ESHG Conference 2017 in Copenhagen

This year brought the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) Conference (27-30 May) and we were lucky enough to attend and present our respective research projects.
It was great to see our Institute being represented at the ESHG with posters by Beatrice, Svenja and Matthias as well as a presentation by Loretto.  Even more so to see Svenja win an honourable mention for her poster.

On Saturday the 27th, during the opening plenary lectures session, Dr. Axel Visel presented the future of genomics and human genetics for the next 100 years.  The highlight of his lecture was the functional annotation of the non-coding genome and the identification of distant-acting transcriptional enhancers by combining comparative genomics, sequencing-based chromatin studies (ChIP-seq), genome engineering methods (CRISPR/Cas9), and transgenic reporter assays. He demonstrated that these regulatory elements are critical for normal embryonic development and how the perturbed enhancer sequences cause human diseases.
Overall, the ESHG offered so many interesting talks, workshops, novel techniques and presentations given by renowned experts in their field. Selected educational and plenary sessions are available on online (https://2017.eshg.org/index.php/programme2017/videos/).



In addition to the great science we had some opportunities to enjoy our time in Copenhagen. Starting with the fun train journey between Lübeck and Copenhagen where the train entered onto ferry to cross the Baltic Sea.  Also, the networking events at the conference were nice to attend with good food, music and conversations. On one such night we had a private visit the National Aquarium of Denmark for a marketing event – a very special place to spend an evening.

LM, IK, MM, SK & BS


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