LabRoots is excited to announce our 9th Annual Genetics Virtual Week held on April 20-22, 2021!
Genetics Virtual Week 2021 will offer a multi-day content-rich program combining stellar expertise from world-renowned keynote and featured speakers in the areas of Genetics & Genomics an expanding field of biology and human health, Molecular Diagnostics, exploring best laboratory practices and novel diagnostic applications, and Precision Medicine, spanning innovative technologies and solutions transforming healthcare and changing how patients are treated today.
Over the three days, invited lectures, thought-provoking discussions, and posters will be presented by academia and industry experts, professionals in medical and clinical genetics, scientific leaders, and research scholars.
This year's Genetics Virtual Week includes the following tracks:
Genetics and Genomics
Advancements in Genomic Technologies
Sex, Epigenetics, Aging, and Disease
New Approaches in the Genetics of Disease
Long-read Sequencing
Molecular Diagnostics
Emerging Technologies and Methodologies in Molecular Diagnostics
Liquid Biopsies (Cancer Monitoring and Screening)
Infectious Disease Diagnostics - COVID-19 Testing
Precision Medicine
Therapeutics in Precision Medicine
Precision Medicine in Clinical Practice
The Role of Technology in Precision Medicine
Our virtual conference allows you to participate in a global setting with no travel or cost to you. The event will remain open for 2 years from the date of the live event, and the webinars will be available for unlimited on-demand viewing. This virtual conference also offers increased reach for the global microbiology community with a high degree of interaction through live-streaming video and chat sessions.
Enjoy the interactive environment via live-streaming video and chat sessions with peers, and using the Leaderboard and Gamification to move around the entire event, earning points for a chance to win one of LabRoots most popular t-shirts.
Call for Posters — Virtual poster sessions offer the opportunity to present data to a global audience via a PDF poster and video summary and discuss results with interested colleagues through email. Plan now to have your poster included in the 2021 Genetics Virtual Week. Submit your free abstract here.
Continuing Education – LabRoots is approved as a provider of continuing education programs in the clinical laboratory sciences by the ASCLS P.A.C.E. ® Program. By attending this event, you can earn 1 Continuing Education credit per presentation for a maximum of 50 credits. This event will also provide CEU's for Genetic Counselors and is pending approval by the NSGC.
Use #LRgenetics to follow the conversation!
Suzie Alarcon CGMBS, MB(ASCP)CM is the manager of the Next Generation Sequencing Core at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) and Team Leader of Team LJI - winner of the XPRIZE Rapid COVID Testing competition. Suzie has 18 years of experience working in molecular biology in taste, nutrition metabolomics, prenatal clinical diagnostics, epigenetics, and immunology. Her current work focuses on driving research endeavors of collaborators across the US and applies her varied experience to advise on technical development and optimization of NGS upstream workflows. She received her BS in Biology from Ursinus College, PA, US and her clinical training at Sequenom, CA, US.
Mr. Allen has over 30 years of experience in the fields of bioinformatics and software development. He is currently Director, Bioinformatics at Illumina, Inc and is the software lead for several cloud based analysis products supporting oncology, genetic disease, and microbiology related studies using whole genome sequencing, targeted sequencing, RNASeq, bisulfite sequencing, and/or metagenomics types of library preps. Most recently, he has led the teams for several COVID related data analysis products. Prior to Illumina, Mr. Allen also worked in a variety of software and data analysis roles for companies such as IBM, AT&T, Oracle, and Neurocrine Biosciences. Mr. Allen received his degrees from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI, the University of Texas in Austin, TX, and the University of San Diego in La Jolla, CA.
Orchid Allicock is a postdoctoral research associate at Yale School of Public Health with Drs. Nathan Grubaugh and Daniel Weinberger. Previously she received postdoctoral training at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, where she gained an interest in translational science and diagnostic development. Currently she works on development and optimization of saliva-based diagnostics with SalivaDirect.
Arthur P. Arnold (AB, Grinnell College; PhD, The Rockefeller University) studies mechanisms causing sex differences in physiology and disease. His research has included the discovery of large structural sexual dimorphisms in the CNS, development of several animal models for studying sex differences, and studies of mechanisms by which sex-biasing factors operate, including sex chromosome effects. Dr. Arnold is Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology & Physiology at UCLA, and a fellow of the AAAS and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Previous positions include departmental Chair, Associate Director of the UCLA Brain Research Institute, Chair of the UCLA interdepartmental PhD and undergraduate programs for neuroscience, founding President of the Society of Behavioral Neuroendocrinology, and founding Editor-in-Chief of Biology of Sex Differences.
Dr. Lisa Barrow-Laing has over 15 year of experience in the areas of oncology, rare disease and virology. Currently, Dr. Barrow-Laing serves as a Scientific Liaison frequently delivering workshops, trainings and product demonstrations on QIAGEN's bioinformatics offerings to oncologists, molecular pathologists, genetic counselors and other lab personnel. She assists customers with identifying the best secondary and tertiary analysis solutions to support various tests, including hereditary cancer panel and clinical exome testing. Prior to joining QIAGEN, Dr. Barrow-Laing was a Biomedical Informatics Scientist at Illumina and led clinical guideline curation projects for the Genomics England 100,000 Genome Project and clinical trial curation efforts for the ASCO TAPUR Study to identify biomarkers associated with drug sensitivity and drug resistance. She also interpreted variants and generated patient reports for pediatric patients with rare disease and cancer patients at the Illumina Clinical laboratory and N-of-One, respectively . She pursued her post-doctoral training at Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School and earned her Ph.D. at The Indiana University School of Medicine.
Dr. Shawn Bauer is the Director of Content Engineering at QIAGEN Digital Insights (QDI) and is responsible for scientific and bioinformatic content modeling and processing within QDI which support QIAGEN Digital Insight – Interpret (QCI-I), OmicSoftSuite, and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA). Prior to joining QIAGEN Dr. Bauer worked in drug discovery as Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Portola Pharmaceuticals where he worked on a variety of small molecule drug targets, the most recent of which led to the discovery of cerdulatinib which is currently in clinical development for leukemia and lymphoma. Dr. Bauer earned his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from University of California, Los Angeles.
Tracy Bedrosian leads a laboratory in the Institute for Genomic Medicine at Nationwide Children's Hospital. Her group uses single-cell sequencing approaches to understand how brain somatic mutations contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders, including developmental brain malformations, epilepsy, and autism. She also serves as an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University.
Dr. Bickhart is a Research Microbiologist/Bioinformatician at the US Department of Agriculture's Dairy Forage Research Center, where his work focuses on genome assembly of livestock species and their associated microbiomes. He has 10 years of experience in the field of Bioinformatics and Genome Informatics, and applies new technologies and algorithms to solve problems in agricultural production systems. Dr. Bickhart has been a contributor or team leader for many of the recently released reference genomes for agricultural species. The goal of this research is to improve the sustainability of agricultural systems by enabling predictive modeling of animal production with the inclusion of animal and microbial genomic information.
Dr. Matthew Forman is Head of Bioinformatics & Software at Yourgene Health, an international molecular diagnostics group which develops, manufactures, and commercialises simple and accurate molecular diagnostic solutions, for reproductive health, precision medicine and infectious diseases. The Group's flagship products include non-invasive prenatal tests (NIPT) for Down's Syndrome and other genetic disorders, Cystic Fibrosis screening tests, invasive rapid aneuploidy tests, and a recent extension into the oncology space with DPYD genotyping.
Dr. Forman joined Yourgene Health in 2013 and initially led the development of a complete turnkey solution to NGS data analysis and clinical reporting for NIPT, developed according to stringent IVD software process standards. He and his team have substantial experience of the end-to-end development of bioinformatic, biomedical and technical software systems. This begins with the design of novel bioinformatic data processing algorithms applying statistical modelling and machine learning techniques, and then manages the medical device software development lifecycle through to integration and formal testing of software modules, and finally to validation and regulatory approval of complete IVD software products.
Dr. Forman has held senior positions in research and commercial development of algorithms and software systems for medical visualisation, ultrasound and electrical impedance tomography at De Montfort University, Create3D and WZVI Ltd, developing a thorough appreciation of the statistical nature of real world genetic and biomedical data together with practical knowledge of software development methods, hardware, operating system and laboratory systems integration. He holds a B.Eng (hons) in Electronic Engineering and a Ph.D in the field of three-dimensional image processing and compression.
Greg Cooper, PhD, is a faculty investigator at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology. Throughout his career, Cooper has focused on understanding the structures, functions and evolutionary histories of human genomes and finding ways to translate that understanding into useful predictions about human health and disease. Cooper earned a PhD in genetics from Stanford University in 2006. He completed postdoctoral research at the University of Washington in 2009 before joining HudsonAlpha in 2010.
Mara has over 15 years of experience working in the fields of microbiome, fungal genetics and bacterial diversity. As a Senior Staff Associate at Columbia University, she conducted research on diverse human microbiome projects employing next-generation sequencing techniques. This research provided greater insight into the role of the microbiome in health and disease; including stillbirth, HIV, bacterial vaginosis, colorectal cancer and maternal antibiotic exposure during pregnancy. Currently, Mara is the Director of Research & Development at Biotia, a NYC-based startup focusing on clinical diagnostics and surveillance by leveraging genomics and AI for precision infectious disease insights. Mara holds a master's degree in Fungal Genetics from the University of Georgia along with a master's degree in Microbiology from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez, where she also earned her BS in Biology.
Dawn L. DeMeo, MD, MPH is a Respiratory Epidemiologist at the Channing Division of Network Medicine and a trained Pulmonary/Critical Care Physician; she is an Associate Physician in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Her primary research interest is genetics and epigenetics as they relate to lung health, lung disease and intersections with sex, gender and aging. To pursue her interest in understanding COPD susceptibility, including the role of genetics and epigenetics in early-onset COPD and sex differences, she has been the recipient of grants from the National Institutes of Health, the American Lung Association and the Alpha 1 Foundation. Dr. DeMeo's vision includes streamlining effective multidisciplinary care for lung diseases through careful scientific investigations, with an eventual goal of designing and implementing genomic insights into diagnostics, therapeutics, and preventative strategies for COPD, informed by “Big Data” and Network Medicine approaches inclusive of age, sex and gender aware approaches.
Brian Dugan received his M.S. from Georgetown University in molecular biology. Previously he worked in marketing and business development positions for NGS testing, as well as research at Eunice Shriver NICHD. Brian is Associate Director for QIAGEN's UNGS Microbiomics portfolio.
Dr. Christopher Mason is an Associate Professor of Genomics, Physiology, and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine and the Director of the WorldQuant Initiative for Quantitative Prediction, as well as an affiliate of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), Rockefeller University, Harvard Medical School, and Yale Law School. The Mason laboratory develops and deploys new biochemical and computational methods in functional genomics to elucidate the genetic basis of human disease and physiology. We create and deploy novel techniques in next-generation sequencing and algorithms for: tumor evolution, genome evolution, DNA and RNA modifications, and genome/epigenome engineering. We also work closely with NIST/FDA to build international standards for these methods (SEQC2, IMMSA, and Epigenomics QC groups), to ensure clinical-quality genome measurements and editing. We also work with NASA to build integrated molecular portraits of genomes, epigenomes, transcriptomes, and metagenomes for astronauts, which help establish the molecular foundations and genetic defenses for enabling long-term human spaceflight. He has won the NIH's Transformative R01 Award, the NASA Group Achievement Award, the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance Young Investigator award, the Hirschl-Weill-Caulier Career Scientist Award, the Vallee Scholar Award, the CDC Honor Award for Standardization of Clinical Testing, and the WorldQuant Foundation Scholar Award. He was named as one of the "Brilliant Ten" Scientists by Popular Science, featured as a TEDMED speaker, and called "The Genius of Genetics" by 92Y. He has >200 peer-reviewed papers and scholarly works that have been featured on the covers of Nature, Science, Cell, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Microbiology, and Neuron, as well as legal briefs cited by the U.S. District Court and U.S. Supreme Court. Coverage of his work has also appeared on the covers of the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, TIME, The LA Times, and across many media (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CNN, PBS, NASA, NatGeo). He is an inventor on four patents, co-founded five biotechnology start-up companies, and serves as an advisor to many others.
Holly Ellis completed her undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences at Oxford University and then went on to complete an MSc in Medical Genetics at Chester University. She gained another MSc in Clinical Sciences (Genomics) as part of the NHS Scientist Training Programme and she now work as a HCPC Registered Clinical Scientist in Genomics at North West Genomic Laboratory Hub (Liverpool). Holly has developed her own YouTube channel and social media platforms as "The Scouse Scientist" to inspire the next generation of scientists and raise awareness of the importance of genomics in the NHS.
Carina Emery earned a BS in biochemistry from the University of Florida and an MS in life sciences from Northwestern University. At Northwestern she used a variety of mouse models to study the molecular basis of genetic disorders affecting the nervous system. The San Diego resident then spent time in the Core Genomics facility at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she developed a passion for utilizing the latest genomic technologies to advance research. Carina moved onto becoming a Field Applications Scientist for Bio-Rad Laboratories, supporting their digital PCR and single-cell sequencing systems. Providing technical assistance to a wide variety of researchers afforded her the firsthand knowledge that no matter how advanced your molecular analysis technology, it doesn't necessarily compensate for poor quality starting material. These days, as Product Manager for Sample Preparation at Miltenyi Biotec, the dedicated biotech professional focuses on finding solutions to ensure researchers begin their experiments armed with the best possible materials.
I lead the development of the COSMIC database (https://cancer.sanger.ac.uk), which describes millions of somatic mutations across every form of human cancer. Combining genetic research experience in Immunology at Cambridge University and Oncology at Imperial College London with Computer Science at Manchester University, I have an in-depth understanding of how genetic variants impact human phenotypes, and the knowledge of how to deploy bioinformatic solutions in precision medicine. We started COSMIC over 20 years ago as the explosion in recorded cancer genes was only just beginning; we focused on modelling both genotypic and phenotypic annotations at high resolution and this has proved essential to our broad usefulness. Ever since, our expert postdoctoral curators have been gathering ever-greater quantities of data across every mechanism of mutation that drives cancer. By ensuring resolution and precision of this information, described using the best most accessible standards, COSMIC is now a key global resource in precision oncology.
Dr. Jonathan Göke is a group leader at the Genome Institute of Singapore. Jonathan's research focuses on computational transcriptomics with a particular interest in third generation RNA-Sequencing and computational methods development. He received his PhD in Computational Biology from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin (Germany). His team has contributed to the Pan-Cancer-Analysis-of-Whole-Genomes consortium (PCAWG) and won the DREAM challenge to predict high risk Multiple Myeloma patients. You can find out more about his research, team, and methods under http://www.jglab.org and https://github.com/GoekeLab
Donald has worked in a variety of disciplines related to the field of molecular research. He began his research career in Biomedical Engineering at Mississippi State University and later in Neuroscience studying Autism Spectrum Disorders at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Over the past eleven years, he has worked in the research industry for well-established life sciences organizations in several roles, including, Field Engineering Specialist, Field Application Specialist, and Clinical Application Specialist. Along his varied path he has gained experience in clinical diagnostics, lab developed tests, and helping develop start-ups focused on Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) using targeted sequencing for Oncology. He continues to use his knowledge to help get new and older labs up and running with new assays or projects. Whether it is contributing to a new kit or instrument development, he enjoys working through the process. Donald values assisting biotech companies and labs find solutions for problems as they grow and adapt to the continuously changing tech landscape. For him watching them get to the next level is one of the most rewarding aspects of his job. If you were to peek at his personality profile, you would see his core skill set is what you call an integrator, meaning he specializes in bringing multifaceted teams together to drive goals to completion. What Donald genuinely wants above all else is to help labs kickstart and achieve their goals allowing them to continue to use science to make it a safer and healthier world.
Co-founder of Vizgen, Jiang He completed his postdoc at MIT in Dr. Sangeeta Bhatia's lab, and Ph.D. at Harvard University in Dr. Xiaowei Zhuang's lab. He has extensive experience in developing single molecule imaging techniques and applying them to study different biological questions, including neuroscience, cancer biology, infectious disease. Jiang has been recognized with numerous awards including Forbes 30 under 30 in Healthcare, Spotlight Scholar at AIF, and STAT Wunderkind awardee.
Nathan studies biology and graduated from The University of Alabama in Huntsville in 2014. He quickly entered the workforce handling the logistics of biological samples at Lifesouth Community Blood Centers (2014) and Conversant Bio (2017). Nathan then began serving as a feasibility associate and was responsible for evaluating all prospective customer projects. He currently serves as the Product Manager for Biospecimens and CellServices at Discovery Life Sciences.
Kyle Hondorp earned her Bachelor of Science in Genetics at the University of California, Davis. She spent 18 years working for Active Motif, a life sciences company focused on providing solutions for epigenetic research, where she held roles in R&D, manufacturing, technical support and product management. In 2008, she earned her Master of Business Administration at California State University, San Marcos. Kyle joined Thermo Fisher Scientific in 2018 and is currently a Sr. Manager, Product Management for the Applied Biosystems™ PCR plastics and thermal cycler portfolios. Kyle is dedicated to providing PCR workflow solutions.
Dr Horvath's research lies at the intersection of aging research, epidemiology, chronic diseases, epigenetics, genetics, and systems biology. He works on all aspects of biomarker development with a particular focus on genomic biomarkers of aging. He developed a highly accurate multi-tissue biomarker of aging known as the epigenetic clock. Dr Horvath developed systems biologic approaches such as weighted gene co-expression network analysis which lend themselves for integrating gene genomic data sets. These methods have been used for a broad spectrum of age related diseases including neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, cardiovascular disease. Dr. Horvath received a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1995 and a Doctorate of Science in Biostatistics from the Harvard School of Public Health in 2000.
Nicole received her Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of California, Riverside where gained extensive research experience in viral immunology. Nicole is also a ASCP board certified Specialist in Cytometry and leads the development of our genomic cell sorting applications.
Dr. Dominic John is the VP of Clinical Product Management and Marketing at QIAGEN. Dominic is responsible for overseeing the QIAGEN Digital Insights marketing programs and Clinical Products that have been used in genomic profiling of over 2M patient cases worldwide for oncology and hereditary disease diagnosis. Dominic has spent over 20 years researching, developing and delivering leading cheminformatics and bioinformatics software to push the boundaries of science from bench to bedside applications. Driven by scientific curiosity, Dominic brings a range of experience from lab informatics, automation, simulation, data science and clinical decision support software. Dominic possesses a master in Toxicology, Ph.D. in Biochemistry and a carried out a Post Doctorate in Genomics.
Dr. Hertz is an assistant professor in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy at the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy. Dr. Hertz received his PharmD from Rutgers University and PhD from UNC for his dissertation research on pharmacogenetic predictors of taxane-induced neuropathy. Dr. Hertz's current research is interested in developing tools for individualizing treatment in patients with cancer and translating them into clinical practice. He has a particular interest in optimal use of paclitaxel for women with breast cancer, including identification of an ideal exposure target to maximize efficacy while avoiding unnecessary toxicity. Dr. Hertz has several other ongoing projects to discover and translate genetic variants that affect cancer treatment outcomes, in collaborations with medical oncologists at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center and within SWOG.
Dr Howard McLeod is an internationally recognized expert in precision medicine, having made novel contributions at the discovery, translation, implementation, and policy levels. He is the Medical Director for Precision Medicine at the Geriatric Oncology Consortium and a Professor at the University of South Florida Taneja College of Pharmacy. Dr McLeod chaired the NHGRI eMERGE network external scientific panel for the past decade and was a recent member of both the FDA committee on Clinical Pharmacology and the NIH Human Genome Advisory Council. Dr McLeod has been recognized as a Fellow of both the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and was recently ranked #1 USA/#2 World for Pharmacogenomics. He has also been an active Board Member and/or Founder for over a dozen privately held and publicly traded companies. Howard has published over 575 peer reviewed papers on pharmacogenomics, applied therapeutics, or clinical pharmacology and continues to work to advance innovative healthcare.
Jon received his PhD with Edward Marcotte at the University of Texas at Austin, where he investigated the conservation of various biological properties through evolutionary time. He helped develop technologies for engineering the yeast genome and making yeast more amendable to the study of human genetics. Following this, the lab of Jef Boeke at NYU Langone Health for a postdoctoral position. During this time, he helped develop a high-throughput platform for assembly of megabase-scale DNA constructs, along with their site-directed delivery to mammalian cells. It was here that Jon developed the technologies that became the foundation for the PRL diagnostic platform.
Dr. Glennis Logsdon is a postdoctoral research fellow in Evan Eichler's laboratory at the University of Washington, where she studies the sequence, function, and evolution of human centromeres. She recently completed the first telomere-to-telomere assembly of a human autosome, chromosome 8, and reconstructed the evolution of its centromere over the last 25 million years using a combination of long-read sequencing technologies and assembly methods. In the future, Glennis aims to lead an independent research program that builds upon her experience in genomics, synthetic biology, and genome engineering to understand the complex and repetitive regions of the human genome.
Dr. Araks Martirosyan is a sr. postdoctoral researcher in the Laboratory of Glia Biology at the VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain and Disease Research (Belgium). After Finishing her B.Sc. in the Faculty of Physics at Yerevan State University (Armenia) and M.Sc. in Applied Physics at Cergy-Pontoise University (France), she became interested in the application of Statistical Physics to Biology and chose Computational Biology as her future research direction. Dr. Martirosyan received her Ph.D. from the Sapienza University of Rome (Italy) in 2016. Shortly after she joined the VIB-KU Leuven Laboratory of Glia Biology headed by Prof. Matthew Holt, where she investigates the molecular heterogeneity of astrocytes - a major non-neuronal cell type in the brain, whose therapeutic potential is largely overlooked. Combining cutting edge single cell RNA-seq and novel spatial transcriptomics technologies, Dr. Martirosyan was amongst the first to describe unique astrocyte subtypes in the brain. The goal of her current work is to understand how these subtypes respond to injury and/or disease.
Rasika Mathias, ScD, is Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, and the Director of Genomics for the GeneSTAR Research Program in General Internal Medicine. She has recently named as the Miller-Coulson Family Human Aging Project Scholar for the Johns Hopkins Center for Innovative Medicine. A formally trained Genetic Epidemiologist, Dr. Mathias has extensive experience in the analysis of array- and whole genome sequence-based genomewide association studies in the context of inflammatory diseases with significant health disparities. She plays a key leadership role in numerous NIH sponsored consortia including The Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program for the NHLBI and the Consortium on Asthma among African-ancestry Populations in the Americas (CAAPA). Her work focuses on the tremendous scientific value of out-of-the-box and non-linear approaches to leveraging pre-existing data and the opportunities at scale from large multi-ethnic GWAS resources to bridge major gaps with health disparities research within a Precision Medicine framework.
After studying Natural Sciences at Cambridge University, Richard Michelmore joined the faculty of University of California at Davis in 1982. Richard was the founding Director of the Genome Center at UC Davis in 2003. He is currently a Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Plant Sciences, Molecular & Cellular Biology, and Medical Microbiology & Immunology. His multidisciplinary research utilizes molecular, genetic, and evolutionary approaches to plant genomics and he has published over 200 scientific papers. In particular, he aims to exploit such approaches for information-driven deployment of resistance genes in crop plants to provide more durable disease resistance. In addition, he is interested in fostering research to enhance global food security. His interests also include applications of DNA sequencing to all areas of biology and its increasing impact on society. In response to the current pandemic, he has been a major contributor to the team providing rapid, high throughput testing for SARS-CoV-2 to the UC Davis campus and the City of Davis and is now deploying rapid genotyping to monitor for variants of concern.
Dr. Miga is an Assistant Research Scientist at the UCSC Genomics Institute. In 2018, she co-founded the Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) Consortium, an open, community-based effort to generate the first complete assembly of a human genome. Additionally, Dr. Miga is the Director of the Data Production Center for the Human Pangenome Reference Consortium (HPRC). Central to Dr. Miga's research program is the emphasis on satellite DNA biology and the use of long-read and new genome technologies to construct high-quality genetics and epigenetic maps of human peri/centromeric regions.
Marija Navickaitė studied Biochemistry for her undergraduate degree, followed by Human Genetics for her master's degree at the University College London. Marija joined Thermo Fisher Scientific as an R&D scientist and developed a number of innovative Thermo Scientific molecular biology products. After several years in R&D, she became a product manager for PCR enzymes. In her current role, she manages high-fidelity DNA polymerases such as Invitrogen™ Platinum™ SuperFi™ II DNA Polymerase and Thermo Scientific™ Phusion™ High Fidelity DNA Polymerase. She is passionate about improving PCR products to help fulfill customer needs.
As Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Lesley Northrop leads Product Innovation and Research and Development activities as they translate to clinical diagnostic test development. Dr. Northrop has been working in molecular genetics for 20 years in academic research labs, private and large hospital clinical practices and genetic commercial companies predominately focused on female reproductive health. At Aspira Women's Health Dr. Northrop is focused on building and leading a team of highly skilled individuals able to support the business in its ambitious goals. Dr. Northrop is responsible for overall business innovation and proactively explores new technologies.
Dr. Northrop specializes in developing new technology as it translates from research to a clinical diagnostic test. She has built 4 brand-new clinical molecular genetics laboratories for NYS CLIA/CAP- accreditation during her career and is an expert in LDT design and validation predominately using NGS technologies. She also has extensive expertise in developing clinical assays for commercial offerings.
She also serves as a Laboratory Director of Aspira's Molecular Genetics Laboratory, holds a NYS CQ in molecular genetics and CA-CPDH and NJ Bioanalysis Director license. She obtained her MSc/Ph.D. from Boston University and conducted her American Board of Genomics and Genetics Fellowship (ABMGG) training at Columbia University in Clinical Cytogenetics and Molecular Genetics. She is boarded and a fellow of ABMGG in Molecular Genetics.
Prior to joining Aspira Women's Health Dr. Northrop was SVP of Clinical Genetics and Clinical Molecular Genetics Laboratory Director with Celmatix. She also was also formerly Clinical Molecular Genetics Laboratory Director at Fresenius Medical Care North America. Dr. Northrop began her journey working on species survival of endangered animals all over the world primarily in captive and wild Giant and Red Pandas. She then entered into the human infertility field as her first post-doctoral fellow to help build a clinical molecular genetics lab at one of the largest IVF centers in the country (RMA-NJ). During that time, she helped develop single cell-based technologies for the detection of aneuploidy, translocations, and implementation of monogenic disorder screening in preimplantation embryos. This changed the face of IVF technology for preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) to a more comprehensive method with higher sensitivity and specificity.
Dr. Rebecca Nugent joined Twist Bioscience in 2015 after spending many years in the biofuels and green chemicals industry. Dr. Nugent has held many roles within Twist and is currently the Sr. Director of Biopharma Product Strategy. Previously she led R&D teams focused on the development of Synthetic Biology and Next-Generation Sequencing Target Enrichment (NGS TE) products. Dr. Rebecca Nugent received her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Southern California, where she studied yeast genetics with an emphasis on genomic stability in Dr. Susan Forsburg's lab. During her postdoctoral fellowship she developed life science tools through characterizing and engineering novel Restriction Enzymes at New England Biolabs.
Dr. Andrea O'Hara earned her Ph.D. in genetics and molecular biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and has more than 11 years of experience in next generation sequencing (NGS). She is currently a strategic technical specialist at GENEWIZ within the NGS team.
The overall interest of Dr. Oberholzer is to translate novel research findings and emerging technologies into next-generation research tools, in-vitro diagnostic, and therapeutic products, to advance Science, and to improve human health. Dr. Michael Oberholzer is currently an Associate Director for Product Management at Illumina and his group is managing Microbiology & Infectious Disease genomics applications. Before joining Illumina, he has managed fully automated molecular in-vitro diagnostic test devices as well as with serological point-of-care tests for infectious diseases. Dr. Oberholzer received his PhD in Microbiology from the University of Bern Switzerland, where he identified and validated novel drug targets for Neglected Tropical Diseases. During his postdoctoral research at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and at the University of California Los Angeles, Dr. Oberholzer worked on cell size homeostasis and cell cycle control as well as on host-pathogen interactions in parasitic protozoa using wide range of omics-based approaches.
Cory received his Ph.D. from Georgia Institute of Technology in cellular and molecular biology and holds a B.S. from the University of California at Santa Cruz. Cory joined Dovetail Genomics in 2017 as part of the Research & Development team and now leads Scientific Affairs. Cory's focus is to act as a liaison between the company and the scientific community. In this role, Cory identifies new research areas, captures feedback on customer needs for integration into product development and works to educate the community on advances and new products from Dovetail Genomics.
Joseph Pearson is the Global Product Manager for QIAGEN OmicSoft products, which enable scientists to harness the breadth of deeply-curated ‘omics data to accelerate biomarker and target discovery research. Prior to joining QIAGEN, he earned his Ph.D at the University of California, San Diego, where he used computational and experimental approaches to decipher cis-regulatory codes controlling epidermal wound responses in Drosophila. During his post-doctoral research at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Dr. Pearson continued to explore the diversity of cis-regulatory mechanisms, using genomics, transgenics, microscopy, and bioinformatics to isolate and dissect enhancers responsible for early nervous system gene expression.
Beth Pitel is an Assistant Professor and Senior Developer in the Genomics Laboratory at Mayo Clinic and has helped develop clinical genetic testing using several different testing modalities including NGS oncology panels, RNAseq, Mate Pair sequencing, chromosomal microarray, and qPCR. Beth is the lead on the Genomics of Oncology Annotation Team (GOAT) at Mayo Clinic, which creates interpretive resources for the laboratory based on current knowledgebase and database content, commercial oncology NGS assays, and prevalent literature. Beth has worked at Mayo Clinic since 2007 and completed her Master's degree in Biochemistry and Molecular biology in 2015 with foci on cancer biology and bioinformatics at the Mayo Graduate School. Her interpretation work has led to platform presentations at the Cancer Genomics Consortium annual meeting. Additionally, Beth has developed publicly available knowledgebase tutorials (available on cancervariants.org), and has given a number of workshops and webinars on this topic. Beth is an active member of the Cancer Genomics Consortium (CGC), the ClinGen Somatic Working Group, and co-leads the virtual molecular tumor board for the Variant Interpretation for Cancer Consortium (VICC). Beth has co-authored over 30 peer-reviewed manuscripts, and is frequently involved in clinical and translational research in the Mayo Clinic Genomics Laboratory within the Division of Laboratory Genetics and Genomics. These publications focus mainly on cytogenetics, NGS, bioinformatics, and various other laboratory genetic techniques.
John Platig is a computational biologist interested in developing quantitative, mechanistically informed models for integrating high throughput biological data. John received a PhD in Physics at the University of Maryland, studying complex networks and biological systems. During his postdoc at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, he developed methods for analyzing networks of eQTLs and studied the effects of kinase inhibition in Mycobacterium tuberculosis using multi-omic approaches. Starting in 2018, John joined the faculty at the Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where he continues to work on network models for multi-omic data integration. John's current research is focused on models for better understanding how genetic variants influence transcription factor regulatory networks and the subsequent impact on human health and disease.
Dr. Premsrirut is a co-founder and President and CEO of Mirimus, Inc., a company at the forefront of developing RNA interference and CRISPR gene editing technologies and investigating their potential therapeutic applications. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Premsrirut led her team in a call to action to address the lack of inefficient testing methods that would be required to reopen our schools and economy. Her team quickly developed a fast, cost-effective and scalable solution to increase the overall capacity of COVID-19 testing using saliva-based pool testing. This SalivaClear TM solution is now used by over 500 schools, community centers, shelters and businesses across the nation for surveillance testing to quickly identify infected individuals in group settings and interrupt the chains of transmission. Her team was named a winner in the XPRIZE Rapid COVID-19 Testing Competition for their innovative strategy and is now scaling this approach across the country.
Roham Razaghi is a fourth year PhD candidate in the department of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. He earned his undergraduate degree in Bioengineering from University of California, San Diego (UCSD). His current projects involve developing novel technologies for measurement of endogenous and exogenous modifications in nucleic acids.
Fairlie Reese is a 3rd year PhD student in the Mortazavi Lab at UC Irvine. Her research is focused on developing and applying novel computational techniques to study the role of alternative isoforms in various biological contexts using long-read RNA sequencing. She received her BS in Bioinformatics from UC San Diego in 2017.
Angshumoy Roy, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology & Immunology at Baylor College of Medicine and the Director of Cancer Genomics at Texas Children's Hospital. He is board-certified by the American Board of Pathology in Molecular Genetic Pathology. Dr. Roy completed a PhD in Human Genetics, and residency and fellowship training in molecular genetic pathology, from Baylor College of Medicine. His research interests involve understanding the genetic and epigenetic landscape of sarcomas and rare soft tissue tumors in children. His clinical focus is in the implementation of genomic technologies in molecular diagnostics. Dr. Roy is involved in several efforts to develop professional standards and guidelines for clinical genomic knowledge curation and clinical genomic test development and implementation. His long-term goal is to increase the use of genomic testing in clinical care.
Dr. Tobias Santl earned a PhD in Evolutionary Biology from the University of Regensburg in Regensburg, Bavaria, as well as completed additional studies at BYU and the University of San Juan. Tobis joined the GeneArt team at Thermo Fisher Scientific in 2007, and became the manager of the Gene Evolution Library Group in 2011.
Behnaz is an expert in the field of PGx, Chronic Care Management and mentor to pharmacists who are establishing their own consulting business. She received her Master's degree in Biochemistry from Georgetown University and her Doctorate in Pharmacy from Creighton University. Behnaz is host of the PGx for Pharmacists on Pharmacy Podcast Network and has been a contributor of Washington University's Public Health blog, GoodRx and written multiple CE's on PGx found at CEImpact. Staying true to her passion, Behnaz serves as a consultant for grant-funded research projects which aims to increase medication adherence in older adults who are home-bound so they can continue to live independently in their own home.
Behnaz's favorite quote she lives by: Know what sparks the light in you so that you in your own way can illuminate the world ~ Oprah
Dr. Fritz Sedlazeck completed his PhD in 2012 in the group of Dr. Arndt von Haeseler at the Max F. Perutz Laboratory in Vienna. After a two year postdoc, he transitioned to the lab of Dr. Michael Schatz at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and later to Johns Hopkins University. Since 2017 he leads his own group at the Human Genome Sequencing Centre at Baylor College of Medicine. His research focuses on developing computational methods to detect and analyze genomic variations with a focus on Structural Variations. Structural Variations are genomic events that manipulate multiple positions in a genome, which impact evolution, genomic disorders, regulation as well as play an important role in explaining multiple phenotypes. Dr. Sedlazeck groups focuses on the mechanisms of the formation of SV across multiple species and to improve our understanding how these complex alleles evolve and impact phenotypes. Over the past years, Dr. Sedlazeck lead multiple efforts from large scale short reads (e.g. Topmed, CCDG) to long reads to study SV (CARD, All of US) occurrence and mechanism of SV. In addition, he is a key member of multiple consortia leading research into the impact of SV.
Dr Simpson is a Reader at the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine and Academic Lead of the Genomics Core Technology Unit at Queen's University Belfast. He has pioneered the application of genomic technologies within the University, particularly in vision science. His group were amongst the first to exploit next generation sequencing (NGS) techniques to screen panels of candidate genes for the inherited retinal disease Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP). He also uses NGS to profile circulating small RNAs as potential disease markers. More recently he has led development of single cell RNA-Sequencing locally and is applying this new technology to a range of pathologies, specifically to study how individual cells in the retina and vasculature are affected by diabetes. As a member of the COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium Dr Simpson is using nanopore and miniaturised Illumina library preparation protocols to sequence SARS-CoV-2 virus isolates. Dr Simpson obtained a BSc in Biological Sciences and PhD in Molecular microbiology at the University of Leicester, UK.
Don received his PhD in pharmacology and neuroscience focusing on the molecular and genetic mechanisms of learning and memory at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in 2002. He received his MBA from the University of Nebraska Omaha in 2001. On the heels of the completion of the human genome project in 2003, following a post-doctoral fellowship in Cambridge, MA, he pursued a career in the commercialization of genomic technologies and next generation sequencing services. Don's work history includes Commercial and Technical Application Support leadership roles at several genomic technology and services companies including Invitrogen (now Thermo Fisher Scientific), Sequenom (now Agena Bioscience), Complete Genomics (IPO in 2010), the Broad Institute, and OneOme (a start-up pharmacogenomics spinout of the Mayo Clinic). He currently serves as the Senior Vice President, Genomics within the HudsonAlpha Discovery Genomics division of Discovery Life Sciences.
Fernando Spilki is a Professor of Biological Sciences at Feevale University, Novo Hamburgo, Brazi and Coordinator of the Brazilian Network for Sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 (Corona-ômica). His research topics are focused on environmental virology, SARS-CoV-2 evolution, viruses causing relevant diseases in domestic and wild animals, and emerging zoonotic viruses.
Alina Steinbach studied Biology in Bonn and Heidelberg, Germany. After her postgraduate studies, Alina finished her PhD at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg. In 2017, Alina joined Miltenyi Biotec as a Global Technical Support Specialist, and in September 2020 she started working as a Product Manager for Flow Sorting.
Dr. Hannah Stevens completed an undergraduate degree in pharmacology, a Master of Research in physiology and a Doctor of Philosophy in molecular and cellular biology at the University of Liverpool. Hannah then worked at the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow as a post-doctoral research associate. She now works as pre-registrant clinical scientist in genomics at North West Genomic Laboratory Hub (Liverpool).
Dr. Tychele Turner is a geneticist/genomicist with a deep interest in understanding the genetic architecture of human disease. Currently, Dr. Turner is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. Her lab is focused on the genomics of neurodevelopmental disorders, optimization of genomic workflows, and application of novel genomic technologies to understand disease.
Justin Wagner is a Computer Scientist on the NIST Human Genomics team developing whole human genome benchmarks for the Genome in a Bottle (GIAB) consortium. He has contributed to GIAB benchmarks including an expansion of the GIAB small variant benchmark using long and linked read sequencing, a targeted diploid assembly benchmark of the Major Histocompatibility Complex, and a benchmark that is under-development for a subset of medically-relevant and difficult-to-characterize genes.
Neil Winegarden is a Field Application Scientist with 10x Genomics. Before joining 10x in 2018, Neil was the Head of Operations for a leading genomics core in Toronto, Canada, where he worked for 20 years. Neil's interest in single cell genomics dates back to 2002 having collaborated with Dr. Norman Iscove to demonstrate profiling single cells on gene expression microarrays. Neil was a 10x customer for two years before he decided to join the company. He now enthusiastically supports customers in both Canada and the US.