Busy September

We are back with some news from busy September 2018…

1. Nejc went to the Last best place (Montana USA) to participate in ConGen 2018 (http://www.umt.edu/sell/cps/congen2018/): Applications of New Sequencing Technologies to Understand Population Structure, Adaptation, and Environmental Influences on Genomic Variation, September 9-15, 2018. Course packed with useful information spread by the Superstars of the field in most beautiful surroundings. This combination handed him what he describes a semi-spiritualistic journey with new skills to ride the freshly discovered wave of élan vital. Among sponsors of the event were local breweries and NASA, which might have contributed slightly as well. 

2. Ida and Simona have participated at the 8th Congress of the Genetics Society of Slovenia and the 8th meeting of the Slovenian Society for Human Genetics, which was held in Radenci, Slovenia, from 19th to 21st September 2018 (http://genetika2018.alfa-faktor.si/eng/index.html). During the congress, Ida gave an oral presentation, entitled Transcriptome Analysis and Cellular Background of the Pigment Pattern in Marble and Brown Trout, in The Golden Chromosome Session, and she was awarded with the third place among the young Slovenian geneticists. Congratulations, Ida!

> Ida during her presentation.

> Announcement for The Golden Chromosome award recipients.

> Ida with the diploma and 3^rd place award.

3. Laboratory reconstruction: after the damage caused by water leaking at the end of 2017, our lab was renewed (floor, furniture, electrical and plumbing installation) during the summer months. Looks nice and a bit sterile J, but when occupied with smiley, fully motivated colleagues and students, we are sure it will became a pleasant place where many interesting results will be generated… 

4. Last, but not least… During the summer months, our new research facility, the first recirculating unit for experimental fish rearing (RAS) in Slovenia, was being constructed. We are all looking forward to see the circulating water and fish of all life stages swimming in the new tanks within the next few weeks. Recirculating experimental aquaculture system was partially financed by The Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS), from the framework of Public tender for the co-financing new research equipment (Package 17), and performed by Daniel Gospić, G2O (http://www.g2o.si/si/o-nas/). 

> On the construction site.

IMPRESS 2018 Conference

Between 17^th and 19^th June, I and Nejc attended the final conference of the IMPRESS project. It was held in a small but beautiful town on the Southern coast of Norway, called Arendal. We had two intensive days full of very good presentations, on different topics, like cultivation strategies, conservation, reproduction, gamete quality… with a focus on three diadromous fish species (salmon, eel and sturgeon).

> Poster session: Nejc presenting his work. Congrats on the 2^nd poster prize Nejc!

>  The closing conference debate.

Besides the formal part of the conference, there were events organised in the evenings where we had the pleasure to get to know other scientists. They were all very friendly and relaxed so we also enjoyed the social aspect of the conference very much.

> On the final evening we went for a boat trip in the Arendal archipelago.

One more thing definitely worth mentioning; we had a pleasure to meet two very committed fishermen, which are eagerly working on the making of a fish ladder for sea trout to trespass an old dam (one of them is doing his master thesis on the topic). With some financing but mostly their effort they made a great job so we’re looking forward to receiving some good news of successful migration of the sea trout.

>  Kjetil and Kurt took us to the construction site.

The conference was very well organised and definitely full of interesting results and useful information so we hope the whole story is not ending there and that there will be a following project IMPRESS 2 too!

New publication: Interspecific germ cell transplantation: a new light in the conservation of valuable Balkan trout genetic resources?

In May, a new publication on interspecific germ cell transplantation was published. Brown trout and grayling germ cells were successfully transplanted into rainbow trout larvae, which was confirmed by fluorescent labelling and PCR. 

We are now waiting for them to release some eggs. Fingers crossed!

Ida defended her PhD dissertation

On Friday, June 8^th, Ida successfully defended her PhD dissertation entitled "TRANSCRIPTOME ANALYSIS AND CELLULAR BACKGROUND OF THE MARBLE PIGMENT PATTERN FORMATION IN MARBLE TROUT (Salmo marmoratus)" at the Biosciences-Biotechnology doctoral study program, Biotechnical faculty, University of Ljubljana. The committee and audience has praised Ida's scientific achievements and her presentation. Congratulations Ida!

>Compliments from prof. Peter Dovč on Ida's well done and lovely presentation.

>Back in the sunshine again (no more worries and no more pain)