The Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance (GIGA)

IGNITE and GIGA have partnered again to provide a 1600eu fellowship - https://www.giga-cos.org/2021/05/13/giga-ignite-2021-fellowship-in-invertebrate-genomics-congrats-to-finalist-aabha-deshpande/ which has been awarded to Ms. Aahba Deshpande. IGNITE runs a European Union sponsored ITN (Innovative Training Network) which centers around the comparative genomics of non-model marine invertebrates and has been developing over 15 early careeer researchers in various EU labs since 2018 - http://www.itn-ignite.eu/.

We are happy to announce, what may be GIGA's first full genome of a moss animal in the collection, albeit a draft. The sequence appears to be the first published nuclear genome of Phylum Bryozoa. Thanks to all of our great collaborators. Bugula neritina now has another ornament, alongside the potent natural product bryostatins and its bacterial producer - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-020-00684-y. A companion blog is available at https://bit.ly/3jiKigg.

CATCH THE WAVE | BIODIVERSITY GENOMICS 2020 | OCTOBER 5-9 2020 | OPEN, ONLINE, EVERYWHERE Join us at Biodiversity Genomics 2020 to celebrate success, explore challenges and look to the future of sequencing all life on Earth. Main sessions 15:00-19:00 BST Register today at: biodiversitygenomics2020.org Abstract Submission closes Sept 1 Attendance registration closes Oct 2 Hashtag: #BioGenomics20

Biodiversity Genomics 2020 will bring together researchers across the world to celebrate our achievements in genome sequencing across the eukaryotic tree of life, explore current challenges and their likely solutions, and look forward to the coming decade of the application of genomics across the globe. With major projects starting to deliver data at scale, new tools for sequencing and assembling genomes becoming available, and increased awareness of the power of whole genome data in understanding organismal biology and ecosystem processes, Biodiversity Genomics 2020 promises to be a milestone in the effort to "sequence life for the future of life". Biodiversity Genomics 2020 continues the tradition of previous meetings of Genomes 10k, the Vertebrate Genomes Project, the Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance, and the Earth BioGenome Project. Biodiversity Genomics 2020 will highlight data and aspirations from projects with global and local focus, defined taxonomic and all-species goals, and innovations in technology and understanding. We explicitly aim for inclusivity and diversity in the meeting. We will hear from invited plenary speakers, inspiring us with discussion of the current state-of-the-art in genome science across biodiversity, while focussed parallel sessions will showcase specific projects, highlight new findings and current challenges, and look to the future. The meeting is open to all. Despite being online-only, we encourage free exchange of ideas and interests through virtual poster sessions, chat rooms and other social events. The meeting will be free to attend, thanks to generous support from the Tree of Life programme at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and other sponsors. We invite you to register for the meeting, and to submit your research for presentation as a short talk or as a poster. Mark Blaxter (Tree of Life, Wellcome Sanger Institute UK), Harris Lewin (EBP, UC Davis CA USA), Jose Victor Lopez (GIGA, Nova Southeastern FL USA), Erich D. Jarvis (VGP, Rockefeller NY USA)

The Genome 10K (G10K) Community of Scientists is proud to announce its Annual Meeting in 2019 to further advance the mission of the Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP). Additionally, for the first time during the Annual Meeting, the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP) will partner with us in a joint effort to engage and integrate with other large-scale genome projects, including previous G10K partnerships with B10K, Bat1K, and GIGA for non-insect invertebrates as well as EBP-affiliated projects, such the aforementioned VGP, GIGA, as well as Darwin Tree of Life UK-EBP at Wellcome Trust Sanger, i5k (insect genomes), GAGA (ant genomes), USDA’s Ag100Pests for insects, JGI’s 1000 Fungal Genomes Project, and 10KP for plants. 

Registration is available here, and the At-A-Glance agenda is here ( updated as of 13 August 2019). Thank you to our G10K-VGP/EBP 2019 Sponsors.

Dear GIGA Community: At the end of our October 2019 GIGA III meeting in Curaçao, we had a roundtable discussion about the possibility of formalizing GIGA as a non-profit society, the goals of which would be the advancement of invertebrate genomics and creating a mechanism for organizing funding for meetings, student travel vouchers and accepting donations or grants to the society. The attendees at the meeting seemed favorably disposed to exploring this possibility. The process would involve forming the society, creating a statement of goals, explaining how GIGA would be a benefit to society more broadly, and how we will implement our goals fairly. A draft of by-laws (constitution) has been started and can be discussed further and endorsed by an official GIGA membership.

To form a society, we would need to elect officers, create final By-Laws, define the roles of the various officers, set the terms of various positions, establish rules for voting, etc. The first step in this process is to identify the voting membership. To that end we have set up a page, later to be moved to the GIGA website to register as a member

Please take a minute to register for membership, which allows the registrant to nominate and vote. Please also feel free to forward this page link to other relevant colleagues, students, communities, societies, and through other media.

The Genome 10K (G10K) Community of Scientists is proud to announce its Annual Meeting in 2019 to further advance the mission of the Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP). Additionally, for the first time during the Annual Meeting, the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP) will partner with us in a joint effort to engage and integrate with other large-scale genome projects, including previous G10K partnerships with B10K, Bat1K, and GIGA for non-insect invertebrates as well as EBP-affiliated projects, such the aforementioned VGP, GIGA, as well as Darwin Tree of Life UK-EBP at Wellcome Trust Sanger, Ik5 (insect genomes), GAGA (ant genomes), USDA’s Ag100Pests for insects, JGI’s 1000 Fungal Genomes Project, and 10KP for plants.

Registration is now available here. Please note that Early Bird pricing ends July 16th. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-g10k-vgpebp-meeting-tickets-59112745814

The GIGA III conference/workshop in Curacao, Oct 19-21, 2018 was a rousing success. We had close to 100 attendees, a great venue, two symposia on phylogenomics and conservation genomics, many excellent talks, multiple workshops, speakers (excellent keynotes by Federico Brown, Joie Cannon, and Monica Medina) and opportunities to network. Great to see more student participation. Abstracts and notes will be kept at the following links - https://gigaiii.weebly.com/program--abstracts.html, https://twitter.com/GIGA_COS.

Please stay tuned as GIGA soon moves to continue work with the Earth BioGenome Project

-https://www.earthbiogenome.org/

We have just set up a new Slack workspace for GIGA. If you would like to access this for more recent, in depth scientific updates, networking, etc please join the GIGA email listserver for the Slack link and access to the archives - https://lists.lrz.de/mailman/listinfo/giga

The first IGNITE summer school supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant is now in full swing at the Mediterranean Institute of Life Sciences in Split Croatia (Aug 26- Sept 5, 2018). This EU Innovative Training Network (ITN) is led by Gert Wörheide, joined by several renowned scientists from around Europe, with the primary goal to provide rigorous training for nearly a dozen nascent doctoral students. The focus will be on the biology and comparative genomics of non-model “invertebrate”organisms, professional networking and current genomics methods. At this initial summer school, they start at the basics of sample collecting (plankton tows), preservation, and DNA preparations. Lectures are focused on taxonomic classification, systematics, phylogenetics, international collection protocols and genomics. Ideas for the proposal stemmed from brainstorming at the second GIGA workshop in Munich in 2015. http://www.itn-ignite.eu/

NEW OPPORTUNITY - American Genetics Association (AGA) GIGA III Student Travel and Hotel Vouchers are now available to the Third Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance Research Conference and Workshop (GIGA III), which will be held at the Curacao Hilton, this year Oct 19-21, 2018. The overarching goal of GIGA (GIGA-cos.org) is to form a collaborative network of diverse scientists that wish to advance the state of invertebrate (non-insect/non-nematode) genomic research for the international scientific community. The 3-day conference will include a series of training and breakout sessions in addition to two symposia on a) conservation genomics and b) phylogenomics, plus c) an informal poster session to be held at CARMABI. GIGAIII will also interface with the EukHits meeting at the same location directly following GIGAIII, will provide opportunities for training at multiple career levels and the purpose of this travel support is to encourage advanced graduate student and postdoctoral attendance to actively engage with experts in their field.

The mission of the American Genetic Association is to encourage the study of comparative genetics and genomics, in order to document, conserve, and manage organismal diversity.

In addition to the NSF support announced earlier and now with AGA support, GIGA will now also be offering a small number of vouchers for a) round trip air fare from origin to Curacao (up to $1000 per person, depending on distance), and b) Curacao Hilton hotel accommodation (double occupancy likely) for 4 nights, courtesy of the American Genetics Association to qualified students and postdocs who are currently working on or have recently finished an invertebrate genomics or transcriptome project. This offer will include at least 3-4 vouchers for international students.

Student registration ($250) is not included, so students should please register at the GIGA III website & registration https://gigaiii.weebly.com/. If a student registers in advance and does not receive a voucher and cannot go the meeting, we can refund the registration fees before Sept 1.

To apply, applicants must submit 1) a curriculum vitae, 2) a 2-page statement that includes a) how attendance at this conference will advance their future career goals and b) an explanation for the financial need and c) name of your major professor, and 3) a concise (<800 words) thesis or dissertation summary that fully describes the project details – organism, questions, goals, genomics methods, hurdles etc. Applicants should also include 4) a detailed budget with a cost breakdown for the proposed travel, including total costs and any possibility of co-funding. Again, this is separate from the NSF application posted earlier, which will be evaluated by a GIGA committee.

Applicants should be willing to share hotel lodging with another student (max. 2 person/room), and will increase the number of awards we can provide. Successful applicants will receive support towards all airfare expenses and lodging at the Hilton Curaçao during GIGAIII. All selected students will be required to book airfare through NSU’s Universal travel office (http://www.nova.edu/travel/index.html)–and register as a safe international traveler . No cash reimbursements will be given for GIGAIII travel.

Applications should be submitted to joslo@nova.edu as a single PDF by June 1, 2018. Please send your materials with the Subject header: “AGA GIGA III Student Travel and Hotel Vouchers”.

We would like to announce a funding opportunity to support graduate and postdoctoral student attendance to the 3rd bi-annual Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance Conference and Workshop (GIGAIII) to be held in Curaçao this Fall, October 19-21st, 2018. The funding is available through a recent NSF conference grant awarded to GIGA researchers at Florida International University. The overarching goal of GIGA is to form a collaborative network of diverse scientists that wish to advance the state of invertebrate (non-insect/non-nematode) genomic research for the international scientific community. The 3-day conference will include a series of training and breakout sessions in addition to more formal presentations and posters. GIGAIII will provide opportunities for training at multiple career levels and the purpose of this travel support is to encourage advanced graduate student and postdoctoral attendance to actively engage with experts in their field. More information on GIGAIII can be found on the conference website (https://gigaiii.weebly.com/). A limited number of fellowships are being made available to advanced-standing graduate students and postdoctoral researchers and will facilitate international travel to Curaçao and lodging at the conference hotel (Hilton Hotel Curaçao). Applicants must be registered for the conference and currently enrolled/ employed at a US-based institution to be eligible for this funding. Applications by members of underrepresented groups are especially encouraged. To apply, applicants must submit 1) a curriculum vitae 2) a 2-page statement that includes a) how attendance at this conference will advance their future career goals and b) an explanation for the financial need. Applicants must also include 3) a budget with a cost breakdown for the proposed travel, including total costs and any possibility of co-funding. If applicants are willing to share hotel lodging (max. 2 person/room), this should be indicated in the budget justification and will increase the number of awards we can provide. Successful applicants will receive support towards airfare expenses and/or lodging at the Hilton Curaçao during GIGAIII. Applications must be submitted to hbracken@fiu.edu as a single PDF by June 1, 2018. Contact information about award: Heather Bracken-Grissom, PhD Dept. of Biological Sciences Florida International University-Biscayne Bay Campus North Miami, Florida 33181, USA Email: hbracken@fiu.edu CRUSTOMICS LAB: http://www.brackengrissomlab.com/

The organizing committee for the Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance is happy to announce the Third Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance Research Conference and Workshop (GIGA III), which will be held at the Curacao Hilton, Oct 19-21, 2018.

New!!  GIGA Twitter - https://twitter.com/GIGA_COS

Because there will be a conference attendance limit, we encourage early registration (before March 20, 2018). The “early bird” conference registration fee is $300 faculty/$200 for students before March 20; $350/250 after March 20. These fees will cover conference programming, all lunches and coffee breaks during the three day conference, as well as some student waivers.

Abstracts should be submitted here by July 31, 2018 for consideration as either a talk or poster.

The community, “bottom up”, inclusionary principles of GIGA are highlighted in our maiden white paper, which we invite all to read here http://jhered.oxfordjournals.org/content/105/1/1.full

GIGA III Planned Events

RCN: Eukhits (Bik & Thomas): https://eukhits.wordpress.com/

ITN: IGNITE (Wörheide): http://www.itn-ignite.eu/

Existing and Emerging Genomics Technologies (Eitel)

Phylogenomics (Giribet & Wörheide)

Conservation Genomics (Baums)

Genome Assembly (Hanna, Flot, Brown, Eitel & Cohen)

Genome Annotation (Rhodes)

Conservation Genomics – STAG Demonstration (Baums & Kitchen)

Existing and Emerging Genomics Technologies (Eitel)

Coordinating Sampling Methods and Protocols (Coddington & Collins)

Talks & Poster Session (Kocot & Bik)

Keynote Speakers – Joie Cannon

Other speakers to be announced in the near future

CARMABI visit: http://www.researchstationcarmabi.org/

Snorkeling

A limited number of travel stipends will be offered through NSF RCN EukHiTS (http://eukhits.wordpress.com), in order to provide financial assistance to prospective attendees of GIGA III. Women and underrepresented minorities of all career stages are particularly encouraged to apply for travel funding. An application form for travel stipends will be made available when registration opens.

The organizing committee will continue to pursue funding for keynote speakers, faculty instructors and student scholarships, so please stay tuned to the http://GIGA-cos.org website and listserve -https://lists.lrz.de/mailman/listinfo/giga, for the latest information on the meeting. You can also contact one of the organizing committee members below.

The Curacao venue for GIGA III offers multiple scientific opportunities and natural attractions for attendees:

·       Within walking distance to research station CARMABI - http://www.carmabi.org/

·       Field work on local habitats (reefs, tidal flats), Seaquarium, SECORE,

·       Day trip to Christoffel Park with possibility to camp on the beach: http://www.christoffelpark.org/ (bats, fossil reefs, intertidal, old plantation house/museum, endemic deer, birds, etc).

·       Proximity for Latin American and Caribbean collaborators and students

The scientific schedule of events is still being formalized, and will be listed on the conference site when complete. Breakout sessions will be interspersed with the following primary sessions

The airport is CUR; Transport from airport to Curacao Hilton Hotel (John F. Kennedy Boulevard Z/N |P.O. Box 2133 | Willemstad | Curacao)- taxi is about $25 USD.

Diving information: http://www.researchstationcarmabi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/2016-PRICELIST-CARMABI-2016.pdf

For enquiries, please contact the following: Organizing Committee

Agostinho Antunes - University of Porto Iliana Baums - Pennsylvania State University Holly Bik - University of California Riverside Heather Bracken-Grissom - Florida International University

C. Titus Brown – Univ California, Davis

Lisa Cohen - Univ California, Davis Tim Collins - Florida International University Michael Eitel - Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Jean-François Flot - Universite Libre de Bruxelles Fabrizio Ghiselli - Università di Bologna Gonzalo Giribet - Harvard University Bishoy Hanna - University of New Mexico Kevin Kocot - University of Alabama Joe Lopez - Nova Southeastern University Adelaide Rhodes - Oregon State University Juan Sanchez - Universidad de los Andes Anja Schulze - Texas A&M University Galveston Kelley Thomas - University of New Hampshire Christian Voolstra - King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Gert Wörheide - Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

The organizing committee for the Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance is happy to announce the Third Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance Research Conference and Workshop (GIGA III), which will be held at the Curacao Hilton, next year Oct 19-22, 2018.

https://GIGA-cos.org

Because there will be a conference attendance limit, we encourage early registration (before March 20, 2018). The “early bird” conference registration fee is $300 faculty/$200 for students before March 20; $350/250 after March 20. These fees will cover conference programming, all lunches and coffee breaks during the three day conference, as well as some student waivers.

The Curacao venue for GIGA III offers multiple scientific opportunities and natural attractions for attendees:

· Within walking distance to research station CARMABI - http://www.carmabi.org/

· Field work on local habitats (reefs, tidal flats), Seaquarium, SECORE,

· Day trip to Christoffel Park with possibility to camp on the beach: http://www.christoffelpark.org/ (bats, fossil reefs, intertidal, old plantation house/museum, endemic deer, birds, etc).

· Proximity for Latin American and Caribbean collaborators and students

The scientific program is still being formalized, and will be listed on the conference site when complete. It will likely encompass the following topics and breakout sessions:

· Existing and Emerging Genomics Technologies – e.g. single cell genomics (recently successful with placozoan genomes)

· Bioinformatics training workshop(s)

· Marine conservation genomics (run in tandem with adjacent CARMABI)

· Sampling coordination, Nagoya Protocol guidelines – perhaps with Smithsonian and the Earth BioGenome Project coordination.

· Genomics initiatives in the Caribbean, Neotropics, Central and South America

· Phylogenomics, systematics - “Non-sponge-ctenophore problematic nodes in animal phylogenetics”

· Steps for potentially registering GIGA as a 501(c)3 nonprofit and bona fide scientific society; funding sources

. RCN EukHiTS workshop

A limited number of travel stipends will be offered through NSF RCN EukHiTS (http://eukhits.wordpress.com), in order to provide financial assistance to prospective attendees of GIGA III. Women and underrepresented minorities of all career stages are particularly encouraged to apply for travel funding. An application form for travel stipends will be made available when registration opens.

The organizing committee will continue to pursue funding for keynote speakers, faculty instructors and student scholarships, so please stay tuned to the http://GIGA-cos.org website and listserve -https://lists.lrz.de/mailman/listinfo/giga, for the latest information on the meeting. You can also contact one of the organizing committee members below.

The airport is CUR; Transport from airport to Hotel - taxi is about $25 USD.

Diving information: http://www.researchstationcarmabi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/2016-PRICELIST-CARMABI-2016.pdf

For enquiries, breakout group suggestions, or general information, please contact the following:

Tim Collins <collinst@fiu.edu> Jose Victor Lopez joslo@nova.edu>

Anja Schulze <schulzea@tamug.edu> Gonzalo Giribet <ggiribet@g.harvard.edu> Kelley Thomas <Kelley.Thomas@unh.edu> Kevin Kocot <kmkocot@ua.edu> Fabrizio Ghiselli <fabrizio.ghiselli@unibo.it> Juan Sanchez <juansanc@uniandes.edu.co> Agostinho Antunes <aantunes777@gmail.com> Heather Bracken-Grissom <heather.bracken@gmail.com>

Jean-François Flot <jflot@ulb.ac.be>

Here are a few current notices:

1. Prof Gert Wörheide and colleagues have secured IGNITE ITN funding for genomics training in Europe starting in 2018. Stay tuned for details in the near future:

2. In a similar vein, other German scientists from the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum in Frankfurt. provide another boost for invertebrate genomics via a grant "creating the new LOEWE-Zentrum für Translationale Biodiversitätsgenomik (LOEWE-TBG)—loosely translated as the Translational Biodiversity Genomics Excellence Center:

3. American Malacology Society Meeting, July 16-21, 2017

4. The World Sponge Conference, June 25-30, 2017 recently met

where we briefly highlighted GIGA progress.

Please feel free to send your news here, or post on the GIGA Facebook pages.

Lastly, we are also looking for any volunteers adept with .html or joomla to help manage the GIGA website.

Project goal

GIGA was formed in 2013 to build an integrated, international multidisciplinary, grass roots community to jointly pursue invertebrate genomic studies that customarily involve large datasets. We seek to develop tools to enable and facilitate genomic research and encourage collaboration. More information can be found by visiting the GIGA website : www.GIGA-cos.org

Background and motivation

GIGA was recently highlighted at the inaugural Global Biodiversity Genomics Conference held in Washington, D.C. February 21-23, 2017 at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (http://biogenomics2017.org). Here it was reiterated that GIGA currently exists as a bottom up/grassroots community and new data portals at Compagen.org and Reefgenomics.org are now open for the deposit of new invertebrate sequence data. Moreover, GIGA's second whitepaper was recently published by the GIGA Community of Scientists, “ Advancing Genomics through the Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance (GIGA)”. This paper explains and refines the priorities discussed at the second 2015 GIGA workshop in Munich (see http://www.publish.csiro.au/is/Fulltext/IS16059) where over 80 students and scientists participated.