NXR Workshops & Meetings
Xenopus Resources and Emerging Technologies (XRET) Meeting 2026
Dear Xenopus Researchers,
We (Jen, Coral, Shinuo, and James) are excited to share that we are organizing the 2026 Xenopus Resources and Emerging Technologies (XRET) Meeting. Our goal for this meeting is to highlight recent advances in the Xenopus model and identify important needs for our scientific community. We are also eager to shine the spotlight on early career researchers including postdocs and junior faculty.
Please save the date! This meeting will be held October 2-5, 2026, at MBL in Woods Hole, MA and will include scientific talks, workshops, and strategic planning sessions. Updates, including future registration details, can be found here: https://www.mbl.edu/research/resources-research-facilities/national-xenopus-resource/workshops-and-meetings.
We are looking for your input and nominations to help us make this event maximally useful for the Xenopus community. If there is a topic or speaker you would like to see highlighted in October - please let us know! For reference, the 2024 XRET program is archived here: https://www.mbl.edu/research/resources-research-facilities/national-xenopus-resource/workshops-and-meetings/xret-program.
To submit nominations for research talks, keynote speakers, or workshop topics, please use this google form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSedCvvvandhwneJMK92xYR0vMz2XPovFwQeQ5fkjxjW33PF7g/viewform to submit anonymously, or email Jen directly (jennifer.e.landino@dartmouth.edu). Investigators are welcome to nominate themselves or postdocs in their lab.
The deadline for nominations is April 30, 2026.
Please be aware that we may not be able to accommodate last-minute additions to the program.
Thank you for your participation and we look forward to welcoming you in October!
Sincerely,
The XRET 2026 Organizing Committee
Jennifer Landino, Coral Zhou, Shinuo Weng, James Dewar
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Xenopus Bioinformatics Workshop
Next Workshop: April 18-25, 2026
Course principles: BioInformatics Workshop for Xenopus Researchers:
I am pleased to announce that the NXR Bioinformatics workshop will be held next year, from April 18, 2026 (Sat) to April 25, 2026 (Sat). The tentative schedule for the workshop can be downloaded below.
This time, we have changed the workshop format to a wet-dry-hybrid exercise, specifically emphasizing single-cell analysis. Many Xenopus researchers are working on single-cell data these days, but it seems that we are a bit behind other model organisms (based on the number of data and papers published recently). By working together for two days on tissue dissociation and cell quality checks, participants may get an idea of how to apply this approach in their own experiments (if you already have experience, it is also a good opportunity to share it with colleagues). Basic topics in bioinformatics, such as environment setup and RNA-seq/ChIP-seq/Proteomics analysis, will also be covered briefly.
This year, in addition to crews in the 2023 workshop, John Young at Simmons University and Wil Ratzan at Harvard Medical School will join for this special event, together with several crews from the NXR and Xenbase.
If you are curious about single-cell analysis (and other bioinformatics skills), come to Woods Hole next Spring. The registration will be available shortly.
Instructors:
Taejoon Kwon (UNIST, Korea), John Young (Simmons), ChangHee Lee (HMS), Wil Ratzan (HMS), Malcolm Fisher (Xenbase/CCHMC), Konrad Thorner (Xenbase/CCHMC) & staffs from the NXR and Xenbase.
Workshop Costs:
- Single - $2500
- Double - $2000
- Meals Only - $1300
- No Housing or Meals - $750
Schedule:
Please click here to view 2026 BioInformatics Workshop Schedule.
Registration:
For additional information, please contact:
Marko Horb, Ph.D. Director, National Xenopus Resource (NXR) Associate Scientist, Bell Center for Regenerative Biology and Tissue Engineering Marine Biological Laboratory 7 MBL Street Woods Hole, MA 02543 Email: mhorb@mbl.edu Office: (508) 289-7627 Lab: (508) 289-7370
Feedback from the Community
“One of our post-docs attended the 2013 Bioinformatics workshop, and the training in RNA-seq analysis and general bioinformatics approaches he learned have been crucial for our research on Xenopus tropicalis embryo development. We are now pursuing several high-throughput sequencing projects–including RNA-seq and ChIP-seq–in early Xenopus embryos, and the design of these experiments and analysis of sequencing reads would not have been possible without the specialized knowledge he gained from the Bioinformatics workshop.”
“Great! I have sent one student to the bioinformatics course and he loved the course and came back and was immediately able to help many folks in the lab with bioinformatic issues.”
“I have sent three lab members to the Bioinformatics workshop. These lab members have learned the basic skills of genomic work and now routinely perform RNA-seq and ChIP-seq analyses.”