Testimonials

We think FoG is the world’s best life sciences event. After 10 years and 17 Festivals in total, we would say that. But don’t take our word for it. Here’s what previous attendees had to say…

The Festival of Genomics & Biodata is an event that I look forward to attending and speaking at every year

Sue Hill, Chief Scientific Officer, NHS England

The Festival of Genomics is always something I look forward to.

Mike Hubank, Scientific Director, NHS England Genomics Health Hub

Very nice having a mix of academics and industry in the same place! It is quite unique

Abigail ter Kuile, Research Fellow, University College London

The management of the Festival of Genomics & Biodata was masterful. The ease of moving between multiple sessions and the ability to “catchup” on missed talks made this the most meaningful event I have ever attendedThank you for organising a fantastic event!

Judith Hornby, Managing Director, Centre for Proteomic and Genomics Research (South Africa)

The event was fantastic. It was great to be able to hear about the work many scientists are researching in the UK. The Festival gave me exposure to a lot of the studies and research happening that I would otherwise would not have known about. The speakers were all so captivating and very passionate about their field of study. The only real downside is that there were so many interesting talks schedules at the same time which made for a hard decision to choose which talk to attend!

Jenna Jafrj, L & D Officer, UK Biocentre

The Festival of Genomics and biodata was an eye-opening event! With a wide range of speakers and stalls, it offered valuable insights into the latest in genomics, including updates within the NHS and cutting-edge research. However, the abundance of talks made it tricky to catch everything. Nonetheless, it was a valuable experience for staying informed in this rapidly evolving field.

Gemma Shireby, Genetics Data Manager/Bioinformatician, UCL

FOG brings together various stakeholders in the field of genomics in an open, accessible setting that encourages interaction, connection and cross-fertilization of ideas.

Prashant Mali, Assistant Professor of Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego

It is pretty evident that the Festival is the most forward-thinking genetics/genomics festival out there and I am incredibly excited to share ideas with such a tremendous list of presenters and attendees.

Brian Piening, Principle Investigator Snyder Lab, Stanford

Innovative approach of the Festival makes it a unique venue rich with learning opportunities and networking.

Anonymous

A great opportunity to network with leaders in the field all under the same roof.

Mark Kristiansen, Head of UCL Genomics, UCL

The festival can foster bringing likeminded people together in a relaxed yet stimulating atmosphere. Focusing on interactions via panel discussions, highlighting interests and experience will likely lead to new collaborative efforts. My particular interest is to expand my network of colleagues and support new engagements in drug and diagnostic developments routed in personalized medicine.

Felix W. Frueh, Executive Partner, Opus Three LLC

I am really glad and honoured to have being invited to participate in this festival. Last year, I had seen on my Twitter a feed about how the festival was. Sadly, it had already passed and I couldn’t participate, so I got really excited when I was invited to participate in a panel, especially because I can get to know top people in the field of genomics and share the efforts we are making in this field in my country.

Roselyn Lemus, Manager of Drug Development and Genomic Research, Landsteiner Scientific

It was really great opportunity for me to attend the Festival of Genomics and Biodata. The one annual event that everyone in genomics needs to attend. Thank you!

Lakshmi Sunkara, Veterinary Molecular Microbiologist, Clemson University

I have heard great things about the festival and its collaborative and community spirit, so I’m very happy to participate and have the opportunity to interact with fellow scientists and clinicians.

John Lamb, Director of Genetics, The Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation

The FOG festival was a fantastic opportunity to hear all about the significant collaborations and advancements happening all across the UK and international ecosystem. A brilliant list of speakers complimented by engaged attendees made the event a real success.

Brandy Coote, Senior Advisor for Policy, Strategy and Engagement, NHS

The line-up of speakers was excellent and the diversity of the talks - from tools to applications to policy - was pretty much everything I could have hoped for! Great to see academia, industry, healthcare sector and policy makers come together to present and discuss how we can use genomics to the benefit of human health.

Aino Järvelin, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Oxford

Thank you to the whole team for this phenomenal conference. I’ve been attending every year since its start and it has never failed to make me feel proud for belonging to the genomics community

Mary Alikian, Principal Clinical Scientist, West Midlands Regional Genetics Laboratory

Perfect blend of excellent science, thought-provoking discussions, quality keynote talks, broad industry representation, plenty of opportunity for networking...

Hana Lango Allen, Scientific Director, Cambridge Genomics Laboratory

Fantastic event, something for everyone to take back to the clinical practice and improve patient care

Angela Lightfoot, Senior Midwife Fetal Medicine, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Trust

Festival of Genomics and Biodata is a great life science event, and for majority of people it is entirely free. Great place to hear about cutting edge science. It is now a regular annual event in my diary. I would highly recommend it to scientists but also any clinicians who would like to find out what most up to date scientific discoveries are.

Jelena Blagojevic, Locum Consultant Geriatrician, Imperial College NHS Healthcare Trust

The festival is a unique take on collaboration and discussion across the genomics field. I’m excited to network and interact on a larger scale than at other events.

Erica Ramos, Staff Genetic Counsellor, Illumina, Inc.

Superb speakers describing state of the art genomics and use of bio data , an excellent conference

Malcolm Skingle, Director Academic Liason, GSK

These last four days were packed with the most relevant and current topics for a broad audience interested in keeping up with the latest in genomics and its clinical implementation. I learned a lot and look forward to the next event!

Samantha Hasenleithner, Researcher, Medical University of Graz

Fantastic, eye opening experience

Anonymous

It was easily the best genomics conference we have attended. We all lost our voices speaking to passionate people within genomics on the first day and were all in bed, exhausted, by 10pm. The conference was very well organised having the talks in the same room as the stands making the stands feel much more approachable and talks more flexible to jump in and out of. Also.. the ability to walk around the stands while listening to a talk on the headphones.. Class!

James Mawhinney, Head of Genomics Strategy, Randox Laboratories

The Festival was a fantastic event that brought together clinicians, researchers and industry members all working towards a common goal. It was a great opportunity to see what other groups are working on, and helped me to generate new ideas for my own research.

Sylvie Chan, Clinical Research Fellow, UCL Cancer Institute

An excellent event with interesting, relevant talks and lots of opportunities for making industry connections or learning about the latest developments in genomics or biodata. Highly recommended.

James Siddle, Healthcare Technology and AI Consultant, Independent

Great festival, lots of presentation streams and something for everyone interested in science. The headphones which enable participants to hear the presentation was a great addition.

Karen Ambrose, Chief Data Officer, The Francis Crick Institute

A new and engaging way to bring people together from all disciplines and fields to solve the big problems for health and disease.

Birgitt Schuele, Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine

When I saw the lineup and the spirit of the first of Festival of Genomics, I knew that it was going to be somehow different from existing events. I attended and had a great experience. I came back to Cincinnati Children’s more energized.

Kristen Sund, Point Person, Institutional Genomic Initiatives, Cincinnati Children's Hospital

This is a high-paced, well-packed conference. Lots of opportunities to network, great variery of talks. Good speakers, well-organised, great talks, good vibes.

Rose Eichenberger, Governance and Ethics Manager, NIHR BioResource

Fantastic festival of everything Genomics, both in the UK and beyond

Michael Quail, Principal Scientific Manager Sequencing R&D, Wellcome Sanger Institute

There was so much going on it was almost overwhelming, in a good way.

Timothy Stone, Research Fellow, Cardiff University

The FoG is a really lovely annual event full of a variety of talks surrounding genomics and life sciences. I would really recommend it to those in drug discovery due to it's opportunities to hear from peers on the work they have been getting up to

Christine Withers, Advanced Bioinformatics Data Scientist, BenevolentAI

Very valuable spend of my time, lots of interesting talks and a great chance to catch up with colleagues new and old

Anonymous

I greatly appreciated the presence of many great expert speakers both from industry and academia, presenting cutting-edge science and their opinions on a broad range of subjects. Enlightening!

Marc Creus, Group Leader, University of Basel

The Woodstock of Genomics, the Lollapalozza of Bioinformatics

Paul Agapow, Head of Data Science, BioNTech

FOG continues to define the genomic landscape of UK and the world. Is a pin on the map that enables me to track the tech advancements in this space. And of course catch up with all my friends!

Kate Witkowska, Strategic Partnerships Director, Genomics England

A must attend event about genomics, on both new technologies and research sides. Thank you very much for having organized this event and keep doing it in future!

Francesco Gualdi, Pre-Doctoral, Pompeu Fabra University

I’ve participated in the Festival before, and found it was a fantastic forum for the dissemination of exciting genomic science to both the research and industry communities.

Silvana Konermann, Postdoctoral Fellow, Hsu Lab, Salk Institute for Biological Studies

For me, it was like a much-awaited shower of fresh information and deep insights! I was quite impressed by the all the areas of genomics it tried to bring together – exciting new research, progress on cutting-edge industry techniques, perspective from the medical staff, patient involvement, integration of research into interpretation and care, how to find a start-up and seek support and funding...all of it. For me it added so much context to what I do as a bioinformatician and excited me a lot about the future. It feels good to be in such a rapidly progressing field!

Nishita Thota, Bioinformatician, Genomics England

The festival presents a great opportunity for the scientific community and enthusiasts to discuss the state-of-the-art in genomics, the role of data science in biology and the significant role data-driven genomics will have in personalized healthcare in the near future.

Anshul Kundaje, Assistant Professor, Stanford University

The festival is better than ever, fantastic talks which are applicable to those working in healthcare and are patient facing. It's been great to see what have developed in the world of genomics over the past 12 months. It was great to see pharmacogenomics fully taking its place at the festival.

Cherrelle Evans, Principal Pharmacist R&I, Nottingham University Hospitals

Fantastic day, excellent opportunities for networking and building on knowledge. Great to see advancements in current practice

Tate Halpin, Specialist Fetal Medicine Midwife, NHS

I am honored to be a part of the Festival of Genomics, to help bring the clinical benefits of genomics and proteomics to patients and to advance the awareness and development of “omics” diagnostics and prognostics to improve healthcare for millions of patients worldwide.

Rhonda Rhyne, President, Prevencio

This Festival has a fantastic amount of speakers and covers a wide range of topics, it is a great networking opportunity where you can learn about the most up to date findings and technologies that you can apply to your research.

Louise Gregory, BRC Catalyst Research Fellow, UCL

The festival exceeded my expectation this year in terms of content, volume and opportunity. It really showed the power of hard work and collaboration in the genomics space, especially in data management and knowledge sharing. The fruits of this labour were demonstrated in terms of real world patient benefits in the clinical and in influencing drug R & D programmes in the Pharmaceutical industry. I look forwards to next year's event.

Anna Lobley, Senior Biological Data Scientist, Exscientia

It is always such a privilege to have our partners, collaborators, suppliers and customers all together under one roof with a unified drive to tackle the next challenge, and yet again FoG has provided the perfect event.

Stewart McCulloch, Head of Laboratory Development, UKbiocentre

Insightful to see the current research and technologies and speak to the people at the forefront of this

Rachel Lau, Bioinformatician, Queen Mary University of London

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to to attend the Festival of Genomics & Biodata 2021. It was amazing, and informative. Really, I was impressed like many of my colleagues with organization of the sessions and the entire festival events. I enjoyed attending this event and I am looking forward to participating in the future events

Eltahir Ali, Group Leader, Translational Medicine Informatics, Civil Hospital of Brescia, University of Brescia

2024 was my first year at the Festival of Genomics and Biodata and I will definitely be back! I was really inspired and there was a great range of speakers, something for everyone in the field.

Frances Elliot, Research Programme Officer, NIHR

As always, it was a great festival: excellent sessions with speakers at the forefront of research, and a perfect opportunity to network.

Renata Kabiljo, Senior Research Fellow, UCL, Institute of Neurology

This was an amazing festival for anyone interested in big data biology and genomics. You have ample opportunity to network and listen to the most amazing speakers.

Areeba Marib, PhD Student, University of Portsmouth

A great place to network as well as stay abreast of current hot topics in research and diagnostics.

Rebecca Ellmers, Clinical Scientist, Synnovis

I am amazed by the quality of talks and speakers. Best science festival !

Salina Thapa, Research Technician, Genome Centre, QMUL

A great way to network within the UK genomics community, so many friends, colleagues and partners from across my career present!

Daniel Swan, Head of Bioinformatics and Data, Naturemetrics

Top quality speakers and presentations, I really learnt a lot

Michelle Cole, Clinical Scientist, UKHSA

Overall, I really enjoyed the FoG2024 as it the best event in Europe that brings academic and industry research together, and combines knowledge with technology.

Nikolaos Trasanidis, Computational Science Investigator, GSK

Great meeting to broaden knowledge, plenty of opportunities for sharing ideas and speaking to other researchers from academia & pharma. Panel discussion and fireside chats with Craig Venter were excellent.

Harpreet Saini, Senior Director, Bioninformatics, Astex Pharmeceuticals

Great experience learning how genomics is impacting health care and how future technologies will go futher in doing so. also a great opportunity to connect with colleagues both past, present and also future!

Helen Northen, Staff Scientist, Illumina

Buzzing talks, cutting-edge posters and spearheading technologies. Looking forward to future events!

Juri Kazakevych, Epigenomics Application Specialist, Diagenode

It was a great event with some key players in the market showcasing the latest technology. It was well organised and people were very open to discussion and learning more about what's happening in the field and new technologies.

Alicia von Achten, Head of Sales, Envoke

Last year’s attendee list included many people I admire in the field and I look forward to interacting with them all at this year’s event.

Mark dePristo, Head of Deep Learning for Genetics and Genomics, Google Brain Team

A great conference, and well worth attending. I made some really good contacts

Chris Hind, Chair, Public & Patient Voice Group, East GMSA

It was great to see many leading companies and researchers showcasing their technologies and work. As a Single Cell Genomics facility manager, it was great to see all the different works being conducted throughout the world and not just in cancer (field I work in).

Imran Uddin, Single Cell Genomics Facility Manager, UCL Cancer Institute

My first FoG experience was a hugely positive and stimulating experience. Being able to hear from world class speakers and understanding how genomics is impacting on the lives of people was absolutely brilliant. Even as an NHS general manager, I found the talks to be accessible (mostly!) and inspiring. I highly recommend the FoG to anyone interested in genomics. Well done to the Festival organisers - the event was superbly organised too.

Dorothy Edwards, Programme Director - National, NHS Wales

A great variety of talks and stalls made for a great event. The networking opportunities were great and the event was well organised and easily accessible. Looking forward to attending again in coming years.

Catherine Sutherland, Genetic Technologist, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Trust

It was a great opportunity to attend and hear about the advancements we are making in this ever evolving field of science. I particularly enjoyed the fireside chats with Dr Venter, Dr Adam Rutherford, Professor Turi King and Louis Theroux. Some fascinating talks.

Zoe Hatt, Pre-Reg Clinical Scientist, Synnovis

Great to hear so many cutting edge presentations in one place

Janet Alexander, Biobank Science Lead, MARS Petcare

As scientists we have a duty to present and share our work with our community. The Festival is an excellent way to interact with our friends and colleagues, both in academia and industry, a gateway to disseminate and learn about new ideas and approaches, and an opportunity to explore new breakthroughs and collaborations. We all work in the exciting field of genomics and it is a pleasure and a privilege to be part of this great community!

Jeanette McCarthy, Adjunct Associate Professor, Duke University Adjunct

The Festival of Genomics has become the de facto venue in the world of genomics for clinical meets academic meets industry. A great place to catch up with lots of old colleagues and collaborators

Clare Turnbull, Professor of Medical Genomics, 100,000 Genomes Project Clinical Cancer Genomics Lead, and Senior Researcher, Queen Mary University of London, Genomics England and the Institute of Cancer Research

An eye-opening experience into the world of genomics with a huge span of different topics and speakers sure to interest anyone studying or working in genomics. I would definitely recommend the Festival of Genomics to all my colleagues and academic friends!

Georgia Saunders, Genetic Technologist, Oxford Regional Genetics Laboratories

Judging from the program and participants at previous editions, this is clearly an event with one of the most impressive cast of scientists, genome biologists, and clinical genomicists under one roof.

Lawrence Mensah, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Chemical Engineering, The Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

FoG is one of the best networking events in the calendar; its an opportunity to meet up with and discuss the evolving Genomic tech market in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere

Miles Collier, Sales Director, EMEA, Dovetail Genomics

I did not make it to the talks, because I was too busy catching up with old friends, new friends, colleagues, collaborators and future leads. It was magical!

Kate Witkowska, Strategic Partnership Director, Genomics England

It was seamless from a presenter’s standpoint.

Stephen Kingsmore, President/CEO, Rady's Children's Institute For Genomics Medicine

I’m excited to meet with people from all areas of the genomics community—researchers, patients, clinicians and more—to make connections and accelerate the implementation of precision medicine.

Mark Wanner, Director, Research Communications, The Jackson Laboratory

The event was full of topical, high impact and interesting talks.

Dr Michael Quail, Principal Scientific Manager, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

Ted Goldstein, Research Associate, Center for Biomolecular Science & Engineering, UC Santa Cruz

…Honestly, I attend lots of meetings, but I haven't been nearly as enthusiastic as for the Festival of Genomics. What a sophisticated, but yet refreshing and sleek approach…

Alina Khromykh, Precision Medicine Integration Manager, Inova Translational Medicine Institute

I’m interested in this festival because this meeting encourages interdisciplinary collaborations to pursue a common goal of accelerating genomics based discovery and therapeutics development.

Ranjan Batra, Postdoctoral Fellow, UCSD

Fantastic days with a wealth of different speakers appealing to different specialisms. As a genetic counsellor there were plenty of GC friendly talks and a stage that centred on GC speakers and their research and development areas of interest. I learned a lot and my interest was piqued by many of the speakers. Thanks for a great Festival!

Sophie Marlowe, Genetics Counsellor, Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Trust

This is a great way to make a connection with other individuals in the field and understand diverse perspectives on the future of this area of research.

James Christensen, CSO and SVP Research, Mirati Therapeutics

An event that no biomedical researcher should miss. Super interesting talks from which you learn a lot. You have the opportunity to establish contact with other groups and companies that can help you in your daily work; from that, new ideas could be born on how to help patients.

Estefanía García, Doctor of Biology, Fundación MEDINA

The festival is a great place to celebrate the mysteries of the genome.

Brendan Keating, Assistant Professor, Depts of Surgery (Division of Transplantation) and Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania

This is my 4th Festival of Genomics and as always I am amazed by the quality.

Malwina Prater, Bioinformatician, University of Cambridge

I thoroughly enjoyed the Festival! I had a chance to connect with colleagues I had not seen in person for a long time, plus I met several sales reps I have been emailing with for years! Overall a very enriching experience

Roberta Migale, Senior Laboratory Research Scientist, The Francis Crick Insitute

Thank you and all concerned for presenting a brilliant Festival; a true celebration of Genomics and Data

David Archer, Liason Officer, British Society for Cell Biology

A great event, filled with detailed cutting-edge research out-put and great speakers, offering a unique balance between bench to bedside research and industrial applications.

Isatou Sarr, Scientific Officer, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

The Festival of Genomics has established itself as THE meeting point for genomics researchers and industry in the UK. No other event can boast such a diverse mix of excellent talks at no cost to academic participants.

Benjamin Schuster-Boeckler, Professor, Oxford University

The community that gathers at the Festival of Genomics represents a unique opportunity to build relationships, create collaborations, learn, and brainstorm potential solutions to the most important issues in biologic sciences and pharmaceutical industry.

Jamie Dananberg, CMO, UNITY Biotechnology

This year's festival was bigger and better than ever. I especially loved the location and the A/V setup with the headphones having the ability to tune into different stages. Great diversity of topics, sometimes too many interesting things, and I had scheduling conflicts!

Zabeen Patel, Developer, Anthony Nolan

The Festival of Genomics & Biodata was a fantastic way to keep up with EVERYTHING new in the field!

David Bick, Chief Medical Officer and Faculty Investigator, HudsonAlpha Institute

I learned about new tecnologies which normally I do not utilise in my day by day work

Massimo Mangino, Senior Bioninformatician, Imperial College London

One of the best conferences I've ever attended. Extraordinary speakers, awesome venue and perfectly organized.. special experience.

Alexander Blume, Scientist, Max Delbruck Center (MDC)

If your work on human genomics and genomics applied to healthcare this is the place to be. If you work on healthcare data solutions this is the place to be. If you struggle to decide which of the many interesting talks to attend, come prepared, but come.

Asier Gonzalez-Uriarte, Bioinformatician, Genomics England

Great mix of topics and speakers, impressed with high quality of talks, well organised. Learnt alot!

Linda Hogarth, Project Manager, Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre

Best genomics event with representations from innovators, industry and the healthcare sector

Hatim Yusufali Ebrahim, Specialist Healthcare Scientist, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust

The Genomics Festival is a must visit event.

Asheeda Lohidasan Sugunan, Genetic Technologist, Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Trust

As someone from a genomics core facility, it was great to have the opportunity to listen to so many interesting talks about different aspects of genomics and to network with vendors that we work close to in our own work place as well as discovering new ones.

Laura Durrant, Genomics Specialist, Babraham Institute

Thank you for organising such a great event. It was a fantastic opportunity to hear about what is happening along side the all important what is to come. There was so much going on at times i was spoilt for choice in where to go and who to listen to. Amazing work team and I look forward to attending again.

Rachel Hart, Consultant Clinical Genetics, LWH

The Festival was a great way to appreciate the impact of the Science we do. I have a wet-lab based role so I don't always see the impact on a day-to-day basis however, attending the festival got me to appreciate the wider story behind the lab work. It also highlighted the great relationship between the NHS and research, helping one another to improve our healthcare.

Rhiannon Evans, Senior Sequencing Scientist, University of Cambridge

Participating in the FoG event has been an enriching experience on multiple levels. Not only does the conference provide a platform to gain valuable insights from leading experts in genomics and cutting-edge data science, but it also serves as an excellent opportunity for networking and collaboration. FoG elevates knowledge through expert presentations and fosters a vibrant community where ideas are exchanged, relationships are forged, and a collaborative spirit thrives. The combination of intellectual stimulation and the chance to connect with colleagues makes FoG an invaluable event in fostering both personal and professional growth.

Isabela Malta, Global Training Assistant Manager, Wellcome Connecting Science

The best life sciences event I’ve ever attended

Anonymous

I was thoroughly impressed with the agenda and broad content. There was something for everyone. Having multiple themed stages really helped stratify your interests and the useful app sorted your schedule very easily.

Simon Youlton, Director, Early Strategic Partnerships, Novartis, UK