Genetics Society of AustralAsia

We invite you to join us from Sunday 5 – Wednesday 8 July 2026 for our 73rd annual conference, to be held at the University of Queensland’s St Lucia campus in Brisbane. The 2026 conference will feature plenary sessions from leading international and regional scientists, themed symposia, poster sessions, networking events, and an engaging exhibition from our event partners. With its warm climate, world-class research institutions, and thriving life sciences sector, Brisbane offers the perfect setting to celebrate genetics research and foster new collaborations across AustralAsia and beyond. Watch this space for our upcoming website and registration details!

You are warmly invited to join the 2025 ECR Symposium: Epigenetics in Evolution and Ecology on Tuesday, 30th September 2025 (online).

The symposium will feature talks from Dr. Sarah Whiteley, Dr. Fei Huang, and Dr. Koichi Kitao, with Dr. Boris Yagound as moderator.

Register for the webinar here.

The 72nd Annual Meeting for the Society was held at Waipapa Taumata Rau – The University of Auckland in Aotearoa – New Zealand from 7-10 July 2025. We welcomed over 220 delegates plus 20 sponsor representatives from our amazing event Partners to hear >90 talks, view 40 posters, and share in the joy of genetics!

For more information, see www.gsa-2025.com.

As part of the conference we were delighted to also host an Asia-Pacific Genetics Seminar series talk, with a presentation from our Ross Crozier Medal award winner Associate Professor Catherine Grueber.

GSA’s 2024 conference was held at Macquarie University’s Wallumattagal campus from 30th June to 3rd July. Plenary speakers were be Prof. Karen Sears (UCLA) , Prof. Carla Sgro (Monash University), and Prof. Ian Paulsen (Macquarie University).

There are many interesting patterns that you can extract from genetic variant data. This can include patterns of linkage, balancing selection, or even inbreeding signals. One of the most common approaches is to find sites on the genome that are under selection. This online workshop will introduce the basics of genetic selection analysis, and will step you through the process of identifying signals of selection in an example genomic dataset using the outlier analysis method.

The GSA is proud to present this workshop with the Australian BioCommons and the assistance of a network of facilitators from the national Bioinformatics Training Cooperative. The lead trainer is Dr Katarina Stuart, Research Fellow at the University of Auckland, and it will take place over two five-hour sessions.

Date/Time: 27-28 February 2024, 1pm – 6pm NZDT / 11am – 4pm AEDT / 10am – 3pm AEST / 10:30am – 3:30pm ACST / 8am – 1pm AWST (check in your timezone)

This workshop is for researchers associated with an Australian organisation and/or members of the Genetics Society of AustralAsia who will use genetic selection analysis as part of their projects. Apply here.

Applications close at 11:59pm AEDT, Friday 9 February 2024.

More details are available on the Australian BioCommons website.

This in-person workshop is delivered by Genomics Aotearoa and NeSI, and will be taught over two consecutive days from 10:00am-4:00pm NZT on the 9th and 10th of August 2023 in Auckland. It is for New Zealand researchers interested in signals of selection in genomes.

The focus of this workshop is on identifying signals of selection both across the genome and across sample groupings using various outlier analysis methods. We encourage you to bring your own data! For participants who do not have their own data, a group dataset is available and will be used by the instructors during the examples.

For more information, or to register, please visit the Eventbrite page.

Workshops will also be held in Australia across different locations/states. To gauge geographic interest, please feel free to register your interest here.

The 14^th annual Sydney Phylogenetics Workshop will be held at the University of Sydney on the 27^th–28^th July, 2023. This 2-day workshop will provide an introduction to phylogenetic analysis, maximum likelihood, Bayesian inference, molecular dating, and phylogenomics.

The workshop is free for registered attendees. A total of 40 places are available, including 20 places for students and postdocs, and 15 places are reserved for members of the Genetics Society of AustralAsia.

For more information, including a link to the draft workshop programme, visit the MEEP workshops website.

Register for the workshop via Eventbrite.

We are seeking expressions of interest from members who have completed their PhD within the past 7 years (career interruptions will be taken into account) and who wish to participate in our inaugural round of the GSA Early Career Mentoring Program.

Applications are open until the 18th of November, 2022. More information can be found here.

GSA/WSP provides contributions towards workshops organised by our members and aimed at sharing knowledge and/or exchanging ideas in the broadly defined field of genetics. This funding is available to both academic and public/outreach events. The deadline for applications is September 21, 2022.

More information can be found here.

Applications for GSA Student Conference Awards are invited from science students completing, or having completed within the past 3 months, their third year of undergraduate study, Honours, Masters, or equivalent, at a tertiary institution. These awards provide the opportunity for students to attend ComBio2022 incorporating the annual GSA Conference, to be held in Melbourne 27-30 September 2022.

Further details about the conference, including programme and invited speakers, can be found on the conference website.

Up to ten awards will be available to students attending the conference. Each award will include:

• The full cost of student registration (including social events)
• One ticket to the GSA social event on Thursday evening
• One year of GSA membership

Students will need to make their own arrangements for travel and accommodation.

Applicants must be currently enrolled in, or have completed within the past 3 months, an undergraduate, Honours, Masters, or equivalent degree, and should have completed at least one university-level course in genetics. Please note that PhD students are not eligible for these awards.

Students should submit their application as a single PDF with “GSA Student Travel Award” in the title to A/Prof Maja Adamska, at GSAA.Awards@gmail.com. Students should include in their application:

• A copy of their academic record/student transcript [does not need to be certified]
• An outline of their interests in the field of genetics
• Their full contact details: email, postal address and mobile phone
• The name and e-mail address of one academic referee

Closing date for applications is 7^th August  2022

Successful applicants will be notified by 15^th August 2022