Heidelberg
Germany
In the past few years, exceptional progress has been made in the application of genetics- and genomics-based technologies in biomedical research. There are currently thousands of DNA variants that are robustly associated with clinically relevant human traits. Although these should provide a rich source of molecular starting points for drug discovery, and a deeper understanding of their role in human physiology, the translation of these data from large-scale projects has been slow to influence the selection and validation of new targets in drug discovery and development programmes.
This meeting will bring together researchers based in academia and industry to focus on the opportunities and challenges for genomics in drug discovery. Epidemiology, molecular biology and computational approaches will be covered with a focus on contributions these methods can offer to the development of new therapies to treat patients. The potential of human cellular assays that can be perturbed genetically (by RNAi or CRISPR) or chemically will also be emphasised.