And the Winners Are…

We recently held our first ever research competition at Golden Helix – what a success! We received over 50 submissions from more than 20 different countries. And just as the countries varied, so did the research. Abstracts involved both DNA and RNA sequencing, GWAS (nope, it’s still not dead), and copy number variation. Subjects ranged from humans to wolves, cattle, alpaca, watermelon, and spinach, just to name a handful.

Yet, as excited as we were to get so many submissions, we were even more amazed by the quality of the abstracts. The research that is being done by those in the Golden Helix community is quite impressive, and needless to say, our judges had a very difficult time trying to pick just three winners from the applications. So, they picked six! That’s right, we chose two first place, two second place, and two third place winners, and we are giving away not one, but two free laptops, and ten free licenses of SVS!

And now, to announce the winners! (Drum roll please!)

Dr. Heather Huson

John Eicher

First place goes to both Dr. Heather Huson at Cornell University and John Eicher at Yale University. Huson’s research uses candidate gene and whole genome analysis to explore energy balance in dairy cattle as optimal energy balance is critical to yield and production. Eicher has conducted GWAS research that seeks to determine if an association exists between reading disability and language impairment in humans.

Both Huson and Eicher have won a new laptop loaded with SVS Version 8 and a copy of SVS for a colleague.

Dr. Ken Kaufman

Dr. EunRan Suh

Our second place winners both submitted research that used next generation DNA sequencing. Dr. Ken Kaufman of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, looks at the role of candidate risk alleles by combining genotypic data, exome data, RNA seq expression data and variants called from RNA seq. Dr. EunRan Suh of the University of Pennsylvania submitted research that used a targeted next-generation sequencing panel to identified rare variants in neurodegenerative disease.

A year’s license of SVS as well as an additional license for a colleague will be awarded to both Kaufman and Suh.

Mark Barash

Dr. Brian Davis

Third place is awarded to Mark Barash of Bond University in Australia and Dr. Brian Davis of the National Human Genome Research Institute. Barash’s research identifies the SNPs involved in the determination of craniofacial morphology through a candidate gene study. Davis utilized GWAS to identify multiple hybrid sterility loci, genomic incompatibilities, and transcriptomic misregulation in feline interspecies breeds.

Barash and Davis will both receive a one year license of SVS.

Each winner will be presenting their research to the Golden Helix community via a complimentary webcast in the coming months. If you would like to stay informed about our upcoming webcasts, news, and events, please sign up for our e-newsletter here.

We at Golden Helix would like to thank everyone who entered the competition and kudos to all of you for submitting such excellent abstracts. We look forward to making this a yearly event so be sure to submit your abstract next January!