Fwd: Dinochicken meeting proposal

Epstein Jeffreylieevacationagmailcomj

Please sec below from Jack Homer ...I do not see anything on the calendar for Oct. 25/26 Bobby Slayton will be in NY Oct 15/16 and wants to have the dinner party on 16th

Notice of Special Hearing in the Rothstein, Edwards case at 9:45am on Oct. 22nd in PB

Julian Leese shooting in Suffcx Oct. 29th (he wants JE to be there)

Begin forwarded message:

Field	Information
From	Jack Horner
Subject	Re: Dinochicken meeting proposal
Date	September 10, 2012 3:00:15 PM EDT
To	Lesley Groff

Hi Jeffrey, I've conducted the Doodle Poll and everyone is interested in getting together sooner rather than later, so we are looking at October 24-25. I'm wondering if you would be able to help with finding this "Dinochicken Summit" and what you would need from me. Also would very much like for you to be here if its at all possible, as you could then see what all is known and what is not. All the best,

Jack

On Scp 1, 2012, at 11:13 AM, Lesley Groff wrote:

You as well

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 1, 2012, at 12:53 PM, Jack Home wrote:

Thanks Lesley, much appreciated!
Have a great weekend!

Jack

On Sep 1, 2012, at 10:38 AM, Lesley Groff wrote:

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Thank you!! Passing this on to Jeffrey.

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 1, 2012, at 12:18 PM, Jack Homer
wrote:

Dear Jeffrey,

First off, many thanks for the invitation to your ranch, I had a great time, especially spending time with you and the girls, and seeing your Cretaceous sediments and the old railroad. I don't get many chances to spend time with non paleontologists or see places and things like that these days.

Co-PI I talked when to I returned my post and dots got and the scoop on the transgenic chickens situation, for as you know I was very surprised to hear that such a thing existed since my co-researchers were saying they didn't. As it turns out, although there are such a thing, there is simply no established protocol to create them, and they, at present do not pass on their characteristics, so in effect are useless for our project. What it is that we need to do is to be able to target a specific region of DNA, and that technology is not yet available in birds, but is expected within a year or two, so within our time frame. We hope someone else will do it first so we can use it, as this technology (homologous recombination technology, aka

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knockout technology) is
essential to the success of this
project. We do not aim to
generate chickens that express
an extraneous gene (a
transgene), but we plan on
finding the very small changes in
the regulation of existing genes
that curb tail, hand, and tooth
development. In order to make
these very small changes in the
chicken genome, homologous
recombination technology needs
to be developed.

Anyway, this is the sort of stuff we will discuss in our summit meeting, and I very much appreciate your considering the funding of this meeting. It is obviously the most important first step, and I thank you for suggesting we do it.

Please give all the girls my very best wishes, and to you, whom I envy,

Thanks again,

Jack

9.1.12

Proposal Attached and Separate
(attachment)

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THE DINOCHICKEN PROJECT `SUMMIT' MEETING
PROPOSAL

The overall goals of the Dinochicken Project' are to reverse
engineer' an avian dinosaur (in
this case, a chicken or quail) to
have morphological
characteristics of a non-avian
dinosaur. In its purest form, the
project entails reactivating
dormant or latent genetic
pathways that would generate
atavistic characters. The
characters to be modified
initially arc those identified
previously as key differences
between avian and non-avian
dinosaurs: presence of teeth,
hands/claws instead of wings,
and a long true tail.

A key component to any project is identifying what is already
known and establishing
connections with other scientists
who may have relevant
information already in hand.
There are 6 PIs who will make
the research decisions, and
another 11 people who we
know have expertise, and are
interested in participating. The
current, unpublished knowledge
of these other researchers would
definitely help to decide the
research directions of the
various PI lead teams.

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I am proposing to bring 12 people to Montana for the two day
`summit' and we have another 5
that live here, so the meeting
will include 17 research
scientists plus a couple ofMSU
graduate students who would
help with logistics. The summit
meeting would be held at the
Museum of the Rockies,
Montana State University.
Participants are currently
working on Doodle.com to
determine a meeting time prior
to the end of2012. The link is
attached in the event that you
could attend:
http //doodle com/eci2xymvx8 u3t9fxs

Summit Meeting Proposed Participants

Montana State University

Jack Horner Lead PI (Paleontologist)

Christa Merzdorf Co PI (Developmental geneticist) (tail
development)

Anne Blackwell Post-Doc (Developmental geneticist) (tail
development)

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Dana Rashid Post-Doc (Developmental geneticist) (tail
regeneration)

Dan Post-Doc (Developmental geneticist)

*Two Graduate Student Assistants

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