Yesterday GENECO had their winter meeting at Kulturen. This was the first meeting in real life since the pandemic started. And that showed. People really liked to get together and talk. During the dinner, it was hard to even hear oneself talk from time to time.
GENECO is a graduate research school in genomic ecology, where PhD students from different universities come together and learn to understand genomic techniques and applications and communicate research ideas among other things.
Unfortunately, I was not able to make it to the meeting in the morning, which included one guest lecture by Petra Korlevic from Wellcome Sanger Institute, in Great Brittain, and two talks by the PhD students Hanna Bensch and Ida Krogsgaard Svendsen, both from Linnaeus University.
After lunch and a streamed Thursday seminar, the invited lecturer Anja Mezger from National Genomics Infrastructure in Stockholm, talked about SciLifeLab equipment and what analysis they do. Qinyang Li, PhD student in Lund, followed with a talk about his PhD project about multicellularity.
The next talk was about wolfs in Sweden and their inbreeding. Mikael Åkesson, from the Swedish University of Agriculture Sciences in Grimsö, told us how they use the genomic technique SNPs in their monitoring of wolfs.
After the coffee break Danilo Di Leo, PhD student at Linneaus University, talked about a way to analyse big data sources and Zachary Nolen, PhD student at Lund University, ended with a talk about his work with genetic diversity of blue-winged butterflies.
The closing dinner was at Kulturen’s restaurant, and the food served was either roster or portabello confit depending on food preferences. I left with a full stomach and a head full of voices and thoughts.
It was a pleasant and strange feeling to be at an IRL meeting again, but it was also tiring. It will take some time to get used to a normal life. Thanks to the organisers and GENECO for letting me participate.
Text and photo Inger Ekström
