake if you want to lose weight. As our interloper asked this morning, what gives? Where's the wonder drug that's going to save our sorry asses from dieting and exercising?

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Posted by Erika Check at 11:17 PM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

ASHG: Wake-up call

Sorry about the rocky start, folks - but I'm not the only one having trouble out of the starting gate! This morning, the geneticists got their own cold water in the face at a session on diabetes and obesity.

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Posted by Erika Check at 04:42 PM |

ASHG: computer troubles

Hello all. Erika is having some troubles with computer connections but will be blogging madly starting today... stay tuned.

Nicola.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 10:57 AM |

October 09, 2006

American Society of Human Genetics

Here find our blog from the American Society of Human Genetics conference in New Orleans, where Erika Check will be sending back diary reports from 10-13 October.

You can also find the Nature homepage about this conference here.

Posted by Nicola Jones at 09:51 AM |

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