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Date: November 3, 2010 (Wednesday)
Time: 10:00 am - 12:00 noon
Venue: Seminar Room 6, LG1/F, Laboratory Block, LKS Faculty of Medicine Building, 21 Sassoon Road, HK
Abstract
Public Health Practice in the Era of Genomic Medicine
Genomics and molecular biology have developed at an ever increasing pace over the last few decades. Few if any areas of medical practice have escaped its influence. This talk will focus on the implications of the science for the practice of public health. The issues that I intend to discuss are those that emerged from a multidisciplinary meeting of invited experts at Ickworth, Suffolk in the UK that took place in April 2010. The report of the meeting and the recommendations of the group will not be published until December, together with an accompanying paper in Genetics and Medicine. Without stating the conclusions of the meeting or its recommendations, I am nevertheless able to set out the scope of the discussions and to indicate the nature of the concerns that were aired at the meeting and the likely consequences for public health practice.
Applications and Implications of Whole Genome Analysis for Health
Most molecular genetic tests currently used for medical purposes are targeted at specific mutations or genes and aim to answer a specific medical question. However, the recent and ongoing drop in the cost of genome-wide approaches – such as DNA microarrays and next generation sequencing platforms – may alter this paradigm in the near future. Although to date these techniques have largely been confined to a research setting, they are now starting to be used in medical practice and are likely to become widely available within the next decade, including directly to consumers via the internet. The implications of whole-genome analysis are enormous, from both a technical and medical perspective, as well as a societal and ethical standpoint. This talk will give an overview of some of the key applications of whole-genome analysis in clinical medicine and public health, and some of the issues that need to be addressed prior to implementation.
Bio-sketch:
Dr Ron Zimmern
Dr Ron Zimmern is Chairman of the Foundation for Genomics and Population Health, the successor to the Public Health Genetics Unit which he established in Cambridge in June 1997. He graduated in 1971 following his medical training at Trinity College, Cambridge and the Middlesex Hospital, London. After specialising in neurology he obtained a law degree and entered public health medicine in 1983. He was Director of Public Health for Cambridge and Huntingdon Health Authority from 1991 to 1998. He is also an Associate Lecturer at the University of Cambridge and an Honorary Consultant in Public Health Medicine at Addenbrooke's Hospital.
He has served over the last decade on many national committees concerned with genomics. These have included the Genetics Commissioning Advisory Group, the Steering Group for the UK Genetic Testing Network, the Joint Genetics Committee of the Royal Colleges, the Council of the British Society of Human Genetics and the Diagnostics and Screening Panel of the UK Health Technology Assessment Programme, which he chaired. He has an Honorary Professorship in Public Health at the University of Hong Kong and is a Fellow of Hughes Hall in Cambridge. His special interests and expertise, in addition to Public Health Genomics, include strategic planning, the relationship between clinical services and teaching and research, priority setting in the NHS, and the law and ethics of medicine.
Dr Caroline Wright
Dr Caroline Wright is Head of Science at the Foundation for Genomics and Population Health (PHG Foundation), in Cambridge, UK, an independent non-profit organisation working to catalyse the effective and responsible use of biomedical science in healthcare. She trained in chemistry and molecular biology at the University of Cambridge, and then worked as a research analyst within the biotechnology and diagnostics industry. Since joining the PHG Foundation in 2007, she has authored numerous policy reports and academic papers particularly around the evaluation and regulation of genetic tests, including those sold direct-to-consumer, and the use of cell-free fetal DNA for non-invasive prenatal diagnosis. She currently leads a programme of work investigating the implications of whole genome sequencing technologies for health and health services.
For registration and enquiries, please call
Ms Shirley Chow at 2819-9876 or email mhrn@hkusua.hku.hk
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