The document describes the history and origins of the Lake Arrowhead Microbial Genomes conference (#LAMG2018). It explains that the name originated from the acronym LAMG, which was discovered in the choanoflagellate Monosiga brevicollis. Several early attempts were made to start conferences around this topic, but the first successful meeting was launched by Jeffrey Miller in 1998 at Lake Arrowhead in California. The document includes many quotes from past LAMG conferences that show the lighthearted and unconventional nature of the discussions.

1. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
The Real History of LAMG2018
September 16, 2018
Lake Arrowhead Microbial Genomes
#LAMG2018
Jonathan A. Eisen
University of California, Davis
@phylogenomics

2. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Lake Arrowhead and Microbial Genomes
September 16, 2018
Lake Arrowhead Microbial Genomes
#LAMG2018
Jonathan A. Eisen
University of California, Davis
@phylogenomics

3. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Origin of the Meeting
• Who knows how we came up with the
name for the meeting?

4. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Origin of the Meeting
• Who knows how we came up with the
name for the meeting?
• It all relates to the acronym LAMG

5. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Started with a Motorcycle Group

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One of their members Luis Gort

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Got in Trouble with the Law

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Left to Start a Gaming Club

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Then Joined A Computer Group

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And Got into Algebraic Multigrids

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Moved to Los Alamos to Work on Algebraic Grids

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Met Founders of Genbank

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Discovered a Novel Fold

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Abedin & King Found Unusual Pattern for Fold
Cadherin-mediated cell adhesion
and signaling is essential for
metazoan development and yet is
absent from all other multicellular
organisms. We found cadherin
genes at numbers similar to those
observed in complex metazoans in
one of the closest single-celled
relatives of metazoans, the
choanoflagellate Monosiga
brevicollis. Because the evolution of
metazoans from a single-celled
ancestor required novel cell
adhesion and signaling
mechanisms, the discovery of
diverse cadherins in
choanoflagellates suggests that
cadherins may have contributed to
metazoan origins.

15. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
LAMG Domain Evolution
• If LAMG is in Choanoflagellates, where
else could it be found?
• Decided they needed to start a
conference to help spur out this search
• They had already registered LAMG
domain names
• So launched a meeting

16. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
LAMG Meeting Try #1
• Leeuwenhoek’s
Animacules Many
Genes meeting
• Nobody came

17. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
LAMG Meeting Try #1
• Leeuwenhoek’s
Animacules Many
Genes meeting
• Nobody came
• Discovered
similarity between
Jeffrey Miller &
Leewenhoek

18. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
LAMG Meeting Try #1
• Leeuwenhoek’s
Animacules Many
Genes meeting
• Nobody came
• Discovered
similarity between
Jeffrey Miller &
Leewenhoek
• Convinced Jeff to
start meeting

19. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Lake Arrowhead Microbial Genomes
• v
• See http://www.lamg.info/history
for the real history

20. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
History of the Meeting
• And see http://microbe.net/lake-arrowhead-
microbial-genomes-history/ for 1998-2016 notes
• http://tinyurl.com/LAMG16

21. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Real History of Arrowhead
QUOTES, QUOTES, QUOTES

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2002
• Leave it to Jeff Miller to take a shot at the
Gordon Conferences in his intro
• It looks like someone with a bad cold
sneezed against the wall
• Wild mistakes - brilliant guesses
• He lied about the size of anthrax
• If it grows you win, if it doesn’t you have
to give me your soul for all eternity
• That’s because she has the arrogance of
the aristocrats

23. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
2004
• He wanted to keep his finger in the
Chlamydia stuff
• Engineering other systems that don’t
suck
• It’s like a tootsie pop
• Space time continuum of genes and
genomes
• The wormhole that allows us to tunnel
into today’s world

24. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
2008
• The $1 genome - .... Oh bleep were
bleeped

25. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
2014 …
• I am spending bioinformatic time up the
wazoo
• It may be sh*t to you but it's my bread and
butter

26. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
2016
• Epigenetics is the ancient aliens of
science
• Last but not least --- wow --- that did not
render well at all
• We were relying on them to poop
• Here it is again drawn out in an almost
unreadable way

27. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
2016
• We introduced this intra-rectally
• Architects like the word "speculative" as
much as biologists like the word “putative
• I don't know why I chose and odd number
to then try to divide in half and half
• This doesn't actually mean anything it is
just cool

28. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
2016
• We have also curated information that we
thought was too boring for other people
to do
• You are usually not sitting in a room by
yourself — pauses — but maybe you are
• I am going to show you this dense and
incomprehensible heat map
• It is a question for you but a pet peeve of
mine
• I didn't mean to say that, I really didn’t

29. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
2016
• I do want to give a shout out to my advisor
for letting me spend lots of money
• Putting this all together what have we
learned? - I like colorful images
• I would like to say gonorrheae kills a ton of
people (but it doesn’t)
• What we want to do is go snorkeling in the
microbiome

30. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Other years
• Space-time continuum of genes and
genomes

31. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Quotes
• Space-time continuum of genes and
genomes
• Microbes not only have a lot of sex, they
have a lot of weird sex

32. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Quotes
• Space-time continuum of genes and
genomes
• Microbes not only have a lot of sex, they
have a lot of weird sex
• Gene sequences are the wormhole that
allows one to tunnel into the past

33. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Quotes
• Space-time continuum of genes and
genomes
• Microbes not only have a lot of sex, they
have a lot of weird sex
• Gene sequences are the wormhole that
allows one to tunnel into the past
• This is how you do metagenomics on 50
dollars, and that’s Canadian dollars

34. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Quotes
• Space-time continuum of genes and
genomes
• Microbes not only have a lot of sex, they
have a lot of weird sex
• Gene sequences are the wormhole that
allows one to tunnel into the past
• This is how you do metagenomics on 50
dollars, and that’s Canadian dollars
• The human guts are a real milieu of stuff

35. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Quotes
• Space-time continuum of genes and
genomes
• Microbes not only have a lot of sex, they
have a lot of weird sex
• Gene sequences are the wormhole that
allows one to tunnel into the past
• This is how you do metagenomics on 50
dollars, and that’s Canadian dollars
• The human guts are a real milieu of stuff
• Antibiotics do not kill things, they corrupt
them

36. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Quotes
• There comes a point in life when you have
to bring chemists into the picture

37. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Quotes
• There comes a point in life when you have
to bring chemists into the picture
• The rectal swabs are here in tan color

38. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Quotes
• There comes a point in life when you have
to bring chemists into the picture
• The rectal swabs are here in tan color
• If I have time I will tell you about a dream

39. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Quotes
• There comes a point in life when you have
to bring chemists into the picture
• The rectal swabs are here in tan color
• If I have time I will tell you about a dream
• Another thing you need to know" pause
"Actually you don't NEED to know any of
this

40. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Quotes
• There comes a point in life when you have
to bring chemists into the picture
• The rectal swabs are here in tan color
• If I have time I will tell you about a dream
• Another thing you need to know" pause
"Actually you don't NEED to know any of
this
• I have been influenced by Fisher Price
throughout my life

41. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Quotes
• There comes a point in life when you have
to bring chemists into the picture
• The rectal swabs are here in tan color
• If I have time I will tell you about a dream
• Another thing you need to know" pause
"Actually you don't NEED to know any of
this
• I have been influenced by Fisher Price
throughout my life
• This is going to be ironic coming from
someone who studies circumcision

42. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Quotes
• And we will bring out the unused cheese
from yesterday

43. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Quotes
• And we will bring out the unused cheese
from yesterday
• A paper came out next year

44. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Quotes
• And we will bring out the unused cheese
from yesterday
• A paper came out next year
• It takes 1000 nanobiologists to make one
microbiologist

45. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Quotes
• And we will bring out the unused cheese
from yesterday
• A paper came out next year
• It takes 1000 nanobiologists to make one
microbiologist
• In an engineering sense, the vagina is a
simple plug flow reactor

46. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Quotes
• And we will bring out the unused cheese
from yesterday
• A paper came out next year
• It takes 1000 nanobiologists to make one
microbiologist
• In an engineering sense, the vagina is a
simple plug flow reactor
• The human mind can conceive of things
with no basis in physical reality

47. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Quotes
• And we will bring out the unused cheese
from yesterday
• A paper came out next year
• It takes 1000 nanobiologists to make one
microbiologist
• In an engineering sense, the vagina is a
simple plug flow reactor
• The human mind can conceive of things
with no basis in physical reality
• Thoughts can go faster than the speed of
light

48. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Quotes
• We are the environment. We live the
phenotype.
•

49. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Quotes
• We are the environment. We live the
phenotype.
• We have been using this word for many
years without actually realizing it was
correct

50. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Quotes
• We are the environment. We live the
phenotype.
• We have been using this word for many
years without actually realizing it was
correct
• A little bit about time, but I am going to
spend a lot less time on time than on
space

51. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
Quotes
• We are the environment. We live the
phenotype.
• We have been using this word for many
years without actually realizing it was
correct
• A little bit about time, but I am going to
spend a lot less time on time than on
space
• I am going to wrap up as I hear the
crickets chirping

52. #LAMG2018 @phylogenomics
2018