As Andreas Scherer mentioned in his post last Tuesday, we will kick off our 2nd annual Abstract Challenge Monday, December the 15th. Here are the details.

All academic, government, and commercial organizations world-wide working with genetic data (regardless of species) are invited to apply. Your project should be using DNA-Seq, RNA-Seq, SNP, or CNV methodology, as well as testing gene panels or searching for rare variants.

There are three levels of prize winners:  

• First place: A one-year single-name user (SNU) license of SNP & Variation Suite (SVS) and VarSeq, loaded on a brand new Dell Latitude 14 E5440 Laptop.  The first prize winner will also present their research to the Golden Helix community via webcast and blog post, reaching hundreds of people across the world.
• Second place: A one-year SNU license of SVS and VarSeq and the opportunity to highlight your research via a webcast and blog post to the Golden Helix community.
• Third place: A one-year SNU license of SVS or Varseq, and the opportunity to highlight your research via a webcast and blog post to the Golden Helix community.

All three winners will be recognized on the Golden Helix blog and website, in a press release, and via email to Golden Helix’s mailing list.

Golden Helix will select a winner based on four key elements:

1. The importance of the biological question you are studying and the impact it may have on the entire genetic field.
2. The overall study design and analysis methodology.
3. The application of research and how your project will help move the area forward.
4. How SVS will assist your research.

Applications will be accepted December 15th through January 16, 2015. You can download the application from our website beginning on Monday, the 15th.

We look forward to seeing your abstract!