Genetics in Transplantation Workshop review

26 Nov '09

Delegates and speakers from the UK, Europe and North America gathered at the Royal Society in London on Tuesday 17th November to attend the GMEC Genetics in Transplantation Workshop. The meeting – the first of its kind in the UK – was set up to address platform technologies and the complexity of statistical analysis between two genomes, donor and recipient, and provide an overview on progress to date in some of the larger studies.

The day provided an opportunity for interested research groups to meet and look at how collaborative research programmes can be developed. The speakers included Dr Ioannis Ragoussis (University of Oxford), Professor Minnie Sarwal (Stanford University), Dr Alex Goldfarb (Harvard University), Dr Gianpiero Cavelleri and Dr Peter Conlon (both from Beaumont Hospital, Dublin), Prof Dirk Kuypers (University Hospitals Leuven) and Dr Iain MacPhee (St George’s University of London). Professor Terry Strom of Harvard University, a close collaborator with the MRC Centre for Transplantation at King’s College London, discussed how current research in this field could help develop individualised therapy for transplant patients. From King’s, Professor Graham Lord, Dr Mike Weale and Dr Maria Hernandez-Fuentes presented outlines of their current and future research. In addition, a wide range of issues were addressed, including technological advances in genome analysis, forthcoming genome wide association studies and the difficult statistical issues that will challenge researchers in the future. Dr Jim Hagan, CEO of GMEC, reported that the organisation is aiming to bring together researchers with shared goals. Echoing his remarks, Professor Steven Sacks, Director of the MRC Centre for Transplantation said “we hope that those involved in today’s meeting will continue to share their progress and develop collaborative research in the coming months”.