Daily Program	Abstracts & Posters
Keynote Speaker	Keynote Symposia	Plant Contributed Papers
Saturday, May 31	Plenary Symposia	Animal Posters
Sunday, June 1	Animal Symposia & Workshops	Education Posters
Monday, June 2	Plant Symposia & Workshops	Plant Posters
Tuesday, June 3	Animal Contributed Papers	Cryobiology Symposia
Wednesday, June 4	Cryobiology Contributed Papers	Cryobiology Posters
	Late Animal Posters	Late Plant Posters

Wednesday, June 4

Daily Program-at-a-Glance

Wednesday, June 4

The Omics Generation – Advances in Metabolomics, Proteomics and Genomics

Convener: Kolla Kristjansdottir, Midwestern University

This session will cover key applications, techniques and recent advances in genomics, proteomics and metabolomics. In the last decade, innovations in equipment design and methodologies have revolutionized these ‘omics fields. Transcriptomics, genome wide associations and most recently next-generation sequencing have made genomic studies common even in small academic and agricultural labs. At the protein level, proteomics can be used to identify and quantify thousands of proteins from complex samples in “discovery” mode or to provide highly accurate and sensitive quantification of a small group of proteins for applications in “targeted” mode. Metabolomics, is the most understudied of these ‘omics fields partly because the metabolome cannot be determined from the genetic sequence of an organism. Instead comprehensive databases from experimental data are being compiled for use in toxicology, disease research, environmental analysis and agriculture. Collectively, the ‘omics fields generate a staggering amount of data and the current challenge is to integrate it with traditional cell and biochemical studies in order to provide a more complete and accurate picture of working biological systems.

Are Cryobiologists and Everyone Else Speaking Different Languages? – Bridging the GMP/Biobanking/Clinical Gap

Convener: Aby Mathews, Biolife Solutions

This session is intended to facilitate discussion between non-cryobiologists that seek improved methods for biopreservation of cells/tissues for clinical/biobanking/manufacturing applications, and cryobiologists who focus on the science of biopreservation. At times it may seem that there is a language barrier between translating the scientific biophysical concepts of biopreservation and the practical application of preserving cells and tissues for Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), biobanking, commercial, and clinical utilization. Cryobiologists often indicate that biopreservation methods used by many in hospitals/industry/biobanking are not optimized using cryobiology principles. Those in industry/biobanking/hospitals often indicate that optimized cryobiological principles are difficult to translate into minimal manipulation manufacturing or processes with large volumes of cells, large product units, and/or tissue products. Speakers from the clinic, industry, and academia will discuss issues encountered during biopreservation of frozen and non-frozen cell/tissue products, and shared experiences/insight towards developing improved methods. This session will focus on cell/tissue products relating to cellular therapies and regenerative medicine (not reproductive applications). The aims of this session: 1.) Bring cell therapy developers from the clinic and industry together with cryobiologists to discuss methods of biopreservation. 2.) Discuss pros and cons supporting frozen and non-frozen cell/tissue products for Regenerative Medicine. 3.) Discuss current obstacles in biopreservation, methods/devices in development, and shared experiences for addressing biopreservation hurdles.

Biotech Tools to Aid with Forest Restoration

Convener: Scott A. Merkle, University of Georgia

Due to globalized trade, forest trees in North America in the 21st Century are under unprecedented pressure from exotic pathogens and pests that threaten to eliminate several forest tree species from their native ranges. The U.S. has already experienced multiple forest health disasters over the past two centuries, including the accidental introduction of diseases such as chestnut blight and Dutch elm disease. Now, the speed and scale of forest health threats are rapidly increasing, with the explosion of new exotic insect pests and diseases. Until recently, programs aimed at conserving germplasm of threatened forest species and/or restoring them to their native ranges have relied on such conventional methods as seed storage, ex situ plantings, selection of naturally occurring resistant or tolerant genotypes and hybrid breeding with resistant related species. Now the tools of biotechnology are being brought to bear on some of these forest health problems. This session will showcase research employing biotech approaches to conserve and restore threatened North American forest species, including American chestnut, American elm, white ash, green ash, eastern hemlock and Carolina hemlock. Speakers will present the most recent progress on how in vitro propagation, transgenics and cryopreservation are being applied for conservation and restoration of these threatened species, and describe how these approaches can be integrated with conventional breeding programs to accelerate restoration.

Conquering Chaos in the Age of Networked Science: The Importance of Data Management

Conveners: Addy Alt-Holland, Tufts University, Michael K. Dame, University of Michigan Medical School, and Brad L. Upham, Michigan State University

Do you know where all of your data is stored and if it’s up-to-date? Would your neighbor across the hall be able to find and interpret your latest experimental results on your computer? Would you pass safely through an NIH audit of your research? If any of these questions made you nervous, learning more about proper data management would be a good use of your time! Attend this highly interactive, 2-hour session to network and engage with your colleagues over the struggle to maintain your research data. Using a real lab’s research project as an example we’ll cover the importance of good data management practices, seven common issues in data management, and resources to assist you along the way. By the end of this fun session you will have tools to help your lab better manage your data and feel more comfortable creating the 2-page data management plans required by NSF and NIH grants.

Synthetic Promoters for Transgenic Plants

Convener: C. Neal Stewart, University of Tennessee, and Peter Bowerman, BASF Corporation

This session will explore the present uses and future potential of synthetic promoters for plant biotechnology. Promoters are crucial components for the regulation of transgenes in plants. While practically all commercialized transgenes use a few native constitutive promoters, we can easily envision the need to have a wide assortment of tissue-specific and inducible promoters for use for multi-transgene transcriptional regulation. In addition, it is apparent that the expression of certain transgenes will carry metabolic costs and will have to be precisely expressed in target tissues and at explicit times. Synthetic promoters hold the promise for precise tuning of expression, avoidance of problematic sequence including non-desired open reading frames and intellectual property value. In contrast with native promoters, synthetic promoters can be designed to be compact, strong, and precise in controlling gene expression.