Session Abstract – PMWC 2017 Silicon Valley
Session Synopsis: Innovative new technologies continue to evolve and improve. Whether it is repurposing DNA to store digital data, improving the analysis of metabolites in biological specimen, or the advancements in analyzing and visualizing single cell data, these new emerging fields are driving precision medicine into the future.
Session Chair Profile
Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, Metabolon, Inc.
Biography
Dr. John Ryals co-founded Metabolon, Inc. in 2002 and serves as president and CEO. Metabolon is a pioneer and leader in the field of metabolomics and its use in precision medicine and human health. Prior to Metabolon, he was a co-founder, CEO and president of Paradigm Genetics, Inc., a publicly traded agricultural biotechnology company focused on industrializing the process of gene function discovery. Dr. Ryals has 30 years’ experience in the biotechnology industry, including senior research positions at Novartis and Ciba-Geigy. He currently serves on the board of directors at AgBiome, a provider of early-stage R&D for agriculture, and the advisory board of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at North Carolina State University. He earned a B.A. in biology and chemistry from the University of North Texas and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in molecular biology from the University of Texas at Dallas.
Talk
Metabolomics and Its Role in Precision Medicine
Internal and external health factors exert influence by changing our metabolic composition. Metabolomics provides a snapshot of the current health state and actionable clinical information, making it a valuable first-line health assessment tool. We’ll discuss the technology and how it guides precision medicine today and its role in the future.
Speaker Profile
Ph.D., CEO and Co-founder, Director of Twist Bioscience
Biography
Emily Leproust, Ph.D. serves as CEO, co-founder and director of Twist Bioscience. Dr. Leproust is disrupting the process of gene synthesis to enable the exponential growth of synthetic biology applications in multiple fields including medicine, DNA data storage, agricultural biology and industrial chemicals. In 2015, she was named one of Foreign Policy’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers of 2015 and Fast Company named her one of the most creative people in business. Prior to Twist Bioscience, she held escalating positions at Agilent Technologies where she architected the successful SureSelect product line that lowered the cost of sequencing and elucidated dozens of Mendelian diseases.
Talk
Rewriting DNA Synthesis
The applications enabled by perfect DNA sequences from a highly scalable synthesis platform are limitless. With innovative silicon-based platforms, reaction volumes are miniaturized by a factor of 1000 enabling high quality DNA production at reduced price and turn-around time. Delivering DNA as genes, ready-to-use oligonucleotide pools or variant libraries simplifies experiments by circumventing the need to clone, allowing use of sequence space to be reimagined on a grander scale, ultimately accelerating discoveries.
Speaker Profile
Healthcare Executive Focused on Personalized Medicine, Illumina
Biography
Gautam Kollu leads worldwide market development efforts for Illumina’s Reproductive & Genetic Health business. His teams are responsible for identifying and nurturing new markets for the application of NGS in diagnostics such as non-invasive prenatal testing, pre-implantation genetic screening and diagnosis, and pre-conception and newborn screening. Gautam is accomplished in the launch and commercialization of innovative healthcare technologies, having held leadership and executive roles in driving several successful products including Herceptin, Avastin, Kadcyla, Cometriq, Panorama, verifi and VeriSeq. He currently chairs the Global Fertility Alliance and tweets from @gautamkollu. He received an MBA from The Wharton School and a B. Tech. in Chemical Engineering from IIT Bombay.
Talk
Diagnosing genetic diseases using Whole Genome Sequencing
Whole genome sequencing is emerging as a powerful tool for advancing neonatal and pediatric patient care. Advancements in interpretation and gains in diagnostic yield that have contributed to this recent trend will be surveyed.
Speaker Profile
M.D., Director, Care Innovation, Oracle HSGBU
Biography
Dr. Kahlon serves as Director, Care Innovation, Oracle Health Sciences, with a focus on delivering technological infrastructure to support individualized care at the intersection of population health and precision medicine. Dr. Kahlon has a background in electronic health records (EHR), health data exchange, mHealth and telemedicine, in addition to time in community practice as an adult infectious diseases specialist in Florida. Dr. Kahlon is currently on staff at the Orlando VA Medical Center and is affiliated with the University of Central Florida College of Medicine as Assistant Professor of Medicine.
Talk
Intelligent Care: Translating Data into Insight
The value of translational research is the rapid learning cycle in transferring new discovery to patients and bringing back the results from the bedside to feed new insights. Foundational, person-centric data organization enables use of advanced analytics and machine intelligence to provide individualized, data-driven intelligent care.
