Mini Symposium on Advances in Fungal Genomics and Evolution -- In Celebration of the Founding of the State Key Laboratory of Mycology----INSTITUTE OF MICROBOLOGY CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

“Mini Symposium on Advances in Fungal Genomics and Evolution - in Celebration of the Founding of the State Key Laboratory of Mycology” kicked off in the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMCAS), Beijing, on Oct. 22, 2011.

Six of the international leading mycological experts were invited to present at the mini-symposium. They were Prof. Joan Bennett (NAS member, Mycologist in Rutgers University), Prof. John W. Taylor (elected president of International Mycological Association; University of California at Kerkeley), Prof. Zhiqiang An (Professor and Robert A. Welch Distinguished University Chair in Chemistry at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston), Dr. Jiujiang Yu (Research Geneticist), Dr. Igor Grigoriev (Program Head of Fungal Genomics Program, DOE Joint Genome Institute), Dr. Christina Cuomo (Group Leader of Fungal Genome Sequencing & Analysis Broad Institute). Profs. LIU Xingzhong, BAI Fengyan, LIU Gang and LI Shaojie, representative principal investigators at the Key Laboratory, delivered their reports as well. The speakers shared their research experience and ideas in fungal genomics and evolution with over 140 researchers and students from IMCAS, China Agriculture University and Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

This symposium was hosted by the State Key Laboratory which has been upgraded from the former Key Laboratory of Systematic Mycology and Lichenology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The research fields of the laboratory have expanded from systematics to genetics and genomics of fungi.