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Genetics Subdivision Report
Greetings and Happy New Year from the frosty Big Apple! I
am very excited to
kick-off
our
New Year's activities
and to serve as your Genetic Subdivision Chair. I would
first like to thank our outgoing Chair, Mary Lowery
Nordberg who did an extraordinary job mentoring me and
putting together such a great program for the Genetics
Subdivision. I also thank the Program Committee led by
Jeffrey Kant for organizing an outstanding program for
the 2008 Annual Meeting, including a Saturday Evening Social
Event Live solely based on our own members participation
(M-AMP). Special thanks also to other 2008 Genetics
Subdivision members for their contribution to the success of
our Meeting: Julie Gastier-Foster (Clinical Practice
Committee), Rizwan Naeem (Nominating Committee),
Siby Sebastian (Nominating Committee) and Madhuri
Hegde (Training & Education). The Genetic Plenary
Session at the 2008 Meeting focused on copy number variation
and genetic disorders. James Lupski covered some of the
newer aspects of copy number variation, presenting novel
data regarding genetic mechanisms associated with the
development of genetic rearrangements responsible for
numerous genetic diseases. This was followed by an exciting
workshop given by Bassem Bejjani, Gail Herman
and Livija Medne on array CGH and copy number
variants in clinical practice. Debra Leonard and
Kathleen Hudson gave a comprehensive workshop about the
promise and challenges of personalized medicine that was
followed by a great panel discussion. Tom Prior
continued drawing a large audience of AMP puzzlers in his
Puzzlers by Prior workshop. We hope that Tom will continue
to challenge us with a new collection of puzzles for the
2009 Meeting! The last Workshop involved five speakers, who
are mostly either trainees or technologists (Patrick
Lundquist, Brent Ferrell, Fernanda Sabato,
Anne Igbokwe and Carleta Maurice) that
presented their work as platform presentations. We received
many great comments on the quality of the work presented and
the speakers.
I want
to extend a very
special thanks to all the M-AMPs who woke up early to
attend the Early Bird Sessions. The popularity and success
of the Early Bird Session in Genetics continues to grow each
year! This years Early Bird Sessions focused on three
major topics: analysis of variants of uncertain significance
(Hanna Rennert), Bayesian analysis given by Shuji
Ogino and a personal genomic workshop moderated by
Jeffery Kant. As a benefit to AMP members, many of
these presentations from the 2008 Annual Meeting are
available in the AMP Web Library (www.asip.org/CVWEB_AMP/WebLibrary/Weblib.htm).
The
Annual Genetics Subdivision Business Luncheon provided us
with many new and interesting ideas for potential topics for
the upcoming 2009 Annual Meeting. Ira Lubin and
Jean Amos Wilson started off the luncheon with an
overview of their project carried out in collaboration with
the AMP Clinical Practice Committee aimed at evaluating
molecular genetic test ordering and reporting of results,
using cystic fibrosis as a model. Findings from this work
are important for improving the quality of test-ordering and
results-reporting practices in diagnostic laboratories.
I
would like to extend a warm welcome to our new 2009
Chair-Elect Arlene Buller. I look forward to working
with Arlene and the rest of the Genetic Subdivision
leadership, Kasinathan Muralidharan, Narasimhan
Nagan, Siby Sebastian, Min Fang,
Madhuri Hegde and Linda Jo Bone Jeng to put
together a wonderful program for the 2009 Annual Meeting.
Thanks to the members of the Genetic Subdivision, Arlene and
I are already hitting the ground running. Feedback from the
luncheon and discussions with members has allowed us to come
with a list of potential topics for the 2009 Annual
Meeting. The top topics include molecular genetics of
common diseases, genetic analysis of complex disorders, next
generation sequencing and gene patenting. We are looking
forward to seeing all of you in Florida. Please e-mail
either me or Arlene Buller (Arlene.M.Buller@questdiagnostics.com),
with your suggestions and ideas for speakers, topics and/or
the next great puzzles. |
