Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine physicians and scientists will join Nobel Prize winners and other worldwide leaders in precision medicine in presenting the latest research and application to patient care. Twelve people from the Rochester, Florida and Arizona campuses are featured speakers at the Individualized Medicine Lectures at the 10th International Society for Applied Biological Sciences (ISABS) Conference. Considered one of the most important events of the year in precision medicine, the conference will be held in Dubrovnik, Croatia, June 19 - 24, 2017.

 

“This year’s conference brings together five Nobel Laureates along with leading scientific experts in the fields of medical genetics, forensics and anthropology to share research best practices and findings. For the first time, this year’s conference will feature joint sessions with experts from all three fields sharing their expertise on a variety of topics, including next generation sequencing technology, epigenomics and microbiome research,” says Tamas Ordog, M.D., director, Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine Epigenomics Program, and co-program director for the conference.

 

Mayo Clinic investigators have contributed their expertise in medical genetics and genomics since the ISABS Conference was established in 1997. Stanimir Vuk-Pavlovic, Ph.D., emeritus professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Mayo Clinic; Dragan Primorac, M.D., Ph.D., professor at the Universities of Split, Rijeka, and Osijek, Croatia, and Moses Schanfield, Ph.D., professor of Forensic Sciences at George Washington University, created the ISABS to promote and extend research, development and education in molecular biology as applied to clinical and molecular medicine, forensic science, and anthropology.

 

 

 

Mayo Clinic presentations

 

Setting the stage for the Individualized Medicine program at the conference, Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., will present “Individualized Medicine: From Promise to Practice” at the inaugural plenary session. Dr. Farrugia is vice president at Mayo and CEO at Mayo Clinic in Florida; former director, Center for Individualized Medicine, and professor of Medicine and Physiology.

 

 

 

Highlighting how genomic discoveries have transformed patient care, Keith Stewart, M.B., CH.B., will present “Deploying Clinical Individualized Medicine: Opportunities and Challenges.” Dr. Stewart is the Carlson and Nelson Endowed Medical Director, Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine, the Vasek and Anna Maria Polak Professor of Cancer Research and a consultant in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Mayo Clinic’s campus in Arizona.

 

 

 

 

At a special plenary session, Jan van Deursen, Ph.D., professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Pediatrics, will present “Fundamental Mechanisms of Aging and Aging-Related Diseases.”

 

 

 

 

Other Mayo Clinic clinicians and researchers will provide their expertise across a broad spectrum of precision medicine topics.

 

Mayo presenters for the Individualized Medicine Program include:

 

Nilufer Ertekin Taner, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of Neurology and Neurosciences
“Genetics and Epigenomics of Alzheimer’s Disease and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy”

William Faubion, M.D., associate professor of Immunology, Medicine and Pediatrics
“Epigenetics of Inflammatory Bowel Disease”

Eric Klee, Ph.D., associate director, Center for Individualized Medicine Bioinformatics Program, assistant professor of Biomedical Informatics
“Solving Diagnostic Odyssey Cases Through Genomics”

Heidi Nelson, M.D., director, Center for Individualized Medicine Microbiome Program, Fred C. Andersen Professor of Surgery, and chair, Department of Surgery
“Microbiome Analysis in Clinical Medicine”

Grzegorz Nowakowski, M.D., associate director, Center for Individualized Medicine Epigenomics Program and assistant professor of Medicine
“Promise and Practice of Individualized Medicine in Hematology”

Tamas Ordog, M.D., director, Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine Epigenomics Program, and co-program director, ISABS conference
“Metabolic Control of Transcriptional Memory”

Leonard Petrucelli, Ph.D., professor of Neuroscience
“Genomics and Epigenomics of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD)”

Stephen Thibodeau, Ph.D., David F. and Margaret T. Grohne Director, Biorepositories Program
William H. Donner Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology
“The Precision Medicine Initiative: Challenges in Biobanking”

George Vasmatzis, Ph.D., co-director, Center for Individualized Medicine Biomarker Discovery Program, assistant professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology
“Genomic Biomarkers”

 

Scientific collaboration brings insights for patient care

 

From this unique collaboration, Mayo Clinic investigators continue to learn valuable lessons that they can apply to improve patient care.

“Although technology is improving for medical genetics and genomics, we still face many challenges. For example, applying advanced genomic and epigenomic analytical methods to small clinical samples often containing several mutated clones or cell types can be difficult. We can learn how to address issues like this from our colleagues in forensic science and anthropology, who regularly conduct high-throughput sequencing on very small samples, which are often contaminated with genetic material from other individuals or species, and obtain high quality data,” explains Dr. Ordog.

 

Learn more about precision medicine and join our community

 

Get the latest news from the Center for Individualized Medicine. Visit our blog, Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter at @MayoClinicCIM.

Save the date for the 2017 Individualizing Medicine Conference on Oct. 9-11. Registration opens Monday, April 3. For a complete schedule and list of speakers, visit the conference website.

 

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