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Developmental biologists will gather at William & Mary April 19-21

Biologists to gather
Biologists to gather Matt Wawersik (left) works with student biologists in a confocal microscope lab in the Integrated Science Center. The ISC is the venue for a regional gathering of the Society for Developmental Biology April 19-21. Photo by Joseph McClain

The 2013 meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Region of the Society for Developmental Biology is being held at William & Mary’s Integrated Science Center April 19-21.

The conference is being organized by Matt Wawersik and Margaret Saha of the Department of Biology at William & Mary. Wawersik said that he expects 145 attendees at the meeting.

“A large number of undergraduate and graduate students from William & Mary and elsewhere around the region will be attending the conference and presenting their work,” Wawersik said.

Eric Engstrom, a biologist from William & Mary and Hampton University, will be one of the speakers among a group of presenters from many research institutions across the region, including Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Carnegie Institute.

The conference will address recent topics in the field, including new advances in the understanding of epigenetics—the study of various mechanisms that influence gene expression.

The six oral sessions are organized topically: genomics and epigenetics; specification and differentiation; neural development; evolutionary and ecological development; morphogenesis and organogensis; and stem cells and regeneration. All the oral presentation sessions will be held in ISC 1127.

The program schedule notes that a poster session, including submissions from a number of William & Mary’s student researchers, will be held in the Williamsburg Ballroom in the Hospitality House.

The Society for Developmental Biology comprises both basic scientists and physicians whose research focuses on the processes through which organisms grow and develop. Its journal, Developmental Biology, is one of the top peer-reviewed journals in the field.