COLLEGE STATION, Texas (April 15, 2009) -- The 14th Annual Graduate Student Organization (GSO) Symposium will be held Thursday, April 16 at the Reynolds Building. This year the GSO is focusing on the contributions of both basic science research and clinical translational medicine and the event theme is "Bridging the Gap Between Basic and Clinical Sciences."

GSO leaders have invited two speakers - first, Dr. C. T. Caskey, who is a distinguished and highly accomplished medical investigator, geneticist and biomedical entrepreneur. Dr. Caskey is the director and CEO-elect of the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases, part of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. The keynote speaker is Dr. Susan Sharp, the chair of ASM's Committee on Laboratory Practices and chair of ASM's American Board of Medical Microbiology Examination Committee.

The symposium will feature oral and poster presentations of biomedical research which will be judged. An outstanding Principal Investigator award will also be given. Breakfast, lunch and a reception will be hosted by the GSO. For more information, contact 2008-2009 GSO president, Joseph Tingling at jdtingling@medicine.tamhsc.edu.

Schedule of Events

7:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.: Check-In and Breakfast
8:45 a.m. - 9:45 a.m.: Distinguished speaker Dr. C. Caskey
10 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.: Oral Presentations
11:45 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.: Keynote speaker Dr. S. Sharp
12:45 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.: Lunch
2 p.m. - 4 p.m.: Posters
4 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.: Refreshments
4:30 p.m. - 5 p.m.: Awards Presentations