Festival of Genomics London 2018: the landmark event making genomics mainstream

Fri, 05/01/2018 - 08:00

London, UK, 5th January 2018 / Sciad NewswireThis January sees the third edition of Festival of Genomics London, the largest meeting of its kind in the UK. Following two US editions of the event in the genomics hotbeds of San Diego and Boston, the London event addresses issues specific to the UK as well as wider Europe. Taking place on the 30th - 31st of January at the ExCeL, there is no better place to gain a comprehensive portrait of the genomics industry, and secure your company within it.

This event aims to bring together professionals from academia, drug development and healthcare to engender collaboration & accelerate learning. At last year’s London event, Dame Sally Davies presented the ‘Generation Genome’ report with the goal to fully integrate genomics into the NHS. This year Sir Malcolm Grant, Chairman of the NHS, will chair a panel debate on the challenges and opportunities involved in making that goal a reality within 5 years. 

The Festivals have always been about offering a break from the predictable format of most life science events. Launching this year will be the Pipette Wars, kindly supported by Eppendorf, where visitors can compete against Eppendorf’s epMotion 5070 to see who is quickest on the draw. Prizes are on offer for the fastest human on each day - and of course major bragging rights. Plus, back by popular demand, the Graffiti wall that captured the buzz of the crowds last year.

What can attendees look forward to? Session-wise, ‘Your DNA: Your say’ will look at the attitudes of 10,000 representative public from across the world, gathered for the GA4GH project - and their attitudes and fears about allowing you to use their genomic data for research.

Then there’s Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed chairing a session on ‘Pharmacogenetics: Safety in Numbers’. For the 2018 Festival we’re presenting perspectives covering MHRA, academic and industry strategy from Roche and GSK to discuss how regulating innovation and genomics can enable faster delivery of drugs to market.

“Time out of the office is often hard won so to maximise use of visitors’ time, we have introduced the Live Lounge sessions during the lunch break. A series of bite-sized presentations by solution providers based around solving real world challenges. Grab some lunch from the Tree of Life Café, pull up a beanbag and hear from companies such as Oxford Nanopore, Beckman Coulter Life Sciences and Genialis.” Helen Curl, Group Event Director at Front Line Genomics, commented.

She continued, “But I have to say that my favourite thing is overhearing the conversations happening in the aisles of the exhibition, in the poster zone and café; those moments of serendipity when individuals meet and realise they can help each other with projects. Bringing everyone together for an event is ultimately about just that – helping people to make valuable connections. “

To register for free to attend the Festival of Genomics please visit: http://www.festivalofgenomicslondon.com/welcome

Ends

For further information, contact:

Yvonne Nartey
Senior Marketing Manager, Festival of Genomics London
E: Yvonne@frontlinegenomics.com

Notes to Editors

About Front Line Genomics
Front Line Genomics is a media company covering the field of human genomics. The group produces the Festival of Genomics series of events and Front Line Genomics magazine, a free periodical offering narrative based coverage on all things genomics, as well as the educational series of Genomics 101 e-books. This is supported by timely news and features published daily on the genomics focused website www.frontlinegenomics.com.  Front Line Genomics’ mission is to help deliver the benefits of genomics, faster.

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