Welcome
to Berkeley
for RNA 2018!
The RNA Society is pleased to invite you to its 23rd International Conference, which will take place from 29 May – 3 June, 2018 in one of the premier academic centers of the United States, the University of California, Berkeley. This annual meeting, which covers the most exciting areas in RNA research, will be back in North America this year.
The Berkeley Campus of the University of California overlooks the world-famous San Francisco Bay, and is easily accessible by frequent international and domestic flights into three nearby airports (SFO, OAK and SJC). Berkeley is a short subway ride from the cosmopolitan city of San Francisco, and provides a base to explore the Bay Area, as well as iconic national parks such as Sequoia and Yosemite. The U.C. Berkeley campus has modern and comfortable dormitory suites, which will offer an affordable alternative to the many excellent hotels in the San Francisco Bay Area. More information on the U.C. Berkeley Campus can be found at http://visit.berkeley.edu.
The plenary sessions of RNA 2018 will be held at Zellerbach Hall, the spacious and modern main concert venue of the campus. Poster sessions, concurrent sessions, workshops, mixers, and the closing banquet and dance, will all be within a short distance of the main venue.
The organizers are preparing a program that will appeal to everyone, regardless of career stage or area of specific interest.
Keynote lectures will be given by:
Geraldine Seydoux (Johns Hopkins School of Medicine)
Mikiko Siomi (The University of Tokyo)
Jonathan Weissman (University of California, San Francisco)
In addition, the 2018 winners of the RNA Society/Scaringe Award, the RNA Society Early- and Mid-Career Awards, as well as the RNA Society Lifetime Achievement Award, will round out an exciting list of invited speakers.
As in previous years, a major goal of the meeting is to showcase the work of graduate students and postdoctoral scientists, and the bulk of the program will be developed from submitted abstracts. We therefore strongly encourage junior scientists to submit abstracts for oral presentations. Session topics will be finalized based on the abstracts received, but major areas to be covered include non-coding RNAs, RNA chemistry, folding, structure and processing, RNA’s roles in development and disease, splicing, and translation.
Poster Sessions: Presenters will have ample opportunity to engage scientific colleagues and to win prizes for best posters in different categories.
Workshops: We are planning a number of workshops to expand the breadth of the scientific program. In this regard, we welcome suggestions of rapidly developing areas that would be suitable for this format.
RNA Careers in Industry: new this year is a session organized by the RNA Society’s Junior Scientists.
Further details of the program, including links to accommodation, transportation, and travel fellowships, will be provided on this web site in due course.
We look forward to welcoming you to RNA 2018 to present your research and to experience the vibrant life of Berkeley and the Bay Area.
On behalf of the organizers,
Adrian Ferré-D’Amaré (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA)
Atlanta Cook (Wellcome Centre for Cell Biology, Edinburgh, UK)
Anne Ephrussi (European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany)
Don Rio (University of California, Berkeley, USA)
Mihaela Zavolan (Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland)