Festival of Genomics & Biodata 2023
January 25th and 26th saw the hotly anticipated return of the Festival of Genomics at London’s Business Design Centre. Following a three year pause on ‘in person’ events due to the restrictions associated with the coronavirus pandemic, it was great to see thousands of visitors join a host of global industry professionals and academics from across health, technology and life sciences at one of the largest genomics themed showcases in the UK.
Joining AWMGS and exhibiting on our booth, were our partners from across the Genomics Partnership Wales (Wales Gene Park and the Pathogen Genomics Unit – PenGU), promoting genomics education in universal settings and the role of PenGU in sequencing over 100,000 covid-19 samples, which has been instrumental in variant detection and understanding the evolution of the virus. It was also an opportunity to really showcase the future ambition for genomics in Wales and the Genomics Delivery Plan 2022-25.
Over the course of the two days, delegates were treated to a host of key talks and speeches including Laboratory Director Sian Morgan who was a guest panellist on an Illumina sponsored segment ‘Welcome to the genomics era’. Discussion consisted of the technology and infrastructure underpinning some of the latest advancements in whole genome sequencing and the upcoming use of liquid biopsy in patient diagnoses. In a separate talk, Sian also led an interactive presentation deciphering the ‘Opportunities and Challenges of rWGS for Diagnosis and Screening’.
Elsewhere in the action packed agenda, Clinical Professor Angus Clarke led an interactive discussion centred around ‘ethics in genomics’ while Hywel Williams, Senior Lecturer in Bioinformatics at Cardiff University (pictured below) shared with audiences the recently launched Symptoms Without A Name (SWAN) clinic. SWAN is currently in the initial stages of a 2 year pilot with an aim to significantly reduce the duration patients wait for a diagnoses, improve medical knowledge and foster collaborative research.
Speaking about the SWAN clinic, Hywel said:
"It's a pleasure to work on such an exciting project that has so much potential to use genomics to end the diagnostic odyssey faced by so many rare disease patients. Thanks to the Festival of Genomics team for giving me the opportunity to talk about our work".
Congratulations to Leila Alwadi and Áine Moylett (pictured) and Rebecca Hopes on having their posters featured at the poster zone. The posters were respectively themed around:
- Expansion and Implementation of Pharmacogenomic Testing at the All Wales Medical Genomics Service (AWMGS)
- Optimisation of FFPE RNA Extraction for Fusion Gene Analysis
- Pharmacists: Key to the Genomics Revolution
Speaking at the event about her experiences of the Festival, Áine said:
It has been great to listen to all of the speakers, especially the talk on pharmacogenomics. I've enjoyed the experience and the opportunity to showcase our work in Wales"