Get ready for AGBT

Wednesday, February 10, 2016 11:26 Welcome to AGBT 2016 (or #AGBT16 if you are on Twitter) in sunny Orlando. We’re not going to be able to walk to the beach and take a dip in the Gulf this year, but I’m certainly hoping the Marriott Grande Lakes can live up to what attendees have come to expect from the Marco Island Marriott. Getting here was easy enough, but I’ve come to enjoy the drive across the Everglades on Route 41 from Miami.

There has been the usual buzz about the meeting on Twitter, although this does seem to have declined in recent years due to JP Morgan stealing the show with all the big Genomics announcements. It used to be that companies had to enthuse scientists with new technologies, now it’s most definitely investors. Most attendees will know what to expect having read the company press releases, or more likely the coverage of day1, day2 and day3 on GenomeWeb. But who knows what surprises have been left for this week?

The AGBT blog: This year AGBT are experimenting with “official blogger” coverage of the meeting. This was an idea I’d suggested in the Q&A session after AGBT15 and hopefully will make it easier for those who could not come, or get in, to hear about what’s happening. It may even make it easier to sit back and listen to the talks knowing someone else is making notes for you. Your official bloggers are:

Meredith Salisbury: Meredith works with life science communications firm Bioscribe and is a freelance journalist for Techonomy. She just publised an article very pertinent to many AGBT attendees "Genomic Medicine Is Here. American Healthcare Isn’t Ready" where she discuss the need for physician training in genetics, electronic medical records needing to be structured to hold genome data, and the like. Her Twitter handle is @salisburymw.

Dale Yuzuki: Dale is the Director of Market Development, Oncology for SeraCare Life Sciences. SeraCare supports clinical laboratories and IVD manufacturers with quality control technologies and processed biological materials, and Dale develops, launches and engages the market with Seraseq Precision Medicine oncology reference materials. Before SeraCare, he developed and launched the 'Behind the Bench' (link) blog for Thermo Fisher Scientific's Genetic Systems Division, where he wrote articles, interviewed scientists, and represented Thermo Fisher Scientific at conferences. Before that role he had several roles in marketing and sales for several life sciences firms including Life Technologies, RainDance Technologies, Illumina and QIAGEN. Blog: http://blog.seracare.com and http://Yuzuki.org. His Twitter handle is @DaleYuzuki.

James Hadfield: James heads the Genomics Core facility at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, a department of the University of Cambridge. He got his degree and PhD at the University of East Anglia. He started his career by developing an ErbB2 copy number assay in 1995 and has spent much of the last 20 years working in the field of Genomics, moving to the CRUK Cambridge Institute in 2006. James writes the Core-Genomics blog, is seconded to Genomics England, and is on the SAB of Rubicon Genomics. James thinks Genomics is the next best thing since sliced bread.

Who’s covering what: I’m covering the opening plenary this afternoon and will be back with more official coverage on Friday morning. Tomorrow morning Meredith will cover the Clinical Genomics plenary (I’m particularly looking forward to Sam Aparico’s talk), and she’ll also be covering Fridays afternoon plenary. Dale will cover the Thursday and Saturday afternoons. We’re only “official bloggers” for the plenary talks so expect to see lots of unofficial coverage (not just from us: OmicsOmics (read Keith's lament), GenoHub, NextGen Seek, ) during the meetings concurrent sessions, the sponsor sessions, and poster sessions (if anyone can think of an easy format to cover 400+ posters).