Events

This international conference will be in Zefat, Israel from 2-5 May 2010.

The conference is sponsored by the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics, The Israel National Commission for UNESCO, Zefat Academic College and the International Centre for Health, Law and Ethics. It is designed as a platform for the exchange of information and knowledge by way of discussions, lectures and workshops, as well as an exhibition of programs and databases. It is targeted at teachers and educators, professional organisations and Government and public bodies.

The 2010 Newborn Screening and Genetic Testing Symposium will be held at the Doubletree Hotel Universal Orlando, Orlando, FL from May 3-6, 2010.

The two and a half day program will feature platform presentations drawn from submitted abstracts, invited oral presentations, poster sessions, exhibits, a Meet the Manufacturers session and an optional tour of the Florida state public health laboratory. The symposium will be preceded by half-day workshops on QA/QC and Short-Term and Long-term Follow-up.

The symposium will continue its format of addressing state and national newborn screening, genetic testing and policy issues important to public health laboratories. The symposium will continue to emphasize reports from states, the challenges they face, and the data they have generated. Attention to laboratory technologies such as tandem mass spectrometry, DNA analysis, molecular genetics, and new immunoassays will be an important part of the program.

Sessions during the meeting will also include topics on new and emerging technologies, candidate conditions for expanding NBS panels, quality improvement throughout NBS and clinical outcomes, therapeutics and research to name a few. All persons involved with newborn screening and genetic testing programs are invited to submit abstracts on any relevant topic, with special attention to the topics above. Input and participation by parents and advocacy organizations is encouraged.

Ian Wilmut, the famed Scottish biologist who created Dolly the cloned sheep, will be speaking as part of the Gates Distinguished Lecture Series.

Wilmut soared to international prominence in February 1997 when Dolly, a baby lamb created from the cells of an adult sheep, was revealed to the world. Dolly was the first genetic replica of a living creature created from cells from an adult animal. The accomplishment sparked amazement and controversy as scientists, philosophers, ethicists and religious leaders perceived the potential to extend such work to humans.

This talk is part of the Gates Distinguished Lecture Series series.

Venue: Hughes Hall, Mortimer Road, Cambridge - Pavilion Room

Abstract: The criminal law traditionally punishes those who knowingly and intentionally misbehave. In recent years, however, the reach of the criminal law has been steadily expanded; it is widely said that over 3,000 new criminal offences have been created since the general election of 1997. Many of these new offences create criminal liability for negligence, rather than for deliberate fault. Medical professionals are among those who are increasingly caught in this ever-widening net. In his lecture Professor Spencer will examine the present criminal liability of medical professionals, and give his own views as to whether the current law is satisfactory.

Speaker Biography: J.R.Spencer is a Professor of Law at the University of Cambridge. His interests include criminal law, criminal evidence, comparative criminal law, and the law of tort. He is a QC (honoris causa), an Academic Bencher of the Inner Temple, and holds an Honorary Degree from the University of Poitiers.

Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, UK

This workshop provides an intensive introduction to bioinformatics tools freely available on the internet, focusing primarily on the Human Genome data. Students will be given hands-on training in the use of public databases and web-based sequence analysis tools. The workshops are aimed at research scientists with a minimum of a degree in a biological discipline, including laboratory and clinical staff as well as specialists in related fields. Acceptance will be subject to selection process. The workshops run over three days and are without exception residential on the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus.

Topics: Sequence formats and retrieval, Genome browsing, 'De novo' analysis of sequence, Exploring function and disease, Sequence variation,Comparative sequence analysis

Venue: the Barbican, London

Do you work within the NHS or Healthcare sector in the UK?

Are you interested in the future of eHealth?

PSCA International have organised a conference looking at eHealth in the UK and how it can revolutionise healthcare and transform the Patient-Doctor relationship through eHealth implementation

The conference will be Chaired by Dr David Chilvers, Chief Executive of NHS Innovations London and will include speeches by, Joanne Shaw, Chair of NHS Direct and Professor Azeem Majeed, Professor of Primary Care and Head of the Department of Primary Care & Public Health at Imperial College London

There will also be an interactive panel debate asking the question “How Ethical are Electronic Health Records?”

Delegate places at eHealth 2010 are limited so register today to avoid disappointment

Healthcare is truly embracing new technology and is exerting a major impact on transforming patient care, so be part of it

The course will take place in Bologna (Italy) at the
EuroMediterranean University Centre of Ronzano-Bologna (Italy) on May
17-19, 2010.

This course has no more accommodation facilities available.
Nevertheless, you can still attend the course (only coffee breaks and
lunch provided) by paying a reduced fee of 300 euros Vat 20 % (if
you have to pay VAT - see note below).

The course will provide detailed information on the tools useful for
the study of human genomic evolution. High-throughput and large scale
genotyping, using both microarrays and massive sequencing to survey
both SNP and CNV, will bring increasing power to studies of genomic
diversity in the near future. Bioinformatics is an essential tool in
studies of human genomic evolution. Morning lectures and afternoon
workshops will show how bioinformatic tools can be used to analyze SNP
and CNV diversity within an evolutionary framework. The course will be
of interest to researchers, graduate students and post-docs interested
in genome biology and human evolution. It will also offer an exposure
to the "state of the art" to investigators contemplating studies or
the utilization of tools in this field.

Venue: Montpellier, France

Next generation sequencing and genotyping coupled with computational advances have allowed the comprehensive and precise investigation of complex biological systems. Such advances have provided new insights in biology and new understandings of human disease. The complex and massive datasets require new systems approaches to data analysis and open up the possibility of synthetic reconstructions of biological systems.

Venue: Monpellier, France

Next generation sequencing and genotyping coupled with computational advances have allowed the comprehensive and precise investigation of complex biological systems.

Such advances have provided new insights in biology and new understandings of human disease. The complex and massive datasets require new systems approaches to data analysis and open up the possibility of synthetic reconstructions of biological systems.

The HGM 2010 will explore the interface between these next generation technologies and human biology and pathophysiology. The focus will be on the integration of biology, computational sciences, and genomic technologies towards resolving complex biological and medical questions.

We will discuss the necessary processes such as biobanking that will enable this integration. The impact of this science on ethics and society, and on the aspirations of emerging countries will also be explored.

Location: CRASSH, 17 Mill Lane, Cambridge, CB2 1RX

A mini-workshop organised by the CRASSH Postdoctoral Research Seminar and the Mellon Sawyer Seminar Series - Modelling Futures: Understanding Risk

and Uncertainty.  Using models as evidence for policies is of increasing significance.  When vaccination strategies are reformed or reliable future scenarios about the effects of climate change are needed, modelling techniques allow exploring possible futures. What kind of tools are computational models and the algorithms they embody? How do we communicate the restrictions of model-based evidence, the uncertainties built into the models to further along in the decision-making chain? This mini-workshop focuses on these questions and discusses two topical issues: the use of algorithms in climate research and the predictive capacity of epidemiological modelling.

Dr Gabriele Gramelsberger (FU Berlin)

'Algorithms as Epistemic Actors in Policy Contexts (Climate Research)'

Dr Erika Mansnerus (British Academy Postdoc Fellow, CRASSH) 'Governance of Public Health Risks by Modelling'

A light buffet lunch will be provided.

Venue: Bologna, Italy

The course will take place in Bologna (Italy) at the EuroMediterranean
University Centre of Ronzano on May 23-28, 2010. It is a week-long
postgraduate course addressed to both researchers and clinicians
seeking an up-to-date overview of the field of medical genetics today.
It provides an overall view of the clinical developments which are
taking place in the major application fields of modern genetics in
different medical specialties.

The topics covered in the present edition are: Introduction to
Medical Genetics and Genome Analysis, Cytogenetics and Clinical
Genetics, New Approaches in Medical Genetics, Complex Genetic

Disorders and Neurogenetics, Therapy,Technology, Epigenetics and
Ethical Issues.

Course Directors: Han Brunner (Nijmegen, The Netherlands), Giovanni
Romeo (Bologna, Italy),Brunhilde Wirth (Cologne, Germany).

Faculty Members: Dian Donnai (Manchester, UK), Josef Gecz (Adelaide,
Australia), Bernhard Horsthemke (Essen, Germany), Nicholas Katsanis
(Baltimore, USA), Johannes Krause (Leipzig, Germany), Bart
Loeys(Ghent, Belgium), Elena Maestrini (Bologna, Italy), Andrew Read
(Manchester, UK), Olaf Riess (Tuebingen, Germany), Michael Speicher
(Graz, Austria), David Valle (Baltimore, USA), Joris Veltman
(Nijmegen, The Netherlands).

Onna, Okinawa, Japan.

The theme of the 2010 Summer School is the phenomenon of strong (or extreme) sequence conservation, which will be explored from a quantitative and multidisciplinary perspective, and connections forged with parts of biology outside of genomics.

Sequence conservation forms the basis of comparative genomics, has already played a pivotal role in biology and medicine, and is likely to become increasingly important in the eras of abundant sequence data and the personalized genome. Ultra-conservation has led to a broad appreciation of the need for a reevaluation of how the action of selection is inferred from sequence comparison. It has raised basic questions about the character of "neutral drift," calling for new quantitative developments that may be facilitated by the cultures of mathematics, physics, computer science, and engineering; however, this pursuit - and the interpretation of genome sequence in general - ought to be firmly grounded in its biological context.

The Centre for Society & Genomics (the Netherlands), in collaboration with the ESRC Genomics Network (United Kingdom) and Valgen (Canada) will hold its biannual Conference on Society and Genomics on 27-28 May  2010 in Amsterdam.

Venue: Rome, Italy

This workshop, the fourth in a series, is designed to explore the differences that exist between research ethics committees on the one hand and investigators and sponsors of research projects on the other, an appreciation of the diversity of research ethical review across Europe thus facilitating a more common and consistent process. Such differences may be difficult to understand and this workshop – following the success of its predecessors – will give an opportunity for these difficulties to be freely discussed by representatives of research ethics committees, sponsors and investigators and will hopefully lead to some conclusions as to how best these difficulties should be addressed or even avoided. The workshop will begin with a keynote address on a theme appropriate for the environment in which it is being held and will then be followed by three case-based discussions, introduced by persons closely involved in the cases to be featured. There will therefore be plenty of opportunities for interactive dialogue and the workshop will conclude with a presentation on cases of fraud and misconduct in research projects that have involved research ethics committees in various ways. The total number of seats being limited, places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.