Preliminary Announcement and note for your diaries:

Fourth International Conference on Quantitative Genetics: Understanding 

variation in complex traits

Edinburgh 17-22 June 2012

http://www.icqg4.org.uk/

Variation in quantitative and other complex phenotypes underpins most important traits in human health and disease, agriculture, natural populations and evolution. The genomics revolution has provided the tools to start the dissection of such traits, enhancing both their understanding and exploitation. This has led to an explosion of interest and new studies across all of biology.

The aim will be to present and discuss state-of-the-art results, theoretical developments, understanding and methodology across the whole range of quantitative genetics - the genetic analysis and interpretation of data on complex traits - and to provide a stimulating conference in an attractive locale. Topics will include statistical methods for parameter estimation, including analysis of trait, genomic and functional genomic data; methods for QTL and gene identification; genetic control of complex traits; prediction of breeding value and individual risk, and interpretation of evolutionary change. The meeting will pertain to and span results from, for example, humans, livestock, crops, micro-organisms and natural and experimental populations of all species. 

The conference will be held at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, and sponsored by the <country-region><place>UK’s Genetics Society (http://www.genetics.org.uk/). It follows previous successful meetings at Iowa State University in Ames, North Carolina State University in Raleigh, and Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China (http://www.icqg.org/ ).

Information on the web will be updated in due course. Meanwhile, for further information please contact a member of the pro-tem local organising committee: Bill Hill (w.g.hill@ed.ac.uk) (Chair), Lutz Bünger, DJ de Koning, Chris Haley, Loeske Kruuk and Alan Wright.