Professor Jose Lopez, co-founder of the Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance (GIGA.Nova.edu), will attend and introduce its second workshop in Munich Germany, March 22-24, 2015. 

This international consortium had its inaugural meeting at the Nova Southeastern University Center of Excellence in Coral Reef Ecosystem Research in 2013.  This second workshop (conference summary here) aims to pick up where the group and first white paper left off  (full copy available here: http://m.jhered.oxfordjournals.org/content/105/1/1.full): to increase awareness of marine invertebrate genomics, formulate strategies to obtain funding for diverse invertebrate genome sequencing, prioritize and create better inventories of candidate invertebrate species (such as corals and deep sea crustaceans and cephalopods), and develop optimal strategies and biological questions surrounding deep genome sequencing of relatively understudied marine invertebrates. Over 70 scientists will attend the two day workshop.  GIGA is open to all biologists, and DEEPEND members include Drs. Matt Johnston, Heather Bracken-Grissom and Stephen J. O’Brien (who will also attend and give an update on the vertebrate Genome 10K project).