About the Conference
This conference brings together scientists from all over Australia who study insects using molecular biological techniques. Many of the attendees at this conference work with the model organism Drosophila melanogaster, and have a wide variety of interests including developmental genetics, neurogenetics, cell biology, evolutionary genetics and the genetics of tolerance to environmental and chemical stresses. In addition, some attendees at this conference study other species such as the honeybee, the common brown butterfly, lice, mites, agricultural pests (e.g. sheep blowfly, diamondback moth, cotton bollworm and the 'real' fruit fly), insect viruses, and insect endosymbionts and parasites. We would like the scope of this meeting to be as broad as possible and strongly encourage attendance from molecular biologists working on non-Drosophilid insects!
The program is arranged around presentations by each laboratory represented. Lab heads are asked to request time for their entire lab's presentation then within that time slot they are welcome to arrange their talks as they wish. We especially encourage talks from postgraduate and honours students and we see the meeting as a great opportunity for students to gain public speaking experience and share their research in a relaxed and colleagial environment.
