43rd European Human Genetics Conference through the eyes of a participant

The 43rd Annual Conference on Human Genetics (43rd European Human Genetics Conference, ESHG 2011) was held in Amsterdam, Netherlands from May 28 to May 31, 2011.

I would like to note the significant scope of the event: the number of registered participants was more than 2,200 people (2129 poster reports) from Europe, America, Japan, China and other regions of the world (compared to 1989 there were 350 participants and 185 poster reports). The plenary lectures were given by the world's leading scientists.

I was surprised by the huge number of stands of companies working in the field of gene biotechnologies, increasing every year (this time – more than 110): from obtaining material, storing it to analysis on biological microchips. It is important to emphasize that a special focus of research is focused on the analysis of genetic material using a new generation of biochips, which allows to obtain a complete coding nucleotide sequence of the human genome in a short time within 2-3 hours (Life technologies and Roche devices).

These chips make it possible to decipher nucleotide sequences in a few hours to study thousands of genes that make up the exome at the same time, i.e. to sequence not the entire genome, but only exons – sections of DNA encoding amino acid sequences in proteins. This method has only recently entered clinical practice, but already demonstrates brilliant results.

Now such studies are carried out mainly to search for mutations in patients with rare diseases. Unfortunately, such research is quite expensive, so only the world's leading research centers, laboratories, and more often whole groups of laboratories can afford it. However, there is a tendency to reduce their cost due to innovations and concretization of research tasks. So, the cost of sequencing one exome using SOLID platform is 2000 euros.

Most of the plenary studies, as well as poster reports, were devoted to GWAS (Genome-Wide Association Studies) – genome-wide associative studies on huge samples of patients (from 1,000 to 100,000 people). Most of the reports were presented by the hosts of the conference.

Particular attention was drawn to the company EuroGentest, under the auspices of the European Society of Geneticists, developing standards for genetic testing and engaged in education in this field. To date, more than 40 companies engaged in genetic testing in Europe meet the requirements adopted by this company (in Russia – only 1). In 2-3 years, EuroGentest plans to approve its standards at the international level and allow only certified companies to engage in genetic testing.

On the conference website you can get acquainted with its program and download a collection of abstracts (pdf, 8.25 Mb).

Unfortunately, there was also a fly in the ointment. So, in an interview with Dr. Elizabeth H. Blackburn (Nobel Prize for telomere decoding), there was not a word about A. Olovnikov, our renowned scientist who proposed the telomeric theory of aging. Apparently, Western scientists quickly forget about Russia's achievements…

The conference was so full of interesting reports that we had to carefully choose which seminar or which section to attend.

During the conference I was able to attend the following sections and seminars:

Plenary lectures of the first day:

• How next generation sequencing changes the practice of Medicine
• Unraveling the Dutch genome in health and disease

Reports:

• What's next for sequencing?
• Statistical genetics and analysis of results
• Decryption of GWAS data
• The next generation of functional genomics
• Complex diseases
• There is no genome of an aging person
• Interpretation of genome-wide sequencing data
• Clinical, social and personal features of gene testing

My main tasks at the conference were the presentation of a poster report – “Susceptibility genes of metabolic syndrome and its symptoms in children and adolescents with obesity”, acquaintance and communication with conference participants in an informal setting, finding out new technological features and new scientific trends.

I would like to note that, like many Russian scientists, the organizing committee granted me a fellowship to participate in the conference, and thank the organizing committee of the conference for the opportunity to participate in such a large-scale event on my subject.

Oleg Glotov, Candidate of Biological Sciences, Senior Researcher at the D.O. Ott Research Institute of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, St. Petersburg
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru06.07.2011