Dr. Shondra Miller, Director - GEiC, joins the 2nd Annual Genomics Conference
MarketsandMarkets Conferences, organizers of the 2nd Annual Genome Editing & Engineering Conference, confirmed today that Dr. Shondra Miller, Director at the Genome Engineering and iPSC Center (GEiC), Washington University, School of Medicine has joined the speaker panel for the conference. The event co - located with the 2nd Annual Biomarker Conference and 2nd annual NGS Data Analysis and Informatics Conference is scheduled for 6th – 7th February 2017 in San Diego, CA. The platform will gather key industry leaders and researchers from research institutes, academia, pharma and bio – pharma organizations to address the concepts, challenges and applications of genome editing tools like CRISPR/Cas9, TALENs.
The marketing team at MarketsandMarkets Conferences did a small pre – event interview with Dr. Miller, talking about emerging research areas in genome editing and engineering. Dr. Miller said, “The completion of the reference human genome and subsequent increases in data derived from tumor sequencing projects has enabled rapid advances in the identification of disease-associated variants. However, efforts to understand the function of these variants are lagging far behind. To fulfill the scientific and clinical potential of the massive amount of genomic sequence data accumulated via analysis of tumor samples, the interrogation of these variants in functional assays for tumor growth, metastatic potential, and response to treatment are now required”. She further added, “Among the new technologies that promise to revolutionize our ability to rapidly monitor the biological impact of specific tumor-associated variants are: 1) genome engineering (or editing) and 2) the generation of patient-derived iPSCs. Using genome engineering techniques, researchers can now create user-defined mutations in cancer cell lines or patient-derived pluripotent stem cells. These cell lines can be used to better understand specific aspects of cancer biology as well as to facilitate drug development. Investigators can also design and generate the materials needed for rapid production of animal tumor models via Cas9 technology”.
Dr. Miller will be presenting on novel targeted genome editing and the topic is titled ‘Everything is CRISPR with Targeted Deep Sequencing: Using Targeted Deep Sequencing to Better Design Your CRISPR Experiments’. Joining her on the speaker panel will be genomics experts representing organizations such as University of Utah School of Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, J. Craig Venter Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center, University of California, University of Washington, University of Southern California, University of Rochester, National Institutes of Health, University of Texas, University of Minnesota, Hiroshima University and Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.
Special emphasis will be given on CRISPR system – addressing the concept, technology and challenges like integration of genome, off-target effects, and delivery systems. Taking these elements into consideration some of the key topics of discussion at the conference will be RNA guided nuclease for genome modifications, different gene delivery systems, CRISPR as a molecular tool for programmable gene expression and gene therapy, human gene therapy using Zebrafish model, gene knock in and genomic screening using TALEN and CRISPR, CRISPR biomedical research applications, RNAi based screening technologies, genome editing for disease modeling and NgAgo as the latest tool for genome editing.
The conference will be an excellent opportunity to network, share expertise with industry peers and stay updated about the latest advancements in genomics and gene engineering. The conference is supported by California Life Sciences Association (CLSA), ArizonaBio, BioUtah, Colorado BioScience Association, Georgia Bio, Northwest Association for Biomedical Research (NWABR) and The Bioscience Association of Maine (BAM).
