A triumphant Eric Green took the podium this morning to officially kick off the ninth annual Advances in Genome Biology and Technology meeting here in Marco Island, Fla. Thanks to a burst of interest in sequencing technologies and the scientific applications they're enabling, this year's conference is some 30 percent bigger than its previous record, he told attendees. "There's a tremendous amount of large-scale sequencing" to be done, Eric said -- despite the feeling in previous years that sequencing was past its prime.
People have poured in to hear the latest about commercially available platforms and their uses, as well as to get a peek at what Helicos, Pacific Biosciences, and George Church's tech partner Danaher have up their sleeves.
During his intro, Eric announced that there are 575 registrants -- and 525 chairs in the plenary room. GTO is already sharpening its elbows.