The 2018 Society for In Vitro Biology annual meeting in Saint Louis, Missouri, is upon us. Genome editing will be the focus of this year’s meeting. It is highlighted by Dr. Rachel Haurwitz, President and CEO of Caribou Biosciences, who is our keynote speaker. She is one of Jennifer Doudna’s PhD students at UC Berkeley and was directly involved in the discovery of CRISPR technology. There are several sessions that address various aspects of CRISPR technology such as exploring what is beyond Cas9, commercial applications of genome editing, delivery of gene editing reagents and societal implications of genome editing. There are also several volunteered sessions where genome editing presentations will also occur. Aside from genome editing, there are many sessions that cover many areas pertaining to in vitro culture. The SIVB has organized an off-site social event at Grant’s Farm to see the Anheuser Busch Clydesdale horses and to experience the sites at this location. We also have organized a plant and animal scientific tours on Wednesday afternoon, at the end of the meeting. Tour sites include the Millipore/Sigma Aldrich genome editing facility for the IVACS tour and tours of Monsanto, the Danforth Plant Science Center and KWS for the plant tours. I look forward to very exciting meeting in Saint Louis.
Dave Songstad
2018 SIVB Program Chair
