Pre-Conference Workshops

4 December 2012

9:00am - 12:00pm Workshop A: How you should be using Next Generation Sequencing in Diagnostic Medicine and Drug Development

The rapid evolution of NGS technologies presents significant opportunities and challenges for researchers, clinicians and the pharmaceutical industry for improving health outcomes; particularly with respect to an increased emphasis on companion diagnostics and personalized medicine.

Adoption of NGS in the clinical laboratory setting requires the adoption of many processes and procedures, such as the analytic and clinical validation of the test, CLIA/CAP certification, standards for reference materials for proficiency testing, and questions regarding reimbursement, informed consent and intellectual property.

This workshop will help you and your company find answers to the following key questions:

  • What is practically needed for clinical adoption of NGS as a diagnostic test?

E.g. regulatory and professional standards, development, availability, and access to reference materials, and the laboratory professional’s role for ensuring high quality test results that are useful for informing clinical decision making

  • How will NGS technology impact the pharma industry and the drug development process?
  • What is the estimated time frame by when NGS will be adopted in clinical trials?
  • What measures are being taken by the pharmaceutical industry to prepare for this technology as it moves into clinical diagnostics?

The workshop is designed to be highly interactive and questions are welcomed on the day or in advance to richard.lumb@hansonwade.com

Workshop leader

Dr Nazneen Aziz, Director of Molecular Medicine, Transformation Program Office, College of American Pathologists

Nazneen Aziz is the Director of Molecular Medicine in the Transformation Program Office at the College of American Pathologists. In her prior positions, Dr. Aziz was Vice President of Research and Development at Interleukin Genetics, Vice President of External Research at Point Therapeutics and Director of Translational Research at Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research. In her industry career, she has focused on biomarker and genetic test development and development of drugs for cancer and diabetes. Prior to joining the biotechnology industry, she was Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and worked on the discovery of new genes and their function in recessive polycystic kidney disease.

1:00 - 4:00pm  Workshop B: Bioinformatic Approaches to Optimize the use of Sequencing Data for Genomics and Healthcare

We are beginning to appreciate the increasing complexity of cancer genome structure…

Advances in computational modeling coupled with recent high-throughput technologies, such as chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) followed by microarray analysis (ChIPchip) aswell as ChIP coupled with massive parallel sequencing (ChIP-seq), enable the genome-wide identification of alternative gene promoters and first exons. Understanding the activity of these promoters in cancer is imperative.

In this workshop you will:

  • Focus on two closely related aspects of mammalian genomics and cancer: Alternative gene promoters and isoform-specific gene regulatory networks
  • Understand the Bioinformatic tools and computational models required to study the role of alternative promoters and gene-isoforms networks in cancer
  • Discover the advances in high throughput technologies, computational modeling work and outstanding issues in cancer genome research
  • Gain an understanding of the Mammalian Promoter Database an online tool to help scientists find gene promoters, and delve deeper into the study of gene regulation in cancer than previously thought possible

Leave being able to effectively use bioinformatics to analyze cancer genome information and gain a greater understanding of the role alternative gene promoters and isoform gene regulatory networks play in cancer.

Workshop leader

Ramana Davuluri, Director, Computational Biology, Wistar Institute

Davuluri joined Wistar as an associate professor in the spring of 2008. Prior to joining Wistar, he was an associate professor and head of the Bioinformatics Consulting Unit in the Human Cancer Genetics Program at Ohio State University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center. Since coming to Wistar, Davuluri has become associate director of The Wistar Institute Center for Systems and Computational Biology. In addition, he is scientific director of the Bioinformatics Facility, The Wistar Institute Cancer Center, and Wistar Associate Professor in the genetic department at the University of Pennsylvania.