Workshop: Assembling the Tree of Life - the European Dimension ( in Paris, France in Setember 18-21 2002)

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Dr. Ward Wheeler of the American Museum of Natural History has received a grant to conduct a workshop on coordinating US and European efforts to reconstruct the phylogenetic history of life on earth. One of the most profound ideas to emerge from modern science is the realization that all of life, from the smallest microorganism to the largest vertebrate, is connected through genetic relatedness in a vast evolutionary tree. This tree of life provides the framework for much of our modern understanding of biology because it shows the diversity of life as well as the historical basis for similarity and differences among organisms. Organizing biological knowledge according to phylogenetic relationships and their parallel classificatory hierarchies has become increasingly important for both science and society. These taxonomic groupings, for example, underlie all comparative biology and are increasingly used to organize biological and biomedical databases. Phylogenetic hypotheses of organisms, or of their genes or gene products, are being used to search for and identify new emerging diseases, trace the historical pathways of infections among individuals or to understand their geographic spread, search for potentially new pharmaceuticals, identify invasive pests of crops and other agricultural lands such as forests and develop control programs, and solve numerous other questions in applied biology. It is recognized that reconstructing the tree of life must be a large, international venture and that ultimate success will depend on scientific expertise and resources, collections and funding from many nations. Therefore, we must begin the process of coordinating our efforts and internationalizing the tree of life and other systematic biology activities.This workshop will bring together approximately 20 leading European systematic biologists, representatives of European funding agencies, and representatives of NASA, USDA and Smithsonian Institution and NSF observers. The workshop will: (1) familiarize European researchers and funding officials with progress to date and plans for the US Assembling the Tree of Life effort; (2) update European researchers on US plans for invigorating revisionary systematics; (3) develop a vision for the challenge of an international Tree of Life effort; (4) discuss what is needed in terms of scientific expertise and infrastructure and in terms of international organization; and (5) produce a report that summarizes the discussions and that makes as many recommendations toward international cooperation as possible.