The Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE) Regional Evolutionary Genetics Meeting was held in Shanghai on October 20th - 22nd, 2023. The SMBE is an international society whose goals are to provide facilities for association and communication among molecular evolutionists and to further the goals of molecular evolution, as well as its practitioners and teachers.
The conference provides an opportunity for researchers at all levels including experts, faculty, postdocs and students, in areas of evolutionary genetics to present their work and communicate with other researchers. Under the sponsorship of SMBE, the conference offers free registration for all participants who submit posters or abstracts.
On the afternoon of the 20th, Daniel Falush, Principal Investigator at the Shanghai Institute of Immunity and Infection of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, delivered an opening speech on behalf of the organizer and introduced the details of the agenda to all the participants.
As a plenary speaker, Jonathan Pritchard, the renowned population geneticist from Stanford University, was invited to give a talk on the theme of "Gene expression, selection, and genetic architecture of human complex traits". Professor FU Qiaomei from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences gave a plenary talk entitled "Genomic insights into human history in East Asia" .
Then, Professor YANG Ruifu from the Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Professor YUE Jiaxing from Sun Yat-sen University and Elise Tourrette from Daniel Falush's research group gave regular talks concerning their research interests entitled "Phylodynamicas and functional evolution of Yersinia pestis", "The genome and pathogenicity evolution of Papillomavirus revealed by an atlas of 3,562 human and animal Papillomavirus genomes" and "An ancient ecospecies of Helicobacter pylori found in indigenous populations and animal adapted lineages".
In the poster section, more than 20 young researchers from many famous schools or academic institutions presented their posters, covering human evolutionary genetics, microbial population genetics, paleontology and other academic fields related to evolutionary genetics.
In the three-day meeting, molecular evolutionary biologists and young researchers from different countries and institutions conducted nearly 40 regular talks and short talks, covering almost all aspects of research frontiers within the field of evolutionary genetics.
All participants actively asked questions about the wonderful reports, and conducted lively discussions and in-depth academic exchanges. This conference provides a good platform for researchers in the field of biological evolution and helps to further promote the interaction and cooperation among researchers in this field.
