To view the complete agenda and full line up of speakers & their presentations please download the agenda to your right.

The NGS field is rapidly evolving and as the technology is now more affordable and powerful, it allows researchers, clinicians and pharma to push the boundaries of what can be achieved. While old challenges of data analysis remain, new opportunities have emerged in critical areas such as whole genome sequencing, therapeutic applications and new clinical diagnostics development such as prenatal testing.

This year’s congress will take us to new grounds in discussing the latest challenges and opportunities of NGS.  The following are the highlights to the congress.

Pharma – Learn more about NGS in pharmaceutical research and development! Critical case studies and presentations on: whole genome se     quencing applications; NGS in clinical trials and NGS in biomarker development

Healthcare –New for 2018 the congress will be looking at NGS and metagenomics, improved next generation sequencing techniques in liquid biopsy as well NGS in precision medicine.

Academic – Hear about the latest research in the field looking at new technologies and techniques. Critical areas include advances in NGS data analysis, long read vs. short read sequencing and novel therapeutic applications.

In keeping with Oxford Global’s highly successful life sciences series, an expert panel of over 50 speakers will present a full conference programme covering the topics outlined below. These topics have been compiled as a result of a comprehensive research process undertaken with our advisory board members including VPs, Directors, Senior Research Fellows and Professors from global pharmaceutical organisations and leading research institutions.

Our Congress will focus on the following key areas of research:

4^th Annual Next Generation Sequencing Congress

Day 1 Stream 1 – Exploring Emerging Trends in NGS Data Analysis & NGS Application Strategies

• Advances in bioinformatics & computational tools of NGS data analysis
• New and improved methods of processing and integrating NGS data
• Advances in NGS data interpretation by utilizing novel methods and tools
• High performance and cloud computing for Big NGS data processing
• NGS & DNA methylation analysis

NEW FOR 2018:  PART 2: Future Forward: Where Will Sequencing Take Us?

• Opportunities and challenges in whole genome sequencing
  • Long-non-coding RNA-associated diseases
• Long read vs. short read sequencing
• Hand-held sequencing devices; future applications
• The critical need for vast information commons
• Data storage and DNA
• Pre-natal genetic testing and the ‘designer baby’

Day 1 Stream 2 – Precision Medicine, Biomarker Development and Clinical Diagnostics

• Evaluating guidelines for using NGS in precision medicine
• NEW FOR 2018: NGS and metagenomics
• Linking NGS to clinical trials
• Improved next generation sequencing techniques in liquid biopsy
• Comprehensive genomic profiling in the clinic
• Utilising NGS for molecular diagnostics development
• NGS in biomarker development
• Oncology and liquid biopsies

 Day 2 Stream 1 – The Application of NGS in Different Therapeutic Areas

• NEW FOR 2018: NGS and healthcare providers: case studies of translation to clinical applications
• Therapeutic case studies from the areas of:
  • Oncology
  • Rare diseases and brain disorders
  • NEW FOR 2018: Infectious diseases and vaccines
    • Pathogen detection
    • Pathogen host interactions
  • NEW FOR 2018: Pre-natal detection testing
• Multi-omic signatures for biomarker development

Co-located with the 4th Annual Single Cell Analysis Congress

The single cell analysis field is rapidly expanding. Technology is becoming cheaper, easier to use and is allowing for more and more samples to be sequenced in parallel. Increased amounts of data have meant an influx of bioinformaticians and the kinds of tools needed to analyse single-cell data. With rare cell events potentially holding the answer to many issues in cancer, immunology, neurology and developmental biology, interest in the field has grown exponentially.

Join over 180 senior level attendees to discuss the latest challenges in the field as well as the latest developments in pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, single cell multi-omic approaches, cancer biology and spatially resolved single-cell sequencing data.

Day 1 Stream 3 – Single Cell ‘Omics Analysis: Current and Emerging Tools

• Single cell ‘omics case studies and therapeutic applications:
  • Genomics
  • Transcriptomics
  • Proteomics
  • In situ proteomics and genomics
  • NEW FOR 2018: Epigenomics
  • NEW FOR 2018: Single-cell multi-omics approaches
• Using single cell analysis in clinical & diagnostic development
• Single cell analytical platforms enabling profiling of CAR T cell therapy products
• Single cell genomics for understanding tumour heterogeneity
• Technologies for the analysis of genome wide information

Day 2 Stream 2 – Translation to Diagnostic and Therapeutic Applications

• Case studies: oncology, pulmonary diseases, cardiovascular and hereditary disease and stem cell biology
  • NEW FOR 2018: High-dimensional single cell analysis and immunotherapy
  • Mutated genes in tumour samples and single cell analysis
  • NEW FOR 2018: Microbiome-based precision medicine
• Single cell diagnostic development and clinical applications
• Trends in single cell isolation, capture and purification
• Single cell analysis tools including PCR analysis technologies
• High throughput in-situ sequencing approaches
• NEW FOR 2018: Microfluidics and transcriptomics
• Single cell RNA sequencing technologies and applications
  • NEW FOR 2018: Single Cell RNA Sequencing and neo-natal vaccination & diagnosis
  • NEW FOR 2018: RNA sequencing and immuno-oncology

Day 2 Stream 3 – Overcoming Single Cell Analysis Challenges

• Challenge 1: sample preparation for single cell analysis
• Challenge 2: bioinformatics:
  • Calling copy number variations
  • Single cell data-handling
  • Identifying mutated genes in tumor samples
  • Improving the accuracy of quantitative analysis of transcripts
• Statistical analysis of single cell data
  • NEW FOR 2018: Cluster statistical methods for single cell analysis
  • NEW FOR 2018: Computational genomics
• NEW FOR 2018: Standards and methods of data storage and analysis