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.
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.
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
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.
- 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.
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
Sponsored by:
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
- 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.
In this session:
- Validation of OGM for clinical implementation
- Examples illustrating the features of OGM
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
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.
DAY 2
On Day 2, The Cancer Omics Stage will focus on precision oncology as well as liquid biopsy and diagnostics.
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.
Sponsored by:
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.
- 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.
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
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.
- 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.
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).