SHORT COURSES*
Pre-Conference Lunch Short Course
Wednesday, June 21 | 11:30 am - 2:30 pm
SC1: Blood from Patient ‣ Needle ‣ Freezer ‣ Analysis ‣ Diagnosis: Biobanks and Their Critical Role in Moving Precision Medicine Forward
With advancement in next-generation sequencing technologies where cell-free DNA and RNA are being used for cancer genomics and non-invasive prenatal screening assays, blood, as a biospecimen source, has proven to be all the more important to collect for research. Thus, for liquid biopsies, optimal conditions for blood collection, transport, and storage are still under development. To help advance these efforts, many healthcare organizations are developing large biorepositories to collect biospecimens from patients and healthy individuals who are consenting to participate in medical research to advance technologies and knowledge for improvement of human health. This short course discusses what factors are important to consider in the blood collection and handling process for downstream analysis for genomics and proteomics assays.
Instructors:
Nazneen Aziz, Ph.D., Executive Director, Kaiser Permanente Research Bank
Stacey A.A. Honda, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Medical Director, Diagnostic Specialties and Research; Chief, Pathology and Medical Director, Center for Health Research, Hawaii, Hawaii Permanente Medical Group; Medical Director, Laboratories, Kaiser Hawaii Health Plan and Hospital
Phoebe Loh, Global Product Manager PreAnalytiX, Sample Technologies, QIAGEN
Detailed Agenda
11:30 am Welcome and Introductions
11:45 A Large Biobank and Its Infrastructure: An Overview and Its Activities in Precision Medicine Research
Nazneen Aziz, Ph.D., Executive Director, Kaiser Permanente Research Bank
To advance precision medicine efforts, many healthcare organizations are developing large biobanks to collect biospecimens from patients and healthy individuals who have consented to participate in medical research to advance technologies and knowledge for improvement of human health. We discuss Kaiser Permanente Research Bank's infrastructure to standardize the operating procedures and efforts in the collection of samples and data and efforts in precision medicine research.
12:30 pm Lunch Break
1:00 Strengthening the Foundation of Liquid Biopsy Workflows: Key Considerations in Blood Tube Selection
Phoebe Loh, Global Product Manager PreAnalytiX, Sample Technologies, QIAGEN
Navigating the many options currently existing for blood collection tubes for liquid biopsy can be tedious. This talk gives an overview of important considerations for choosing the most appropriate blood tube for your circulating DNA workflow while introducing features of blood tubes including the PAXgene Blood ccfDNA Tube. Comparative data will be presented for applications in analysis of fetal DNA and circulating tumor DNA.
1:25 Importance of a Quality Specimen
Stacey A.A. Honda, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Medical Director, Diagnostic Specialties and Research; Chief, Pathology and Medical Director, Center for Health Research, Hawaii, Hawaii Permanente Medical Group; Medical Director, Laboratories, Kaiser Hawaii Health Plan and Hospital
2:10 Interactive Q&A with Instructors and Participants
2:30 Close of Short Course
Instructor Biographies:
Nazneen Aziz, Ph.D., Executive Director, Kaiser Permanente Research Bank
Dr. Aziz is the Executive Director of the Kaiser Permanente Research Bank. Dr. Aziz’s interest and expertise is in the implementation of genomics in clinical practice. In her previous roles, Dr. Aziz was the Director of Molecular Medicine at the College of American Pathologists where she led the development of the first set of standards and proficiency tests for clinical laboratories using next-generation sequencing. Nazneen has held executive leadership positions in biotech and healthcare including most recently as the SVP/Chief Research Officer at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. Nazneen was an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital and now hold a Research Professorship title in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University. Nazneen received her Ph.D. in molecular genetics at MIT. She is on the National Academies Round Table of Genomics and Precision Health and the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s expert panel on multiplex technologies.
Stacey A.A. Honda, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Medical Director, Diagnostic Specialties and Research; Chief, Pathology and Medical Director, Center for Health Research, Hawaii, Hawaii Permanente Medical Group; Medical Director, Laboratories, Kaiser Hawaii Health Plan and Hospital
Stacey Honda is the Associate Medical Director (AMD) of Diagnostic Services and Research for Hawaii Permanente Medical Group (HPMG). In her role as AMD of Diagnostic Services, she oversees Diagnostic Imaging and Laboratory services for the region with 20 facilities located on Oahu, Maui and the Hawaii Island including both hospital and clinic based services. A pathologist by training, Dr. Honda also is Chief of Pathology, Medical Director of Laboratories and Director of Point of Care Testing. In addition, Dr. Honda is the Medical Director for the Center for Health Research, Hawaii (CHRH). CHRH is part of the CHR which is made up of Kaiser research centers from two regions, Northwest and Hawaii. In her role at CHRH she oversees the research activities of the Center. She is also Principle Investigator for Kaiser Hawaii for the Kaiser Permanente Research Bank. Dr. Honda is Board Certified in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology. She also has a Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Sciences which she received from the John A. Burns School of Medicine.
Phoebe Loh, Global Product Manager PreAnalytiX, Sample Technologies, QIAGEN
Phoebe Loh is the Global Product Manager at QIAGEN for PreAnalytiX, a QIAGEN/BD cooperation dedicated to developing solutions for collection, stabilization and nucleic acid isolation of human specimens for clinical and research workflows, a keystone product being the PAXgene Blood RNA system. Previously in research roles, she was highly involved in genomics, taking part in the sequencing effort of the Human Genome Project with projects centered on sequencing and identifying genes of human chromosome 22q. Later work with RNA, including work with siRNA synthesis at Dharmacon and research on mechanisms of cellular trafficking and gene transport at the University of Rochester Medical Center, then brought her to QIAGEN and PreAnalytix where she focuses on identifying customer needs to direct development of technologies as effective tools for novel workflows.
Dinner Short Course
Thursday, June 22 | 5:45 - 8:45 pm
SC2: Innovative Imaging Technologies for Patient CTCs
This course covers viable CTC capture technologies and propagation strategies, as well as existing microscopy and flow-based imaging technologies. Participants also learn about emerging confocal, light sheet and super-resolution techniques, plus connecting CTC characteristics with patient outcome and drug response.
Who should attend: Researchers from biopharma, research laboratories, and diagnostic organizations who are developing liquid biopsy assays/kits and relevant technologies, and who desire to understand and improve clinical utility at the starting point of blood collection.
Instructor:
Stuart S. Martin, Ph.D., Professor of Physiology, Greenebaum NCI Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine
Detailed Agenda
5:45 pm Welcome and Introductions
5:55 Presentation by Stuart S. Martin
6:40 Dinner Break
7:10 Presentation by Stuart S. Martin
8:25 Interactive Q&A with Instructor and Participants
8:45 Close of Short Course
Instructor Biography:
Stuart S. Martin, Ph.D., Professor of Physiology, Greenebaum NCI Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine
Dr. Martin received his Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego, after training as a Howard Hughes undergraduate research fellow at the University of Virginia. Dr. Martin completed a Damon Runyon postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School that combined functional genomic studies with mouse models of breast tumor metastasis, under the mentorship of Dr. Phil Leder. In 2004, Dr. Martin joined the Greenebaum Cancer Center at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Martin is working to apply physical science and engineering approaches to the study of cancer metastasis. In 2010, Dr. Martin was one of only three investigators nationwide recognized with an Era of Hope Scholar Award from the Congressionally-directed Medical Research Program for his innovative research on breast cancer metastasis.
* Separate Registration Required.