News!
ECBOL 2 meeting, Braga, Portugal, 2–4 June 2010.
The second meeting of the European Consortium for the Barcode of Life (ECBOL) was held recently in Braga, Portugal, hosted by the Molecular and Environmental Biology Centre (CMBA) University of Minho (Portugal) in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution (U.S.A.), CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre (Netherlands) and National Museum of Natural History (France). The meeting consisted of invited and contributed talks and posters from various EDIT and non-EDIT organizations and institutes.
The aims of the meeting were to:
- Provide an opportunity for European barcoding groups to interact.
- Present updates on commercial and scientific applications of DNA barcoding initiatives.
- Present new technologies in DNA barcoding initiatives.
The programme consisted of eight sessions of invited and contributed talks, covering various topics such as management, development and progress in DNA barcoding. The talks also included numerous biodiversity studies on plants, fungi, marine micro-organisms and other higher organisms. The poster sessions also included similar studies and new developments in DNA barcoding.
This meeting highlighted the rapid growth of DNA barcoding technologies within Europe and how important its applications have become in biodiversity and taxonomic studies. The meeting was attended by 148 participants from 21 European countries, also highlighting the growing interest in DNA barcoding in Europe.
Programme of meeting (for hyperlink to pdf)
Abstracts of meeting (for hyperlink to pdf)
Report of meeting (for hyperlink to pdf)
Introducing the new ECBOL coordinator: Dr Lorenzo Lombard
Although my parents are Italian, I was born and educated in South Africa, where I completed my Ph.D. in Plant Pathology at the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI) at the University of Pretoria (2010). I conducted my post-graduate study under the supervision of Prof M.J. Wingfield, working on fungal pathogens of woody hosts. My Ph.D. focused on the systematics and DNA phylogeny of the genus Calonectria, which is a major pathogen in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. I have published several articles on this topic in international peer-reviewed journals, as well as presented posters at different international conferences. In my new role as ECBOL coordinator, I am truly looking forward to interacting with the various European and international laboratories and institutes active in DNA-Barcoding, as well as integrating and promoting research in these aspects.
ECBOL2: 2010 International Year of Biodiversity
(2nd Conference of the European Consortium for the Barcode of Life)
2 - 4 June 2010 Braga, Portugal
International Barcode of Life project gets major funding boost in lead‐up to official launch
