Friday, January 26, was the last day of the scintillating Precision Medicine World Conference (PMWC) 2024 in Silicon Valley, and the morning session included award ceremonies in two of the multiple topic categories. In the “Emerging Therapeutics—Pharmacogenomics” track, Andrea Gaedigk, PhD, Professor & Laboratory Director, Children’s Mercy Research Institute, received a Pioneer Award for significantly advancing pharmacogenomics through ground-breaking CYP2D6 research and development of the Activity Score to improve clinical predictions for precision therapies. In the same track, Teri E. Klein, PhD, Professor, Stanford, received a Luminary Award for her contributions to advancing precision medicine through her leadership in ClinGen, PharmaGKB, and CPIC.
In the “AI & Data Sciences in Drug Discovery & Clinical Research” track, Heidi Rehm, PhD, Professor, Massachusetts General Hospital and Broad Institute, was presented with a Luminary Award for markedly improving rare disease diagnosis and testing through enhancement of tools and standards for genomics.
The “Infectious Disease & Microbiome” track opened with a panel discussion on “Metagenomic Sequencing Challenges in Microbiology Labs.” This panel was chaired by Charles Chiu, MD, PhD, Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Infectious Diseases, UCSF, and included the following participants: Sivan Bercovici, PhD, CTO, Karius; Esther Babady, PhD, Chief, Clinical Microbiology Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering; Robert Schlaberg, MD, MPH, Distinguished Scientist, Infectious Disease, VP, Illumina; and David Gaston, MD, PhD, Medical Director, Molecular Infectious Diseases Laboratory, Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
This track continued with a panel discussion on “Optimizing Clinical Metagenomics for Infectious Disease Diagnosis” that was chaired by Steve Miller, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer, Delve Bio. Panelists included Anne L. Piantadosi, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Emory University; Catherine Hogan, MD, Medical Microbiologist, BCCDC, University of British Columbia; and Laura Filkins, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology, UTSW Medical Center & Clinical Director of the Microbiology and Molecular Virology Laboratories at Children’s Health System of Texas.
A late morning session in the “Next-Generation Technology” track featured a panel discussion on “Population Sequencing at Scale: Impact and Future Path of Genomic Programs.” This session was chaired by Stacy Gabriel, PhD, Chief Genomics Officer, Broad Institute, and included as panelists Stephen B. Montgomery, PhD, Professor of Pathology, Stanford; Heidi Rehm, PhD, Professor, Massachusetts General Hospital and Broad Institute; Cindy Lawley, PhD, Director, Population Health, Olink; and John M. Gaziano, MD, MPH, National PI, Million Veterans Program.
The meeting closed with afternoon sessions in all of the six main topic tracks. These included Track 1—Emerging Therapeutics, Track 2—AI & Data Sciences, Track 3—Diagnostics and Molecular Profiling in the Clinic, Track 4—Next-Generation Technology, Showcase Track S1—AI & Data Sciences & More, and Showcase Track S2—Clinical Diagnostics/Tools & More.
This was another fabulous Precision Medicine World Conference (PMWC) and a wealth of thanks is owed to the organizers Tal Behar and Gadi Behar. Gratitude must also be extended to the co-hosts of the meeting: UCSF, the University of Michigan, Duke University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Stanford Health Care/Stanford Medicine; and to the corporate sponsors, including Spark Therapeutics, Morrison Foerster, Rosalind, and Spesana.
This very special meeting attracted 2,500 high-level attendees from 35 countries and hosted exhibitors from 90 companies and institutions.
by Michael D. O’Neill, Editor & Publisher, BioQuick News