A meeting was held on April 15 in Washington to discuss the USDA's Food Genome Initiative and to offer public comments on a draft copy of this initiative which had been previously circulated. Areas of emphasis include bioinformatics, functional genomics, physical maps, QTLs and generation of ESTs. On behalf of NRSP-8 scientists, Dr. Scanes submitted several very useful comments as did the other participants.
Plans now are for the document to be revised in the near future.
We all should give a special thank you to Drs. Colin Scanes, Dick Frahm, and the advisors from each of the regions. The request for proposals from those who wish to be Species Coordinators was circulated to NRSP-8 members officially on April 22. The Coordinator proposals will be due on May 22. It also served as a time to get together and discuss how we need to move beyond the NRSP-8 renewal.