Nordic committee on bioethics in junction with the Norwegian biotechnology board, organized a miniconference on the new Crispr/Cas technology and the genetic modification of human embryos. The conference was held at the University of Oslo, June 2nd. The title was Gene therapy and human germline editing: new opportunities, new challenges.

We heared great talks by Fredrick Lanner, Gunnar Kvalheim, Johanna Ahola-Launonen, Jacob Wang, Anne-Marie Gerdes and Nils-Eric Sahlin, and were then given the task to summarize the meeting.

I will not attempt to do that here, because my notes were incomplete and the things I said didnt quite follow the notes (either a plus or minus, Im not sure).

The new technologies open some new opportunities, for studying the effects of mutations and systems on human cells and early development. There is also the future possibility of using this technology to modify the human cells, to correct serious errors in DNA to treat (somatic) or to prevent (germline) devastating diseases. The current seems to be flowing in that direction, granting of course that the technology will become efficient enough and side effects can be minimized. In fact this is the first moment that I felt that steps towards germline could and perhaps should be taken.

To counter, there were several issues raised with further developing the technology for modifying human embryos, including the slippery-slope argument, side-effects, dont-mess-with-nature, and a few others. But in general they are no unique to this technology.

The only new concept is that we may alter the genetic makeup of our species directly with this new technology. But in fact we have been changing our genetic makeup, indirectly with choices in lifestyle and human history and technological development.

In sum, I learned a lot but am still confused about the subject.

Those who want to read more should check out a new statement and report by the Danish council on ethics which summarized these issues quite well.

Statement from the Danish Council on Ethics on genetic modification of future humans (2016)

I enjoyed the great fortune of attending a meeting on new model systems to link ecology and evolution, held May 8. - 11. in Heidelberg. D. Tautz and D. Weigel organized the meeting which brought together people studying evolutionary and ecological questions, interleaving genetic, organismal, microbial and biochemical data from many organisms. The taxanomic richness was quite intriguing, but also the range of questions and findings. We presented results from the Arctic charr studies, both the morphometric analyses and the transcriptome work, and got quite a lot of good feedback and suggestions. All in all it was a very inspiring meeting, with great atmosphere, talks, people and food. It did not spoil things that I got to visit my friend Natalia and see some great looking starfish.

Im looking forward to the next EMBL meeting on this topic.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Icelandic.

Species and populations with parallel evolution of specific traits can help illuminate how predictable adaptations and divergence are at the molecular and developmental level. Following the last glacial period, dwarfism and specialized bottom feeding morphology evolved rapidly in several landlocked Arctic charr Salvelinus alpinus populations in Iceland.
Continue reading 'Revised: The developmental transcriptome of contrasting Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) morphs'»

Sorry, this entry is only available in Icelandic.

Post doc available: The role of transcriptional and regulatory changes during compensatory evolution

Which principles influence the rewiring and tuning of gene regulatory networks? How do those network react to genetic perturbations? We are seeking a post-doc to tackle those and related questions in project utilizing populations of Drosophila that have undergone compensatory adaptation using experimental evolution and artificial selection. The project involves the analysis of tissue specific RNA-seq and numerical analyses. The ideal candidate is strong in evolutionary genetics, statistical and bioinformatic analyses and with capable hands for molecular biology. Excellent communication skills, main focus on writing, are required, as is a solid publication record. The candidate will be encouraged (and given time) to develop their own research program.

The project involves a collaboration between University of Iceland and McMaster University, with approx. 3/4 of the work conducted in Iceland and 1/4 in Canada. Those interested are asked to send a cover letter detailing research interests and experience, a current CV, and contact details for three professional references by April 1st. Anticipated start date is Fall 2016, but this is flexible. The position is funded by the Icelandic Research fund (for 2 years), salary commensurate with qualifications.

The University of Iceland is the leading research institute in the country, and groups at the Institute of biology (luvs.hi.is/institute-biology) and Biomedical Center (lifvisindi.hi.is) study genomics, evolutionary, developmental, cellular and molecular biology. The shared facilities include High throughput sequencers, various specialized molecular biology equipment and computer clusters. The University is an equal opportunity workplace with strong combination of international and domestic scientists.

Learn more about the work in the Palsson (uni.hi.is/apalsson) and Dworkin (http://www.biology.mcmaster.ca/dworkin/) labs.

Please send applications and/or inquiries to apalsson@hi.is.

This project is built on work on indel polymorphism in the even skipped stripes 3+7 enhancer and on the conditional effects of genetic backgrounds on wing mutations.

Palsson A, Wesolowska N, Reynisdóttir S, Ludwig MZ, Kreitman M (2014) Naturally Occurring Deletions of Hunchback Binding Sites in the Even-Skipped Stripe 3+7 Enhancer. PLoS ONE 9(5): e91924. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0091924

Chari S, Dworkin I (2013) The Conditional Nature of Genetic Interactions: The Consequences of Wild-Type Backgrounds on Mutational Interactions in a Genome-Wide Modifier Screen. PLoS Genet 9(8): e1003661. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1003661

Sorry, this entry is only available in Icelandic.

This Friday I enjoyed the privilege of being a Phd. examiner for the first time. The (un)fortunate individual was Ari Jon Arason, who has been working on the functional role of human bronchial derived basal cells in regeneration and fibrosis within the Faculty of medicine.

Emma Rawlins from the Gurdon Institute was the other examiner, and she did a marvelous job. She works in the field of stem cell biology and has a fabulously interesting paper on biophysical model of basal stem cell populations (Watson JK, Rulands S, Wilkinson AC, Wuidart A, Ousset M, Van Keymeulen A, Gottgens B, Blanpain C, Simons BD and Rawlins EL (2015) Clonal Dynamics Reveal Two Distinct Populations of Basal Cells in Slow Turnover Airway Epithelium. Cell Reports 12, 1-12)

After her questions all I could ask about was evolution of lungs, and stem cells and variation in lung structures between individuals, and transcription factor isoforms of course. All in all this was an enjoyable experience. The work was well executed and interesting, his thesis was a good read and corduroy gowns a lot less awful than I imagined. For some reason the University of Iceland has adopted very formal guidelines for PhD. defenses, involving gowns, parading and verbose introductions and declarations. At least the Rector does not have to sip champagne with every new Phd, as the earlier guidelines stipulated.

Sigridur Helga Thorbjarnardottir passed away late 2015. She was my main advisor during my master studies at the University of Iceland. The other advisor was Gudmundur Eggertsson. Sigridur was also the head of the Icelandic biological society in the eighties. The eulogy in icelandic appeared in the local paper and on the website of the society.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Icelandic.