[AfSHG-Listserv] AfSHG 2007 Cairo conference

[Dr. Adebowale A. Adeyemo]

Hi everyone,

This is to announce that the 5th Annual Meeting of the African Society of Human Genetics (AfSHG) was successfully held November 2 - 5, 2007 in conjunction with the First Annual Meeting of the Division of Human Genetics and Genome Research and the National Society of Human Genetics of Egypt. This meeting, hosted by the National Research Center , Cairo , Egypt, had the theme: Genomics Research in Africa : Implications for Disease Diagnosis, Treatment and Drug Development. We were privileged to have several high profile keynote speakers, including (for the first time) two Directors of NIH institutes: Francis Collins (Director, NHGRI) and Griffin Rodgers (Director, NIDDK). 

The keynote addresses, podium presentations, panel discussions and posters were of very high quality.  We had a good representation of students and for the first time, the society awarded a Young Investigator's Prize. The social program was very good and was appreciated by all the participants, especially those visiting Egypt for the first time. This meeting had strong support from sponsors, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Research Center (Cairo, Egypt), Jackson State University, Affymetrix, Illumina Inc, Sequenom Inc, deCODE Genetics, Applied Biosystems, Nature Genetics, Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press. The National Human Genome Center at Howard University has and continues to provide critical support to the society.

This message is also to thank everyone for a very successful meeting. Our hosts were wonderful and worked hard to make sure we had a smooth meeting. Special thanks go to Professors Yehia Gad, Eman Abulezz, Samia Temtamy and Amal Mahmoud. Other members of the organizing and program committees also worked tirelessly to make the conference a success. Special mention goes to Shirley Freeman (National Human Genome Center, Howard University) who was not at the conference but provided major administrative support behind the scenes. 

Thanks to all presenters at the conference for taking the time and effort to prepare and present your work, and to all participants for finding the time, effort and funding to attend and participate so actively at the meeting. For those who could not attend this year, we missed you and look forward to seeing you at the next conference. The choice of venue for the next meeting has not been been finalized but there are three candidates (Mali, Cameroon and South Africa) under consideration at the moment.

The website (http://www.afshg.org) has now been updated with several items from the conference, including the final conference program, the book of abstracts, photo albums and the minutes of the annual general meeting (AGM). Please find time to look through the website.

With warm regards,

Debo

Adebowale Adeyemo
African Society of Human Genetics
  www.afshg.org
    
  National Human Genome Center
  Howard University
  2216 6th Street NW
  Washington , DC 20059

debo.adeyemo at yahoo.com
aadeyemo at genomecenter.howard.edu


   
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