Day 1 – Thursday 28th Nov

Registration 9:15AM – 10:00AM at Melbourne Brain Centre Auditorium

Session 1: Disease modelling & novel disease gene discovery

10:00AM – 12:00PM

Welcome address – Prof Andrew Sinclair, AFGN co-chair

Prof Ian Smyth

Understanding and identifying genetic causes of kidney disease

Prof Natasha Harvey

Defining the genetic and developmental basis of complex lymphatic vascular anomalies

A/Prof Katie Ayers

Resolving undiagnosed cases of differences of sex development via the regulatory genome

A/Prof Christopher Hahn

Functional characterisation of clinically relevant ERG gene variants helps describe a new disease entity, "ERG deficiency syndrome"

Dr Sophie Wiszniak

Neural crest specific roles for the ubiquitin ligase NEDD4 in congenital heart defects.

Lunch 12:00pm – 1:00pm

12:30 – 1:00PM Poster session A

Session 2: Clinical translation and applied functional genomics

1:00PM – 3:00PM

Prof Zornita Stark

How good is good enough? Using emerging evidence for gene-disease relationships in clinical practice

Prof Sandra Cooper

RNA for Rare Disease project to embed RNA testing clinical practice for rare disorder diagnostics

Dr Chai-Ann Ng

Calibrating patch clamp assays for diagnosis and clinical interpretation of missense variants in channelopathies

Dr Rocio Rius

CaRDinal: an Australian cloud-based platform for collaborative rare disease research analysis

Prof Tracy Bryan

The role of functional genomics in diagnosis of telomere biology disorders

Afternoon Tea

3:00PM – 3:30PM

Session 3: Functional genomics data blitz

3:30PM – 4:00PM

Dr Dimuthu Alankarage

Protein methylation and r-loop resolution: Role of PRMT5 during embryogenesis

Dr Kelly Martinovich

Developing novel tailored therapeutics for people with familial hypercholesterolemia

Mr Hian Mun Lee

Ectopic binding of CUX2 causes developmental and epileptic encephalopathy

Ms Yujie Li

Decoding SCN2A: a high-throughput approach to characterise variants associated with epilepsy and neurodevelopmental disorders

Ms Sumedha Negi

Dissecting HOPX variants of unknown significance in cardiac remodelling and disease

Dr Shouya Feng

Functional analysis of disease associated NLRP3 variants

Session 4: Workshop

4:00PM – 5:00PM

Dr Rehan Villiani

Translating research knowledge into applied genomics practice; building process for functional data evaluation

Symposium social event

Location: Science Gallery Melbourne, Melbourne Connect, at/114 Grattan St, Parkville VIC 3052

Time: Thursday 28th of November @ 6-9PM

Drinks and canapés will be provided. This will be a great opportunity to network, view the fascinating exhibit on display and chat to our sponsors about services and opportunities they offer.

Proudly sponsored by:

Day 2 – Friday 29th Nov

Arrival 8:45 – 9:00am at Melbourne Brain Centre Auditorium

Session 5: High Throughput & Emerging Functional Genomics Technologies

9:00AM – 11:00AM

Prof Hamish Scott

Development of MAVE assays and reporting of transcription factors involved in germline and somatic hematopoietic malignancy

Dr Lachlan Jolly

RNA Variant Studies in Silent Genes: PERSYST

Dr David Ascher

Predictive Tools for Personalised Medicine & Drug Development

Ms Tahereh Noori

A novel approach to uncover cryptic cases of immunodeficiency - A cell-based functional assay that accurately links genotype to phenotype in Familial HLH

Dr Gavin Chapman

Automatic embryo phenotyping reveals additional malformations in mouse models of human congenital disease

Morning tea

11:00AM – 11:30AM

Session 6: Disease Modelling and Novel Disease Mechanisms

11:30AM – 1:20PM

Prof Sally Dunwoodie

Identifying genetic causes of congenital heart disease

Dr Lee Miles

Biallelic variants in HMGCS1 are a novel cause of rare rigid spine syndrome

Ms Pawanrat Tangseefa

Genetic and biochemical characterisation of the novel CREB3L2 mutation, Q186Ter, in mice

Dr Vanessa Fear

Modelling hypertrophic cardiomyopathy using MYBPC3 genetic variants

Dr Gokhan Cildir

Defective kinase activity of IKKα leads to combined immunodeficiency and disruption of immune tolerance in humans

Lunch 1:20PM – 1:50PM

1:50PM – 2:20PM Poster session B

Session 7: Advanced Methods in Disease Modelling and Therapeutics

2:20PM – 4:15PM

A/Prof Anai Gonzalez-Cordero

Using stem cells and retinal organoids to develop advanced cell therapy for blindness

Dr Travis Johnson

Drosophila as an emerging treatment discovery tool for human inherited metabolic disorders

Dr Avnika Ruparelia

FISHing for diagnosis and therapies for neuromuscular disorders

Prof Ernst Wolvetang

Leveraging CNS organoid models of a genetic childhood white matter disease for disease mechanism discovery and therapeutics development

Dr Jessica Cale

Treatments for those who have none: A platform from Western Australia to nationwide

Closing remarks

4:15PM – 4:30PM

Addressed by Prof Sally Dunwoodie, AFGN Co-Chair