Events

Venue: Le Meridien Hotel, New Delhi, India

With the substantial control of infections and nutritional disorders, birth defects have emerged as a major global cause of death and disability. Every year an estimated 7.8 million children are born in the world with a serious genetic or acquired birth defect. Of these 3.3 million die each year. The impact of birth defects is particularly severe in developing countries where 90% of births and 95% of deaths of children with serious birth defects occur. The conference is timely as most developing countries lack comprehensive programs for care and control of birth defects, either because their importance is underestimated or because they perceive lack of resources. This conference will demonstrate why both these notions are incorrect.

In recent years there have been significant advances in understanding the causes of birth defects, and application of this knowledge has led to the development of many strategies to help and improve the quality of life of those experiencing birth defects. There are many low-cost and effective strategies for preventing or ameliorating birth defects. This conference will present successful models from around the world, as illustration of approaches that can be selected by developing countries as best suited for their specific circumstances.

The theme of the 4th Conference therefore, is aptly “ Translating Research into Care and Prevention.”

Venue: Cardiff

The conference will provide an opportunity to develop further the debate and dialogue around current and future developments in the life sciences, between academics working in a broad range of social science disciplines and associated stakeholders, including natural and biomedical scientists and policymakers.

All details about the conference, including a provisional programme, can be found on the EGN

website:

Programme Highlights

Keynote Speakers:

Nobel Prize Winner Professor Sir Martin Evans, Cardiff University

Professor Joan Fujimura, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Dr. Paul Martin, University of Nottingham

Professor Douglas Turnbull, Newcastle University

Dr. Huanming Yang, Beijing Genomics Institute

After Dinner Speaker:

Welsh Legend J.P.R. Williams

Policy Engagement Session in collaboration with the Society for Genomics Policy and Population

Health:

Cancer genomics: translation into public health policy

Workshops:

New technologies for non-invasive prenatal testing: connecting science with policy

Beyond nature v nurture: Darwins legacy

The role of regional innovation policy in the knowledge-based bio-economy

New research on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008

Conference sessions include:

Implications of data sharing practices in genomic research

Political economy of genomic and biotechnological promise

Institutional bioethics of stem cell research: multiple voices, loopholes, and discontent

Synthetic biology: walking the line between engineering and biology

A multidisciplinary approach to the expectations underlying genomic research.

Neuropsychiatric genetics and genomics: ethnography, engagement and collaboration

Changing modes of communication? The negotiation of meanings at the science-media interface

Venue: Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel, NEC, Birmingham.

Heart Rhythm Congress is an annual event which brings together all those with an interest in arrhythmias. It offers an educational opportunity for members of the medical, allied professional and industry communities to increase their own and others’ knowledge of heart rhythm disorders, and does this in an open, interactive environment. The congress boasts a full programme of scientific sessions along with training courses, patient group conferences, live cases, industry sessions, a patients’ day and DoH and PCT meetings, with a trade exhibition running throughout.

Assisted conception, stem cell derivation and Dolly the sheep have dramatically changed understandings of human biology and development, so much so that the twenty-first century has been declared 'the age of biology'. Where are these developments leading and what are the dynamics of the 'biosociety' to which they have given rise?

Open lecture by Professor Sarah Franklin, London School of Economics (LSE). Tea / Coffee available from 5.00 pm in the Pfeifer/Combination Room.

Venue: Pavilion Room, Hughes Hall, Cambridge