Seminars and Events

Watch the special presentation from NeuRA CEO Professor Peter Schofield AO and guest speaker, Katie Little, daughter of the iconic Jeanne Little.

 

 

Colour your hair in any way you like and help raise funds for ground breaking Mental Health research. Impact the lives of those living with anxiety, depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

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.

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

Register your interest today

 

 

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.

 

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.

Active Ageing

UPDATE: THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED. 

Join speakers from Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA), who will discuss the latest research in pain and the link with the brain.

New research shows that there are changes in the brain when someone has pain for a long time. Using this knowledge of the brain and how it changes with pain, researchers have developed new treatments for chronic low back pain that target how the brain and central nervous system process sensory information to produce pain. The seminar will include the latest findings and treatments aiming to reduce low back pain by targeting the brain, specifically for those with chronic back pain.

 

Speakers

Associate Professor James McAuley – Senior Research Scientist 
Introduction

Edel O’Hagan – Physiotherapist and Scientist 
Myths about low back pain

Matthew Bagg  – Physiotherapist and Scientist 
Pain, the brain and the back

Aidan Cashin – Exercise Physiologist and Scientist 
Moving forward with back pain

 

The seminar is free but bookings are required by contacting 9399 1627 or email resolve@neura.edu.au

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
29th May	Samantha Owens	Prof Cyndi Shannon Weickert	TBA
29th May	David Lloyd	Prof Cyndi Shannon Weickert	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.

 

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

 

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Schedule & Key Dates

Preliminary Schedule	Details
20th November	Lunch from 12pm Conference Welcome Talk Session 1 Afternoon tea Talk Session 2 Evening Networking Function (5.30-8.30pm, includes drink service and nibbles)
21st November	Breakfast from 7am if staying on-site Optional early morning kayak Talk session 3 Morning tea Talk session 4 Lunch Talk session 5 + 6 Afternoon Tea Poster viewing session (5-6.30pm, includes drink service & nibbles) Dinner bookings can be made onsite for Boilerhouse Restaurant, pop into Engine Room Bar or book a “Ghosty Dine” package with Q Station.
22nd November	Breakfast from 7am if staying on-site Talk session 8 Morning Tea Talk session 9 Lunch Awards & Conference close early afternoon (TBC)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Registration & Accommodation Bookings

 

Registration & Accomodation Bookings (with 10% GST)

Cost of registration includes: access to all scheduled talks across the 3 days, attendance at networking function on opening night (includes drink tickets & finger food), attendance at poster viewing evening (includes wine & cheese/nibbles), full access to exhibition space & exhibitor stalls, lunch on 3 conference days and four morning/afternoon teas.

 

Type	Regular registration (16/08/2019-31/10/2019)	Bookings Link
Standard	$740 + $74 GST = $814	CLICK HERE FOR STANDARD REGISTRATION
Junior post-doc <10 yrs since PhD	$632 + $63.20 GST = $695.20	CLICK HERE FOR  JUNIOR POST DOC REGISTRATION
Student / Research Assistant	$524 + $52.40 GST = $576.40	CLICK HERE FOR STUDENT REGISTRATION
Single day	$370 + $37 GST = $407	CLICK HERE FOR SINGLE DAY REGISTRATION
Trade exhibitor/sponsor	$740 + $74 GST = $814	CLICK HERE FOR TRADE EXHIBITOR / SPONSOR REGISTRATION

 

 

 

 

 

 

* Late registrations after 31 October 2019 are possible via special request

 

 

>  ACCOMMODATION OPTIONS & BOOKINGS

> HOW TO GET TO Q STATION

 

 

For further information and late registration requests please contact: genemappers2019@neura.edu.au

 

 

 

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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

 

 

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INTERNATIONAL SPEAKERS
Cathryn Lewis, King’s College London, UK	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.
Mike Boehnke, University of Michigan, USA	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.
Dr Kaitlin Samocha, Wellcome Sanger Institute, UK	Dr Kaitlin Samocha is currently a postdoctoral fellow involved with both the Deciphering Developmental Disorders (DDD) and DECIPHER projects. Her work is focused on studying and understanding the patterns of rare variation that contribute to disease.
DOMESTIC SPEAKERS
Stephen Leslie, University of Melbourne	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.
Alistair Forrest, University of Western Australia, Perth	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	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	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, NSWHealth pathology Randwick & NeuRA	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

 

 

 

 

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Exhibitors:

 

 

 

 

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Coffee sponsor:

 

 

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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?

 

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2019 Organising Committee
 

Co-convenor: Jan Fullerton (Neuroscience Research Australia)
Co-convenor: Carol Dobson-Stone (University of Sydney)
Co-convenor  Joseph Powell (Garvan Institute)
Peter Schofield (Neuroscience Research Australia)
Marina Kennerson (ANZAC Research Institute & University of Sydney)
Irina Voineagu (University of New South Wales)
Georgia Chenevix-Trench (QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute)
Nick Martin (QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute)
Lyn Griffiths (Queensland University of Technology)
Stuart MacGregor (QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute)
David Evans (University of Queensland Diamantina Institute)
Melanie Bahlo (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute)
Justin Rubio (University of Melbourne)
Eric Moses (Curtin University & University of Western Australia)
Nicola Armstrong (Murdoch University)
Jac Charlesworth (University of Tasmania)
Alex Hewitt (University of Tasmania)

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Location Map: