This series of meetings were initiated as the brainchild of Drs. Jack Griffith, Robert D. Wells and David L. Nelson only six years after the first unstable trinucleotide repeats were found to be disease-causing mutations of Kennedys disease, fragile X mental retardation, and myotonic dystrophy.
At the time of the first meeting it had become apparent that repeat instability was likely to be a very important form of mutation. This meeting has occurred about every two years since 1997 and the organizers torch has been passed between Investigators from different countries. The 1st round of the Conference was held in Santa Fe (1997), the 2nd in North Carolina (1999), and the 3rd was in The Netherlands (2001). The 4th iteration was in the scenic Rocky Mountains of Banff, Canada (2004). The 5th iteration was in beautiful and historical city of Granada, Spain (2006). The 6th iteration will be hosted in 2009 in the tropical rainforests of Guanacaste, Costa Rica.
Drs. Christopher Pearson, Laura Ranum, Sergei Mirkini and Fernando Morales are the organizers of the 6th meeting. The attendance of this meeting has increased steadily and we expect 150-200 scientists to attend.
Registration
http://www.microsatellites.ca/register.html