Dear Colleagues,
We hope the summer finds you well. This update is also posted on the IDAWG website. If you have not yet done so, we urge you to go to the site and take a look, and we encourage you to let us know if you have any recommendations or ideas relating to the efforts of the IDAWG.
Funding Opportunities
We received word from the Human Frontiers Science Program (HFSP), in response to the letter of intent that we submitted in March, that we would not be invited to submit a full HFSP grant application this year. However, our efforts to obtain funding to support the efforts of the IDAWG will continue with an NIH R01 application in October.
Fall Meetings of the Working Group
Until we are able to secure funding for a full meeting of the working group, we aim to foster meetings of subsets of the group in concert with annual society meetings and other immunogenomics-related meetings. There are three such meetings coming up this fall that we hope some of you will be able to attend.
We would like to hold a meeting of the working group in conjunction with the KIR meeting in Berkeley, California this September 23rd to 25th. The working group will meet the morning of September 23, between 8:30 AM and 11:30 AM California time (UTC/GMT -8). Please let us know if you will be able to attend in person; we are making arrangements for an audio-conference for those who cannot.
We are also planning to meet in conjunction with the ASHI annual meeting in San Francisco, California from November 2nd to 6th. We would like to meet both informally (i.e., not part of the meeting schedule), and officially in conjunction with the ASHI Scientific Affairs Committee meeting, where we will be seeking designation as an ASHI Ad-Hoc Committee. As with the KIR meeting in September, please let us know if you will be available for either of these ASHI meetings. We will let you know when dates and times for these meetings are confirmed, and if an audio-conference is possible.
Finally, we would like to assemble the working-group at the ASEATTA meeting in New Delhi, from November 12th to 15th. Please let us know if you will be attending the ASEATTA meeting.
Collaborations
The IDAWG is now part of the Human Genome Epidemiology Network (HuGeNet), a global collaboration of individuals and organizations working to advance the synthesis, interpretation, and dissemination of population-based data on human genetic variation in health and disease. For more information about the HuGENet, visit http://www.hugenet.org.uk/, http://www.hugenet.org/, and http://www.cdc.gov/genomics/hugenet.
It is our hope that the IDAWG can eventually publish something like the HuGENet STrengthening the REporting of Genetic Associations (STREGA) statement1, expanding on the STREGA statement's general premise to specifically include recommendations that are pertinent to immunogenomic data and analyses (for all the journals in which the STREGA statement has been published, visit http://www.medicine.uottawa.ca/public-health-genomics/web/eng/strega.html).
We're looking forward to seeing you this fall.
Cheers,
Steve and Jill
1. Little et al. (2009) Strengthening the reporting of genetic association studies (STREGA): an extension of the STROBE Statement. Human Genetics 125(2) 1432-1203.