Lorne Genome Conference, Australia

Honoured to have a member of our Intl Scientific Advisory Board in Australia this week. Prof Brenda Andrews from the Univ of Toronto (pictured right) delivered an invited talk at the Lorne Genome Conference and caught up with our Chief Investigator Traude Beilharz, president of the Conference Board.

That's a wrap for Lorne Genome 2026! Thanks to all the speakers for fascinating talks, poster presenters for hot of the press science, trade for making the experiments possible and of course all the attendees for great discussion. See you next year!

This is great, remind us in 11.7 months!

Congratulations to winners of the Lorne Genome Best Student Poster Prizes: Jessica Hawes, Sarah Berent, David Neville, Sandeep Kum and Andrea Daner!

Could @lornegenome.bsky.social be the MOST Aussie genomics conference?

Last day of #Lornegenome. A great venue, cool talks and discussions. Learnt about diversification of mammalian genomes, inheritance of mutations and impact of mutagens, how TFs direct chromatin organisation and so much more. New collaborations, new projects, can’t wait til next year

4/ uncharacterised transcripts in myeloid cells: still discovering new genes in the human genome🧬! Pathogen 🦠 stimulating meyloid cells revealed many alternate start sites particularlyin secreted proteins. So important to profile diversity of cell states www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

3/ www.stemformatics.org : curated gene expression profiles w visualisations on a digital platform to support the research community: QC, data curation and normalisation approach is so important in ensuring data included is quality, particularly when combining cross platform data

2/ Christine showing some of her first Lorne Genome poster from 2003 and explaining what a microarray is for the new kids in the room.

2026 Winner of the Lorne Genome Julian Wells Medal: Christine Wells (no relation!) @stemcellsystems.bsky.social congratulations, well deserved!!

Almost literally too late, but here is a feed for BlueSky to collate #LorneGenome posts that blends mentions of Lorne + Genome along with posts from @lornegenome.bsky.social

Should still work next year though!

bsky.app/profile/did:...

Journeying back in time with Liran Carmel: reconstructing Neanderthal methylation. Found regions with different methylation to humans: genes that affect the face and voice.

Jennifer Zenker showing how pluripotent cells have unique microtubule organisation and its asymmetries direct fate decisions

We’ve been spoiled with lovely weather & quality science at @lornegenome.bsky.social this year, continuing this morning with Session 11 (Novel Approaches to Study the Genome) & then the Julian Wells Medallist presentation. Hope everyone has rested up after the dinner! See you 9am! #LorneGenome2026

Lorne Genome Conference dinner with a few party crashers

And welcome to the conference dinner! 🍻

2/ Kalahari Meerkat Project has been running since 1993 w 4527 individuals across 12 gens. Found genes linking body mass and fitness with flow influenced by inbreeding.

a group of meerkats are standing next to each other and looking at the camera ALT: a group of meerkats are standing next to each other and looking at the camera

Jenny Tung: Marrying evolutionary ecology and evolutionary genetics to link traits leading to differential survival with changes in allele frequency across generations using the cutest model organism: the meerkat

Hazuki Takahashi: are RNA DNA 🧬 interactions cell type specific in humans? Develop RADICL-seq to map RNA-DNA interactions. Capture both cis and trans interactions, showing cell type specific interactions

Transposable elements move DNA around genome, creating new genes BUT also a mutagen causing disease ☯️ Keith Slotkin has harnessed this mechanism to target DNA inserts to 🌿🫛 genomes. Have used synthetic biology to improve targeting from industry standard of 1% to >99% while reducing off target sites

90% Small Cell Lung Cancer🫁 is immune silent and evades immunotherapy , but there is plasticity between immune active / silent types. Marian Burr seeks to regulate this transition for improved SCLC survival.

Scientists everywhere: highly caffeine motivated!

Key chats are being had in the queue! ☕️

Austen Ganley does a random genome project: puts A.thaliana DNA into human cells. Gets transcription that is independent of A. Thailana genes.

Can only tag @antobeck.bsky.social here on BlueSky to say that the #Illumina coffee cart is once again the quiet hero of #LorneGenome

@jennbrophy.bsky.social gives a beautiful talk uncovering the regulation of lateral root development, creating tools to engineer root branches 🌱

Comparison of yeast vs Human cells showing yeast is a simpler organisation for genetic studies

Moving to human is a challenge for combinatorial genetics - more genes, more combinations, more 💲, more ⏰️! Using Hap1 haploid cells, chose 222 unique query genes to manage scale ➡️ 4M double mutants!

Brenda Andrews: yeast 🥪 a fantastic systemic genetics, all viable deletion mutants are available. Using to map genetic interactions ➡️ link phenotype to genotype

Thanks to Roche for bringing out @joepdel.bsky.social from Hartwig Medical to share his work using Roche-SBX for Paired Tumour–Normal Whole Genome Sequencing on their cohorts.

Up now Hongpei Li @singmolsci.bsky.social, winner of #lornegenome best student abstract! Telling us how p16 and polycomb interact to cause irreversible growth arrest and cell cycle exit.