PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

20-May-2014

Contact: Raeka Aiyar, Ph.D. press@genetics-gsa.org 301-634-7302 Genetics Society of America

BETHESDA, MD (May 20, 2014) -- The Genetics Society of America (GSA) and the Drosophila research community are pleased to announce the winners of GSA Poster Awards at the 55th Annual Drosophila Research Conference, which took place in San Diego, March 26-30, 2014. These awards were made to undergraduate, graduate student, and postdoctoral researchers in recognition of the work they presented at the conference. Their projects, using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism, spanned a diverse range of topics on the genetic and molecular basis of fundamental biological processes.

"We were very impressed with both the quality of the research and the clarity of presentation by the winning candidates," noted Adam P. Fagen, PhD, GSA's Executive Director. "It is gratifying to see such inspiring work by members of our community so early in their careers. We look forward to hearing much more about their contributions in the years to come. "

The recipients were chosen from 789 posters presented at the meeting, 561 of which were authored by GSA members and therefore eligible for an award.

2014 Drosophila Research Conference Poster Award Winners (for full release and photos, please visit the release URL http://www.genetics-gsa.org/media/releases/GSA_PR_20140520_Dros_poster_awards.pdf)

Postdoctoral Winners

FIRST PRIZE: Melanie I. Worley, University of California, Berkeley, USA Poster Title: "Chameleon: a mutant with an increased frequency of notum-to-wing transdetermination" Principal Investigator: Iswar K. Hariharan

SECOND PRIZE: Malini Natarajan, Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Kansas City, MO, USA Poster Title: "Genome-wide analysis of tissue-specific effector genes in the Drosophila embryo" Principal Investigator: Julia Zeitlinger

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Nine young scientists awarded by the Genetics Society of America for fruit fly research