ESHG 2018 in Milan

The European Conference of Human Genetics (ESHG) 2018 took place in sunny Milan, Italy.

The conference brought together some of the brightest minds in the field of genetics. It started with a great talk on complex genetics from this year’s Leena Peltonen award recipient Dr. Tuuli Lappalainen and ended with the Mendel lecture by Prof. Emmanuelle Charpentier. Dr. Lappalainen eloquently presented an overview of her research thus far, where she has lead the way to try integrating large-scale genome and transcriptome sequencing data to understand how genetic variation affects gene expression. Emmanuelle Charpentier shared the history of development of a revolutionary new technology in genetic engineering, the CRISPR-Cas9 mechanism.


The conference also contained some practical sessions on the use of Ensemble tools and UCSC Genome Browser. The use of Variant Effect Predictor (VEP) was shown with some nice examples to identify variants of interest in genetic screen. The conference offered more than we could possibly take an advantage, lot of poster on diverse topics, exhibitor presentations, networking party and other social events.   

Loretto was also chuffed to see that her graph was shown in Prof.Dr. Heribert Shunkert’s Sunday talk on large-scale sequencing studies in coronary artery disease.  It is indeed to nice see one’s work being used and showcased.

We had a great time at the conference and look forward to next year’s ESHG in Gothenburg, Sweden.

MM, IA, LMV

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