2010 ASSCT

The next ASSCT meeting will be held in Bundaberg from 11 to 13 May and will be a key forum for the CRC to promote its achievements from the $80M (approx) of cash and in-kind we have had at our disposal to investigate biotechnology opportunities in sugarcane.

We expect all our project leaders to prepare and submit papers to the ASSCT system (abstracts due October 9 and final papers due 11 December 2009),  and our CRC will provide financial support to the authors for each paper submitted.

Good health wishes

The last couple of months have again highlighted to me how we are all vulnerable to life's challenges.  Several CRC staff have close family who have been diagnosed with significant health issues. I would like to take this opportunity to offer our best wishes for a speedy recovery to good health.

The two-hour workshop which features authorder^®, is designed to help authors avoid potential pitfalls, and will be held on 9th and again on 22nd September in Brisbane.  
 
The workshops will cover important authorship issues, such as how to determine authorship, how to improve awareness and confidence in individual research contributions, and strategies to deal with and avoid future authorship issues.

Additionally, participants will be empowered with methods to rationally discuss and negotiate authorship concerns with fellow research collaborators.
 
Both workshops will be held in the Don Carruthers eXchange Zone, Level 5, Dorothy Hill Physical Sciences and Engineering Library, UQ St Lucia campus, at the following times:

• Wednesday 9 September 2009, 1-3pm
• Tuesday 22 September 2009, 9-11am
(Both days include light refreshments) 

To book a place or for further information, please contact Suzanne by 4 September 2009 on 07 3346 8884 or suzanne.morris@crcsugar.com.

In respect to our waterproofing technology - or the unique biopolymer-based recyclable coating announced in 2008 - enormous effort has gone into plans to test the application of our technology on a commercial scale to determine product opportunities.

Deon and members from the Visy Management team are pictured here during a recent trip to Visy's Brisbane packaging and recycling facility, where Deon discussed possible applications for the waterproof coating.

Sugarcane geneticists from Australia and across the globe gathered at the conference on 15 and 16 August to discuss how to best combine their efforts to map the sugarcane genome. The meeting coincided with the 14th Australasian Plant Breeding Conference in Cairns.

Head of the CRC SIIB project 'Understanding the Sugarcane Genome' and conference organiser, Professor Robert Henry, from Southern Cross University Lismore, said the draft agreement was a big achievement.

"A great deal of discussion and debate occurred at our conference, and at the end of the two days all parties agreed to work in partnership during the development of a full sugarcane genome map," he said.

It is hoped that the International Sugarcane Genome Consortium (including Australia, China, the United States, Brazil, France and South Africa) will sign a Memorandum of Understanding before the end of this year. The group met earlier this year in Brazil and plan to meet again early in 2010 in San Diego.

The theme of the booth was "Powering Australia's Future" and attracted thousands of interested people keen to hear about future biotechnology and nanotechnology opportunities.

Along with general CRC SIIB information and the latest project updates, visitors to the display got to see a wide selection of 'home made' bioplastics made using glycerol and gelatin. These home made bioplastics and an associated bioplastics handout was a very popular giveaway amongst the visitors.

A big thank you to everyone who helped man our display!

Approx 40 high school students and 2 teachers from South-East QLD participated in the workshop to learn about various aspects of plant biotechnology relevant to the CRC and CILR. Thanks to CRC PhD students Yalun Arifin and Harold Kanasa for running the event.

Congratulations

Congratulations to Dionne Payn and Alex Whan who recently submitted their PhD theses.

Over the past few months CRC Comunication has worked on several displays and conferences promoting our research work on bioproducts. Therefore, a new category titled "bioproducts photoshoot" has been added. As well as these, new images taken from a visit by CRC SIIB to Visy and these images have been added to the Visy category.

To log into the photolibrary go to: http://www.crcsugar.com/library
Username: test
Password: PasswØrd

Agricultural Technologies in a Changing Environment

The 2009 CIGR International Symposium of the Australian Society for Engineering in Agriculture

13-16th September 2009 - Brisbane Australia

Third Announcement
You are invited to register for the 2009 CIGR International Symposium of the Australian Society for Engineering in Agriculture which is titled 'Agricultural Technologies in a Changing Climate'. The symposium will be held in Brisbane, Australia.

For further information go to: http://www.seag2009.com. 

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OECD-Genome Association-OZ09 - Nov 9-12, 2009

The University of Western Australia, Perth. Towards the application of association mapping to plant genetic improvement.

The challenge of this conference is to provide plant breeders with a clear path towards the application of association mapping to plant genetic improvement. OECD invited speakers are international experts in molecular marker discovery, plant genetic mapping, new biometrical approaches to plant breeding, human genetics and animal breeding.
 
For more information go to:
http://www.oecd-genomeassociation-oz09.com

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ComBio 2009

WHEN: 6–10 December 2009
WHERE: Christchurch NZ, Convention Centre
http://www.uco.canterbury.ac.nz/conference/combio09/

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ASSCT 2010

WHEN: 11 - 14 May 2010
WHERE: Bundaberg, Qld
http://www.assct.com.au