ARF has had another successful year with the future holding great promise. The highlight of the year was The First International Workshop on Camelid Genetics which was held in Scottsdale, Arizona on Feb 22-24, 2008. The workshop was co-hosted by the Alpaca Research Foundation (ARF) and the Alpaca Registry Inc (ARI) and funded entirely be ARI. A total of 40 participants including 17 invited speakers were in attendance. We were privileged to have Dr. Stephen O’Brien, head of the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity at the National Cancer Institute, Frederick Maryland give the keynote address and contribute his expertise during the entire meeting. The impetus for the workshop was the completion of the alpaca genome sequence in early 2008 and the availability of molecular genetic tools and resources that are being developed at the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity, NCI, NIH and in other laboratories around the world. The goals of the workshop were to facilitate the sharing of these tools and resources, stimulate future genetic work on camelids and develop options or blueprints for maximizing the utility of these resources for basic research, gene discovery, veterinary medicine and comparative genomic research. Several task forces are being formed to carry on the work begun in Scottsdale and we anticipate a series of future workshops on camelid genetics. The workshop booklet including abstracts of talks can be found on the ARF website. Proceedings of the workshop will be posted there when it becomes available. We are working to broaden participation in future workshops by including scientists conducting research on old and new world camelids.
Further information about the conference is available on the ARF website www.alpacaresearchfoundation.org.