By March 2005, Phase I of the HapMap (600,000 common SNPs typed in 270 individuals) will be complete and Phase II (an additional 2.25M SNPs in the same samples) will be well underway. This conference will be hosted by the Department of Statistics at the University of Oxford and supported in part by the Wellcome Trust, and its primary focus will be the use of the HapMap resource in genomic studies: human disease studies, and other population genetic and evolutionary analyses.

“Genomic Studies and the HapMap” will provide an important opportunity for a diverse community of investigators—those involved directly in the International HapMap Project, those in the broader analysis community, and those whose focus is disease studies—to come together to define and discuss a range of issues related to the use of the Haplotype Map resource. In addition to invited speakers from outside the project, there will be briefings on the current status of the project and potential applications from members of the HapMap Analysis Group. This conference is a follow-up to a successful meeting held in the spring of 2004, which brought together well over 100 participants interested in methods and analysis related to the International Haplotype Map Project.

We invite participation and registration for this meeting and encourage the submission of an abstract from interested scientists.

Travel Awards for Young Investigators

The National Human Genome Research Institute is providing travel awards of $750 to up to 13 young investigators from U.S. institutions (defined as completion of doctoral training within the last 6 years). U.S. citizenship is not a requirement. Qualified persons requesting consideration for a travel award must submit the following items to melindagray@comcast.net, no later than January 28:

• current CV
• formatted abstract (please refer to the abstract submission guidelines on the conference Web site)
• conference registration and lodging form (please refer to the registration page on the conference Web site, and note that your credit card will not be billed until early March)

Awards will be made based on the research submitted in the abstract and the academic promise of the candidate with some priority given to applications from women, underrepresented minorities, and applicants with disabilities. Submitted material will be reviewed, and funding decisions made, by the conference programme committee.

Co-Chairs, International HapMap Analysis Group

David Altshuler, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT

Aravinda Chakravarti, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Peter Donnelly, University of Oxford