Hi ASPS members,

May Phytogen can be accessed HERE.

The local ASPS organising committee would like to gently remind you that early bird registration for ComBio 2022 (Melbourne, 27-30^th Sept) closes June 24^th.

This conference is a great opportunity to meet friends and colleagues face-to-face after long periods of zoom-based interactions.

As per usual there is an excellent line up of plenary speakers. The highlight being Nobel Laureate Jennifer Doudna and the two plant-specific speakers Siobhan Brady and Niko Geldner.

Attached (ComBio2022TT) is an outline of the program.

The plant stream symposia are as follows:

EXTRACELLULAR MATRICES

PLANT DEVELOPMENT

PLANT GENOMICS, GENETICS & GENE EDITING

FROM LAB TO FIELD

PHOTOSYNTHESIS & CARBOHYDRATES

PLANT WATER TRANSPORT & UTILIZATION

PLANT SUCCESS – ENLISTING THE POWER OF MODELS

REPRODUCTION & SEED BIOLOGY

PLANTS & THEIR ENVIRONMENTS

Importantly, there is also ASPS student travel support for conference attendance (application due 4 July 2022):

https://combio.org.au/combio2022/student.html

As a small favour could we ask you to print out the attached ComBio2022 flyer and distribute in your department/institute to help with advertising.

Please do come along and enjoy the science, cold/wet Melbourne and the opportunity to socialise.

Looking forward to seeing you all,

John/Ros (ASPS – LOC ComBio)

ComBio2022: 27 – 30 September 2022, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre
Early Registration & Abstract Deadline: Friday, 24 June 2022
https://combio.org.au/combio2022/

After a long pause in our plans, we are very pleased to advise that the ComBio2022 online registration and abstract submission forms are now available at:

https://www.combio.org.au/cgi-bin/combio-registration-form.cgi
and
https://www.combio.org.au/cgi-bin/combio-abstract-form.cgi respectively.

This will be a full face-to-face meeting.

ComBio2022 is a combination of five societies holding their annual meetings:

Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Australian Society of Plant Scientists
Australia and New Zealand Society for Cell and Developmental Biology
Genetics Society of AustralAsia
New Zealand Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

The program timetable can be accessed from: https://combio.org.au/combio2022/timetable.html

You can also see the plenary speakers and their photographs and biographies at:
https://combio.org.au/combio2022/plenary.html

We are pleased to advise that this year, the very popular “Career Development Forum” will be almost a full day of sessions held on Tuesday, 27 September offsite. 


Further information:

Sally Jay
combio@asbmb.org.au

Hi ASPS members,

May Phytogen can be accessed HERE.

The local ASPS organising committee would like to gently remind you that early bird registration for ComBio 2022 (Melbourne, 27-30^th Sept) closes June 24^th.

This conference is a great opportunity to meet friends and colleagues face-to-face after long periods of zoom-based interactions.

As per usual there is an excellent line up of plenary speakers. The highlight being Nobel Laureate Jennifer Doudna and the two plant-specific speakers Siobhan Brady and Niko Geldner.

Attached (ComBio2022TT) is an outline of the program.

The plant stream symposia are as follows:

EXTRACELLULAR MATRICES

PLANT DEVELOPMENT

PLANT GENOMICS, GENETICS & GENE EDITING

FROM LAB TO FIELD

PHOTOSYNTHESIS & CARBOHYDRATES

PLANT WATER TRANSPORT & UTILIZATION

PLANT SUCCESS – ENLISTING THE POWER OF MODELS

REPRODUCTION & SEED BIOLOGY

PLANTS & THEIR ENVIRONMENTS

Importantly, there is also ASPS student travel support for conference attendance (application due 4 July 2022):

https://combio.org.au/combio2022/student.html

As a small favour could we ask you to print out the attached ComBio2022 flyer and distribute in your department/institute to help with advertising.

Please do come along and enjoy the science, cold/wet Melbourne and the opportunity to socialise.

Looking forward to seeing you all,

John/Ros (ASPS – LOC ComBio)

ComBio2022: 27 – 30 September 2022, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre
Early Registration & Abstract Deadline: Friday, 24 June 2022
https://combio.org.au/combio2022/

After a long pause in our plans, we are very pleased to advise that the ComBio2022 online registration and abstract submission forms are now available at:

https://www.combio.org.au/cgi-bin/combio-registration-form.cgi
and
https://www.combio.org.au/cgi-bin/combio-abstract-form.cgi respectively.

This will be a full face-to-face meeting.

ComBio2022 is a combination of five societies holding their annual meetings:

Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Australian Society of Plant Scientists
Australia and New Zealand Society for Cell and Developmental Biology
Genetics Society of AustralAsia
New Zealand Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

The program timetable can be accessed from: https://combio.org.au/combio2022/timetable.html

You can also see the plenary speakers and their photographs and biographies at:
https://combio.org.au/combio2022/plenary.html

We are pleased to advise that this year, the very popular “Career Development Forum” will be almost a full day of sessions held on Tuesday, 27 September offsite. 


Further information:

Sally Jay
combio@asbmb.org.au

Dear ASPS Members,

Welcome to 2022. We had a surprisingly active year last year considering the difficult circumstances. The ASPS hybrid meeting and Science Week activities were the highlights. Fingers-crossed that the Covid clouds are lifting and that our lives will not be quite so hectic in 2022 and that more interactions are possible.

I want to emphasise two announcements that appear in the latest Phytogen newsletter sent to you all today (https://www.asps.org.au/archives/7828).

ASPS Awards for 2022: We encourage applications for our annual awards. These include the Goldacre Medal, the Jan Anderson Award, the Robertson Travelling Fellowship and Education and Outreach Award. Deadlines are 28 March and details are available in the Phytogen.

Meetings and Conferences for 2022: We are in for a treat this year because two exciting meetings are being organised and both feature a stellar line up of speakers.

1. ComBIO 2022 (Melbourne, 27-20 September 2022) includes, among many others, a Plenary Address from Jennifer Doudna, the Nobel Laureate for her work on gene editing. ComBIO is a combined meeting organised by several societies involved in biological sciences. Details at  https://combio.org.au/combio2022/information.html.
2. 13th International Congress of  Plant Molecular Biology (Cairns, 23-27 October 2022) will have 84 sessions with some wonderful speakers including Claudia Köhler, Caixia Gao, Pamela Ronald, Keiko Torii, Cyril Zipfel, David Baulcombe. Details here  https://ipmb2022.org/ and see poster attached.

Importantly, student members of ASPS can apply for funding to attend these meetings and details will be released soon. Student poster prizes will also be awarded.

The organising teams assure me that every effort will be made for these meetings to go ahead as planned. So put the dates in your diary and register your interest to receive regular updates.

Thanks, Peter

Dr Peter R Ryan

President, Australian Society of Plant Scientists

Honorary Fellow, CSIRO Agriculture and Food

PO Box 1700

Canberra ACT 2601, Australia

Email: Peter.Ryan@csiro.au

Mob: 0468671565

Dear ASPS members,

We are all looking forward to our annual meeting this Thursday to be held simultaneously across the country. We have over 350 people registered and we look forward to coming together for the joint awards session.

Please also join us for the AGM. To be held at 12noon (AEST) this Friday, 26^th of November.

Zoom details for this meeting

https://anu.zoom.us/j/82478887105?pwd=cFRsckVibXMwTGJ0KzhaV0R2cWJtdz09

Meeting ID: 824 7888 7105

Password: 405423

2021 reports and 2020 AGM minutes can be accessed through the ASPS web site HERE.

Dear members,

In 2021, the ASPS will run a hybrid conference held concurrently across Australia on the 25^th of November. This will involve face-2-face local meetings in most states and include a joint virtual session to celebrate our ASPS award winners. See details in the flyer attached.

In sending this email, we are fully aware that with many states and territories in Australia under lockdown, uncertainty remains. While we are pushing ahead with an optimistic outlook, in the event that F2F meetings cannot be held, online options will be explored. Refunds/registration fee reductions would be available.

Kind regards,

Simon

ASPS Honorary Secretary

The Global Plant Council August E-bulletin can be accessed HERE.

Hello ASPS members,

Earth Hour is this weekend. More information in the March edition of Phytogen.

The March edition of Phytogen is available HERE.

ASPS members,

This  Tuesday 23^rd March is National Eucalypt Day and we would like to celebrate by sharing stories of our members’ Eucalypt research via Twitter.

To participate, either tag us (@asps_ozplants) in a tweet on the day using the hashtag #NationalEucalyptDay or email Frances.Sussmilch@utas.edu.au in advance with an action shot with your study organism and something about you and your Eucalypt research in 280 characters or less. Include your university/workplace so we can tag them too.

The March GPC e-bulletin can be accessed HERE.

Dear ASPS members,

The ARC Centres of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis and in Plant Energy Biology

Invite you to a Special Plantae Seminar on:

Creating Crops for the Future: Challenges, Technology and Sustainable Solutions

One of the most urgent scientific challenges of the 21^st century lies in ensuring that we have enough food for the growing global population. Join us for this special event where three experts in the field of plant science will speak on how scientists are advancing sustainable crops and biotechnologies to make world food security a reality.

Join Moderator Professor John Evans (ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis) in a unique forum for discussion about how critical and complex issues can be addressed, including water and land scarcity, climate change, the role of genetic engineering and other modern agricultural technologies and the importance of interdisciplinary approaches.

This event is presented by Plantae, and co-hosted by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis and the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology.

 Speakers: Professor Pamela Ronald (UC Davis), Professor Harvey Millar (ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology) and Professor Robert Furbank (ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis)

Date: November 11, 11:00 am to 1:00 pm Australia East Coast Daylight Time (AEDT UTC+11 )

which is November 10, 7:00-9:00 pm  EST, 4:00-6:00 pm PST

Event Moderator: Professor John Evans, ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis

Organised by: Plantae – more information at https://plantae.org/creating-crops-for-the-future-challenges-technology-and-sustainable-solutions/

Register here

About the talks:

Speaker 1: Professor Pamela Ronald (UC Davis)

Title: Improving Food Security for the World’s Poorest Farmers: Rice Genetics and the Future of Food 

Summary: How do we feed a growing population and engineer crops that are resilient to climate change? How do we fight crop diseases while reducing chemical sprays? How do we enhance the nutrition of staple food crops? The rapid advance of genetic technologies has provided new tools to address these questions, and they have already made an impact at a global scale. Professor Pamela Ronald will discuss advances in the genetic basis of plant microbe interactions and will describe development of climate-resilient rice varieties grown by more than six million subsistence farmers in India and Bangladesh.                

Speaker 2: Professor Harvey Millar (ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology)

Title: Plant Energy Biology: Altering energy use efficiency in plants to enhance crop growth and yield.

Summary: After plants convert light energy into chemical energy, they then need to use it efficiently within cells to maximise growth and yield.  To tap into this potential, global efforts to improve photosynthesis are being complemented by strategies to improve energy use within plants by considering the cost of major use processes and how they can be optimised, especially under harsh and changing environmental conditions. Such processes include respiratory function, stress signalling, ion transport and protein turnover. This presentation will review some of these strategies from their inception in model plants to the progress and challenges of their deployment in crops.

Speaker 3: Professor Robert Furbank (ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis)

Title: Photons to Food: boosting photosynthesis to improve food crop yields

Summary: Photosynthetic traits have become a major focus for crop improvement in recent years as progress due to green revolution yield gains becomes exhausted.  Global efforts to improve photosynthetic performance span from transgenic targeted approaches using synthetic biology to genome-phenome approaches to sieve out the very best germplasm for more traditional breeding and genome selection. This presentation reviews some progress and challenges from both approaches and attempts to look “over the horizon” to the future of crop breeding.

Hello ASPS members,

On Wednesday we have our ASPS awardee presentations, see the details below.

On Thursday we have the ASPS AGM.

ASPS AGM

Date: Thursday, October 1.

Time: 12-2pm

Register in advance for this meeting:

https://anu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwvdOutrjojG9eIIHzpt2ElNXnit2sxBtbu

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

September Phytogen out now and available HERE

ASPS award presentations

Please join us for a special edition of Plantae Presents, featuring four Australian Society of Plant Scientists awardees: the joint-winners of the Jan Anderson Award, Crystal Sweetman and Kristine Crous; the winner of the Peter Goldacre Award, Alex Wu; and the winner of the ASPS-FBP Best Paper Award, Karen Frick. Each will present a 15 or 20 minute talk, followed by five minutes of questions. This is a two hour webinar with the start times indicated below.

Wednesday Sept 30

Adel/Dar 4.00pm

Syd/Melb/Bris/Hob/Can 4.30pm

Perth 2.30pm

UK 7:30am, CET 8:30am, EDT 2:30am, (PDT 11:30 pm Tues Sept 29)

You can now register through the link below!

https://plantae.org/plantae-presents-asps-awardees-lectures-crystal-sweetman-kristine-crous-alex-wu-and-karen-frick/

Hello ASPS members,

Please join us for a special edition of Plantae Presents, featuring four Australian Society of Plant Scientists awardees: the joint-winners of the Jan Anderson Award, Crystal Sweetman and Kristine Crous; the winner of the Peter Goldacre Award, Alex Wu; and the winner of the ASPS-FBP Best Paper Award, Karen Frick. Each will present a 15 or 20 minute talk, followed by five minutes of questions. This is a two hour webinar with the start times indicated below.

Wednesday Sept 30

Adel/Dar 4.00pm

Syd/Melb/Bris/Hob/Can 4.30pm

Perth 2.30pm

UK 7:30am, CET 8:30am, EDT 2:30am, (PDT 11:30 pm Tues Sept 29)

You can now register through the link below!

https://plantae.org/plantae-presents-asps-awardees-lectures-crystal-sweetman-kristine-crous-alex-wu-and-karen-frick/

The September GPC e-bulletin is also avaiable HERE.