CANCER OMICS STAGE

Decoding Cancer: From Research to Revolutionary Diagnostics and Patient care

The Festival wouldn't be the same without our world-class speaker faculty and we're grateful to all our speakers for sharing their work. Plus, we're pleased to share that 50% of Festival speakers are women. 

DAY 1

Day 1 of The Cancer Omics Stage focusses on Cancer Genomics and Evolution, Comprehensive Genomic Profiling and Identifying Genetic Weaknesses in Cancer.

[topic] CANCER GENOMICS AND EVOLUTION
-
Computational Cancer Genome Analysis: Insights Into The Mechanisms Underpinning Cancer Genome Complexity

In this session:

  • My laboratory focuses on the development of computational methods to study the mechanisms underpinning cancer genome complexity and evolution, and to harness novel technologies applicable in clinical settings to improve early cancer detection and treatment selection.
  • In this talk, I will first present SAVANA, a novel algorithm for the detection of somatic structural variants using long-read sequencing data, and their application for the reconstruction of complex rearrangements in clinical samples. Next, I will discuss our work on the characterization of the mechanisms underpinning the evolutionary trajectories of the diverse spectrum of complex genomic rearrangements observed across diverse cancer types, such as chromothripsis.
  • Specifically, I will present the discovery of a novel rearrangement mechanism, loss-translocation-amplification (LTA) chromothripsis, which mediates rapid malignant transformation and punctuated evolution in about half of paediatric and adult high-grade osteosarcomas. 
Speaker
Group Leader
EMBL-EBI
-
Using Optical Genome Mapping to Study Neuroblastoma

In this session:

  • Multiple genetic abnormalities have been identified as prognostically significant in neuroblastoma patients. We used OGM to identify copy number and structural variants (SVs) in neuroblastoma which may have been missed by standard cytogenetic techniques
  • OGM detected copy number abnormalities found using previous methods and provided estimates for absolute copy numbers of amplified genes. OGM identified novel SVs, including fusion genes in two cell lines of potential clinical significance
Speaker
Professor of Paediatric
Newcastle University
-
Immune Evasion Impacts Driver Landscape and Response to Immunotherapies

In this session:

  • Immunoeditings is an evolutionary process that shapes the genome of human cells
  • Immune evasion is the ultimate outcome of immunoediting andcancer evolution
  • Immune evasion enable hiding from the immune system and accumulation of antigens
  • Neoantigen accumulation in escaped clones facilitates response to immunotherapy.
Speaker
Group Lead, Evolutionary Immunogenomics
ICR
-
[break] Lunch
  • Exhibition Floor : Wander around the vibrant exhibition floor to see the latest technologies and services on offer
  • Food Options : Grab a sandwich at The Tree of Life Cafe or head on over to the Food Village for a range of hot food options including Indian, Jamaican and Thai food
  • Live Lounge Over Lunch : 15 mins technology focussed presentations
  • Poster Zone : Browse the posters and reach out to potential new collaborators
  • Talkaoke : The Flying Saucer of Chat, a fun and interactive pop-up show that offers you the opportunity to sit down with others and discuss any topic you like.
  • Patient Perspectives: Talks and discussions on the crucial role of patients and patient families in the understanding and development of treatments for rare diseases.
[topic] COMPREHENSIVE GENOMIC PROFILING
-
Finding The Sweet Spot Between Comprehensive And Targeted Sequencing In Clinical Cancer Care

In this session:

  • The benefits and challenges with implementation of comprehensive genomic profiling
  • Choosing the right tool for the job with clinical examples
  • Delivering the best patient care under the pressures to evolve within the constraints of working within the NHS
Speakers
Clinical Scientist and Scientific Lead for Cancer Genomics
South East Genomic Laboratory Hub
Service Lead for Cancer Genetics, Consultant Clinical Scientist
Synnovis
-
More details to be announced shortly

Sponsored by:


-
Genetic Profiling in Healthcare and Prevention

In this session:

  • Actionable genetic information in healthcare & prevention
  • Array genotyping
  • Pharmacogenetics (PGx)- and polygenic risk scores (PRS)
  • Taking a holistic approach and making the most of genetic health data
Speaker
Head of Population Genomics & Head of Human Genomics Facility
Erasmus MC
-
[break] Break
  • Speed Networking: Fun and useful sessions where you’ll rapidly meet other Festival attendees to immediately expand your network.
  • Food Options : Grab a coffee and a cake at The Tree of Life Cafe or head on over to the Food Village for a range of hot food options including Indian, Jamaican and Thai food
  • Exhibition Floor : Wander around the vibrant exhibition floor to see the latest technologies and services on offer
  • Talkaoke : The Flying Saucer of Chat, a fun and interactive pop-up show that offers you the opportunity to sit down with others and discuss any topic you like.
[topic] IDENTIFYING CANCER DRIVERS
-
Optical Genome Mapping in Haematological Malignancies

In this session:

  • Validation of OGM for clinical implementation
  • Examples illustrating the features of OGM
Speaker
Clinical Laboratory Geneticist
UZ Leuven
-
Identifying Genetic Weaknesses in Cancers

In this session:

  • Methods for identifying weaknesses are now routinely used and we have the first set of precision medicines that now exploit those weaknesses
  • Synthetic lethality and non-oncogene addiction to identify new approaches to treating cancer and to understand the variable effectiveness of existing treatments
Speaker
Professor of Cancer Genomics, Team Leader and Deputy Director
Institute of Cancer Research
-
Exploiting Large Scale Variants to Identify Missing Heritability for Cancer Predisposition

In this session:

  • Using UKBB and GEL data to look at novel genetic variants causing a predisposition to different cancers.
  • Copy Number and Structural Variation based cancer genome-wide association studies.
  • New computational methods to analyse this data more effectively.
Speaker
Associate Professor of Cancer Genomic Medicine
University of Birmingham

DAY 2

On Day 2, The Cancer Omics Stage will focus on precision oncology as well as liquid biopsy and diagnostics.

[topic] PRECISION ONCOLOGY
-
MCEDs for Population Screening for Cancer. Hope or Hype: A Public Health Perspective

In this session:

  • Discuss the latest multi-cancer early detectin tests that are advancing population-level screening for different cancers.
  • The positive impact this will have on patients in terms of early diagnosis and getting the right treatments to the right patients at the right time.
  • What are the challenges associated with implementing population level cancer screening and do we have the tests to do this effectively?
  • Future directions and implementation.
Speaker
Professor of Translational Cancer Genetics
Institute of Cancer Research
-
More details to be announced shortly

Sponsored by:


-
Dynamic Precision Medicine: A New Approach to Therapy Resistance

In this session:

  • Genetic heterogeneity within a cancer is even greater than previously recognized.
  • Rare subclones, below the level of detection by current DNA sequencing methods, are a major source of therapy resistance and moderate to late term relapse.
  • Dynamic precision medicine is a proactive approach to designing personalized treatment sequences that delay relapse and prolong survival.
Speaker
Professor of Oncology & of Biostatistics, Bioinformatics, & Biomathematics
Georgetown Univeristy
-
[break] Lunch
  • Exhibition Floor : Wander around the vibrant exhibition floor to see the latest technologies and services on offer
  • Food Options : Grab a sandwich at The Tree of Life Cafe or head on over to the Food Village for a range of hot food options including Indian, Jamaican and Japanese food
  • Live Lounge Over Lunch : 15 mins technology focussed presentations
  • Poster Zone : Browse the posters and reach out to potential new collaborators
  • Talkaoke : The Flying Saucer of Chat, a fun and interactive pop-up show that offers you the opportunity to sit down with others and discuss any topic you like.
[topic] LIQUID BIOPSY & DIAGNOSTICS
-
Translating Genomics Into The NHS For Cancer Care – What’s Coming Next?

In this session:

  • Evaluating new technologies that can be impactful for clinical cancer care
  • Trialing these technologies in the clinic and lessons learned
  • Future directions of how genomics will continue to innovate cancer care
Speaker
Scientific Director of the NHS England North London Genomic Laboratory Hub
NHS England
-
Reserved - AmoyDX

-
Establishing Liquid Biopsies as an Effective Tool for Early Cancer Screening

In this session:

  • Will cover the utility of different MCED tests and ongoing pilot screening programmes.
  • How can we ensure these tests improve cancer mortality and patient prognosis.
  • Discuss different applications such as for risk detection in asymptomatic people, multi-cancer detection in early symptomatic patients or in the single cancer testing.
Speaker
Head of Prevention and Early Detection Research
Cancer Research UK
-
[break] Break
  • Speed Networking : Fun and useful sessions where you’ll rapidly meet other Festival attendees to immediately expand your network.
  • Food Options : Grab a coffee and a cake at The Tree of Life Cafe or head on over to the Food Village for a range of hot food options including Indian, Jamaican and Thai food
  • Exhibition Floor : Wander around the vibrant exhibition floor to see the latest technologies and services on offer
  • Talkaoke : The Flying Saucer of Chat, a fun and interactive pop-up show that offers you the opportunity to sit down with others and discuss any topic you like.
-
Multi-modal Liquid Biopsy to Enhance Cancer Management

In this session:

Florent Mouliere leads the Nucleic Acids Biomarker team at the Cancer Research UK National Biomarker Centre, University of Manchester. Florent research aims to identify biological patterns in human bio-fluids (liquid biopsy), develop experimental and computational methods to mine these data, and create tools to put these resources into the hands of biologists, engineers, and clinicians. Florent graduated in 2012 from the University of Montpellier (France), did his postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge, and was Assistant Professor from 2018 to 2023 at the Amsterdam University Medical Centre (the Netherlands).

    Speaker
    Team Lead, National Biomarker Centre
    CRUK Manchester Institute
    -
    More details to be announced shortly