Greetings!

The 17th Annual Meeting of the RNA Society will take place May 29th to
June 3rd in Ann Arbor, Michigan. A new venue for the RNA Society, Ann
Arbor is a university town with a beautiful campus to host the event that
is easily reached, via an only half-hour shuttle, from the Detroit
Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW).

This year, we will have three plenary speakers on Tuesday night: Brenda
Bass (University of Utah), Olke Uhlenbeck (Northwestern University) and
Jonathan Weissman (University of California, San Francisco). Over the
following days, there will be 12 sessions covering a diversity of RNA
topics (Small RNAs, Non-coding RNAs, Translation, Pre-mRNA splicing,
Catalytic RNAs, mRNA turnover, Regulation of gene expression, RNA
Structure/Function, Disease/Pathogen/Therapeutics, Structure and function
of RNA-protein complexes, and Bioinformatics/systems biology) plus four
workshops with hot topics solicited from suggestions and abstracts. For
each session, there will be an introductory (plenary) lecture of 30
minutes to showcase recent research from an individual lab. Following
this, the chair will introduce the session (in 15 minutes) by providing
some background on the topic of the session and perspective on some of the
big remaining questions in that field. As always, other speakers in each
session will be chosen from the abstracts with four days of rapid fire
short talks presenting new and exciting results.

In addition to the purely scientific events, the program will include
special events such as a Beer Hall, Junior Scientists Social,
Mentor-Mentee Lunch, Career Development Workshop, Awards Ceremony, and the
RNA & Society Dinner featuring Laurie Zoloth, a well-known bioethicist.
Last but not least, the Banquet & Dance at the Henry Ford Museum near
Detroit will showcase one of the premier science and technology museums in
the country with a special exhibition on the Titanic and with wild dancing
under a suspended vintage airplane. These are events not to be missed!

We invite you to join us for another fantastic RNA Society Meeting.

Rachel Green
Nils Walter
Melissa Moore
Gerhart Wagner