Seminars and Events
The seminars and meetings listed below are open to professionals and colleagues of NeuRA staff.
NSW Falls Prevention Network Webinar: Patient Communication – enhancing safety and person centred care
Focus: Patient Communication – enhancing safety and person centred care with Prof Anne-Marie Hill
Date: 13th November 2019
Time: 2:00 – 3:00pm
Cost: FREE
The NSW Falls Prevention Network is running a webinar with Prof Anne-Marie Hill, information can be found here.
Register Here |
5th International Clinical Genomics Course – Sydney
This 4 day workshop is designed for consultants in genetics and medicine, medical/genetic trainees, scientists and genetic counsellors. Genomic data filtering and analysis will begin with straightforward scenarios and progress to more complex interpretations. Course content includes introductory lectures on Mendelian genomics, variant analysis, genomic pipelines and practical workshops. People with a wide range of experience are invited to attend.
Second International Motor Impairment Conference 2020 (Register Interest)
Following the success of the First International Motor Impairment Conference in Sydney, Australia in 2018, we are pleased to announce that the Second International Motor Impairment Conference will be held in Amsterdam on 18-20th November 2020.
The goal of these meetings is to better understand the pathophysiology of Motor Impairment, to implement interventions, and to drive enhanced clinical practice. Much is still unknown about fundamental mechanisms of Motor Impairment, and about its prevention and treatment.
For news & updates
Registeryour interesttoday |
Location: Hotel Casa, Amsterdam.
- Call for abstracts will open in February 2020.
- Read about the First International Motor Impairment Conference 2018, held in Sydney, Australia.
Bringing together the brightest minds working on Motor Impairment from all over the world.
Causal Inference from pragmatic trials and observational data – Sydney 2019
This 3 day course introduces concepts and methods for causal inference from pragmatic trials and observational data. Topics include: an introduction to causal inference, DAGs, causal inference from pragmatic trials and the assessment of comparative effectiveness and safety using routinely collected data in healthcare settings. Upon completion of the course, attendees will be prepared to further explore the causal inference literature and apply the principles to their research.
PhD Completion Seminars 2019
The NeuRA PhD Completion Seminar series provides an opportunity to hear from completing PhD students and celebrate their success.
| Date | Speaker | Group | Title |
| 20th Feb | Sophie Carter | Prof Danny Eckert | Novel respiratory phenotyping to determine the effects of zopiclone on obstructive sleep apnoea |
| 20th Feb | Harrison Finn | A/Prof Janet Taylor | Sensory feedback during exercise contributes to fatigue by inhibiting the nervous system |
| 6th Mar | Muntaseer Mahfuz | A/Prof Americo Migliaccio | Examining Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex Plasticity Using Incremental Adaptation Training |
| 6th Mar | Christin Weissleder | Prof Cyndi Shannon Weickert | TBA |
| 13th Nov | Samantha Owens | Prof Cyndi Shannon Weickert | Alterations in androgen- and dopamine-related molecules in schizophrenia and during rodent adolescence |
| 13th Nov | David Lloyd | Prof Cyndi Shannon Weickert | Neuregulin 1, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol and neuroinflammation in schizophrenia |
| 11th Dec | David Nguyen | Prof Jane Butler | TBA |
| 11th Dec | Ben Rowlands | Prof Caroline (Lindy) Rae | TBA |
CONTACTS
Dr Jasmine Menant – phone: +61 2 9399 1267 or email: j.menant@neura.edu.au
Location: John and Betty Lynch Seminar Room, Level 3, NeuRA, followed by a celebratory lunch in the cafe.
14th GeneMappers Conference 2019
Join us for the 14th GeneMappers Conference on the 20-22nd November 2019!
The 2019 GeneMappers meeting will be a very special event, being the 20th anniversary of the first meeting which was held in Thredbo, New South Wales in 1999. Thus the meeting is returning to New South Wales this year, with a beautiful venue on Sydney harbour foreshore in Manly, around 30 minutes from Sydney City, and an attractive historic site. Registration links are below.
Venue: Q station, Sydney Harbour National Park, Manly, NSW
Schedule & Key Dates
20 May 2019 – Abstract submission, early bird registration & accommodation bookings open
16th August 2019 – Regular registration available
1 September 2019 – Extended abstract submission closes
20 November 2019 – Conference starts
Full Schedule (pdf) – updated 13/11
Schedule at a glance |
Details |
20th November
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Registration desk opens (11:00am – 1:15pm)
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21st November
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Breakfast from 7am if staying on-site
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22nd November
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Breakfast from 7am if staying on-site
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Registration & Accommodation Bookings
Registration & Accomodation Bookings are now closed – late registrations after 31 October 2019 may be possible via special request email digital@neura.edu.au
> ACCOMMODATION OPTIONS |
> HOW TO GET TO Q STATION |
For further information and late registration requests please contact: genemappers2019@neura.edu.au
Speaker Lineup & Themes
2019 Conference Themes |
Analysis of rare variants, Mendelian traits and families |
Biobank studies |
GWAS |
Gene expression & functional genomics |
Population genetics |
Translation into clinical practice |
INTERNATIONAL SPEAKERS |
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Cathryn Lewis, King’s College London, UK
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Cathryn Lewis is Professor of Genetic Epidemiology & Statistics at King’s College London, where she leads the Statistical Genetics Unit. Her academic training is in mathematics and statistics, and she has been involved in genetic studies since her PhD. She co-chairs the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium Major Depressive Disorder Working group, and leads the NIHR Maudsley BRC Biomarkers and Genomics theme. Her multi-disciplinary research group identifies and characterises genetic variants conferring risk of disease, including depression, schizophrenia, and stroke. A major focus is risk assessment, determining how the polygenic component of mental health disorders can be measured accurately and communicated effectively. |
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Mike Boehnke, University of Michigan, USA
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Professor Michael Boehnke is the Richard G. Cornell Distinguished University Professor of Biostatistics and Director of the University of Michigan Center for Statistical Genetics and Genome Science Training Program. Dr. Boehnke’s research focuses on problems of study design and statistical analysis of human genetic data with a particular emphasis on development and application of statistical methods for human gene mapping, with a current focus on disease and trait association studies based on genome sequence and genotype-array data. He is principal investigator of the Finland-United States Investigation of NIDDM (FUSION) study of the genetics of type 2 diabetes, the GoT2D and T2D-GENES type 2 diabetes sequencing studies, and the BRIDGES and InPSYght sequencing studies of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. |
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Dr Kaitlin Samocha, Wellcome Sanger Institute, UK
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Dr Kaitlin Samocha is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Wellcome Sanger Institute where she works both the Deciphering Developmental Disorders (DDD) and DECIPHER projects.
The focus of her research career has been on developing methods and statistical tools to improve interpretation of genetic variation, particularly in the context of rare disease diagnosis. Currently, she is investigating how multiple genetic factors may interact to cause severe developmental disorders with the joint goals of providing much needed diagnoses to those patients without one and uncovering the pathophysiology of developmental disorders. |
| Daniel MacArthur, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Medical School
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Daniel MacArthur is co-director of the Medical and Population Genetics Program at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Medical School.
Daniel completed his PhD in Sydney (Australia), then served as a postdoctoral fellow at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (UK) and now co-leads the Broad’s Center for Mendelian Genomics and is group leader in the Analytic and Translational Ge netics Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital. His work revolves around the use of large-scale genomic data to interpret genetic variants, particularly in the context of rare, severe genetic diseases. MacArthur team has assembled the largest collection of sequences of the protein-coding region (exome) of the human genome, creating the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD), a default reference database of DNA sequence data from >140,000 individuals. At the Broad Institute’s Center for Mendelian Genomics, MacArthur uses DNA and RNA sequencing technologies to investigate the genetic basis of rare diseases in thousands of families every year, returning genetic diagnoses to over 2,000 families to date, and identifying over 150 new candidate genes associated with a wide variety of diseases. |
DOMESTIC SPEAKERS |
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| Stephen Leslie, University of Melbourne
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Associate Professor Stephen Leslie is a statistician working in the field of mathematical genetics. He obtained his doctorate from the Department of Statistics, University of Oxford in 2008. After graduating Stephen was a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Statistics at Oxford. He was awarded one of Oxford’s prestigious Nuffield Department of Medicine Scientific Leadership Fellowships. In 2012 Stephen returned to Australia to establish his own research group. Since 2016 Stephen has been Associate Professor of Statistical Genomics at the University of Melbourne. In 2016 Stephen was awarded the Woodward Medal by the University of Melbourne, the University’s highest award for research by faculty. In 2019 Stephen was awarded the Moran Medal of the Australian Academy of Science. Stephen’s work covers several aspects of statistical and population genetics. His main interests are in detecting and controlling for population differences in genetic data; typing complex genetic variation, with a particular focus on immune-associated loci; and performing statistically rigorous analyses of the relationship of genetic variants to disease.
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Alistair Forrest, University of Western Australia, Perth
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Professor Alistair Forrest is an NHMRC senior research fellow and head of the systems biology and genomics lab at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research in Western Australia. He is an expert in transcriptomics, and as scientific coordinator of FANTOM5, led the international consortium to globally map human promoters, enhancers, microRNAs and long non-coding RNAs using Cap Analysis of Gene Expression and RNA-seq. He researches broadly in the areas of genomics, transcriptomics and systems biology, and is interested in describing the biological components encoded in our genomes and how they work together in systems. His lab has two major research streams: single cell analysis of tumours (he leads the Western Australian cancer single cell consortium and the ACRF Centre for Advanced Cancer genomics); and mapping enhancers of known Mendelian disease genes and assessing their role in genetic disease. The common thread between these streams is application of genome wide measurements and integrative analysis. |
Sarah Medland, QIMR, Brisbane
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Professor Sarah Medland is a statistical geneticist working on mental health and neurological traits. She received her PhD in 2006 from the University of Queensland, followed by a Sidney Sax NHMRC Post-doctoral Fellowship at the Virginia Institute of Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics in USA. She is currently the coordinator of the mental health research program and head of the psychiatric genetics group at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute. As chair of the genetics team of ENIGMA neuro-imaging genetics consortium, Sarah has played a leading role in large multi-site studies identifying genetic variants influencing brain structure in healthy and disease-focused cohorts. She is also the PI of nation-wide studies recruiting large cohorts of individuals diagnosed with ADHD, ASD, Bipolar, Depression and Schizophrenia which are seeking to identify genetic variants associated with developing these disorders and variation in treatment response. |
| Ingrid Scheffer, University of Melbourne, Austin Health & The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melb
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Laureate Professor Ingrid Scheffer AO MBBS PhD FAA FAHMS is a physician-scientist whose work as a paediatric neurologist and epileptologist at the University of Melbourne and the Florey Institute has led the field of epilepsy genetics over more than 25 years, in collaboration with Professor Samuel Berkovic and molecular geneticists. This resulted in identification of the first epilepsy gene and many genes subsequently. Her major interests are in the genetics of the epilepsies, epilepsy syndromology and classification, and translational research. She collaborates on research on the genetics of speech and language disorders, autism spectrum disorders, cortical malformations and intellectual disability. She led the first major reclassification of the epilepsies in 28 years, published in March 2017, for the International League Against Epilepsy. In 2014, she was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and also as Vice-President and Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. She was a co-recipient of the 2014 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science. In 2018 she was elected to the Royal Society (London). |
| Tony Roscioli, Sydney Children’s Hospital, NSW Health pathology Randwick & NeuRA
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A/Professor Tony Roscioli is a clinical geneticist at Sydney Children’s Hospital, senior staff specialist in genomic pathology at NSWHEALTH pathology Randwick, and Group leader in Neurogenomics at NeuRA, University of New South Wales. His research interests in gene identification, with a focus on disorders of neuronal migration, intellectual disability (ID) and craniosynostosis/orofacial clefting, have stemmed from clinical training in the field of developmental anomalies/congenital malformations. A/Prof Roscioli was awarded an NHMRC Overseas Biomedical Postdoctoral Fellowship, taking him to Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in The Netherlands, where he received valuable training in genomic medicine. Gene identification has subsequently been a major research emphasis, culminating in 24 disease gene identifications and 6 Nature Genetics papers. He has worked in translational genomics in Sydney since 2012, guiding two laboratories to clinical accreditation, designing practical genomic consent forms, and co-ordinating genomic education for professionals. He was recently awarded a fellowship of the UK College of Pathologists and leads a Centre of Research Excellence and Australian Genomics Health Alliance flagship in neurocognitive disorders as well as the SPHERE initiative, GenomeConnect. |
Retrospective presenter session:
Nick Martin (QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute) & Eric Moses (Curtin University & University of Western Australia) will be presenting a “genemappers retrospective” with John Blangero (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley)
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Meeting Sponsors:
NSW Health
Sponsorship will support the international speakers, with overarching aim to grow and promote the research environment in NSW, build research capacity and encourage collaboration in the health and medical research sector.
Gold Sponsorship
Silver Sponsorship
Exhibitors:
Coffee sponsor:
Promotional Products Sponsor:
Related courses and meetings of interest
- Mendelian Randomization (MR) Course – Hosted by University of Queensland at Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane QLD – Wednesday 6 November 2019. Mendelian randomization (MR) studies use genetic variants as instrumental variables to test the causal effect of a (non-genetic) risk factor on an outcome of interest. This course aims to provide an introduction to the conduct, assumptions, strengths and limitations of Mendelian randomization studies. Download the course flyer here.
- Please note that the inaugural Australian Polygenic Risk Symposium will be running immediately before GeneMappers on 18-19 November 2019 in Sydney. APRS will be hosted by the Kinghorn Centre for Clinical Genomics at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research will bring together researchers, clinicians, educators and industry to focus on the applications of polygenic risk and its clinical implementation. Why not register for both?
