text: As with previous events we brought together key opinion leaders from NGS clinical diagnostic labs as well as those from research backgrounds so that our virtual ideas hub continues to flourish and act as a catalyst to help develop collaborations. This event saw a strong focus on Bioinformatics with an entire day dedicated to a workshop at the University of Glasgow covering the steps from raw NGS data all the way to Assembly (eg, raw data, QC, mapping of reads, visualising DNAseq and RNAseq data, understanding the workflows).
  In addition to bioinformatics we took a look at wet lab QC issues involving the variable parts of the workflows as well as the newer application areas that are being performed or trickling through to diagnostic labs. Panel debates allowed our experts and attendees to interactively discuss many issues of interest such as the benefits of exome sequencing versus whole genome sequencing and more.
  10.30 – 11.00: Opening by Nicola Williams, Head of Lab, West of Scotland Genetic Services, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Challenges and opportunities of implementing genomic sequencing technology into the NHS
  10.00 – 10.30: TECHNOLOGY PRESENTATION – QIAGEN Sample to Insight: Analysing and interpreting the biological meaning in NGS data by Dr Tim Bonnert, Qiagen
  14.00 – 14.30: Dr Hywel Williams, Centre for Translational Omics – GOSgene, UCL Institute of Child Health, London Gene identification in children with rare uncharacterised diseases
  15.30 – 16.00: Dr Mick Watson, Director of ARK-Genomics, The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh Genomics and metagenomics applied to animal health and food security
  University of Glasgow, 21st April 2015 This event took place on 21st April (the day prior the main conference) at the Computer Cluster, West Medical Building, University of Glasgow. The programme was divided in 3 parts covering the following:
  Interpreting RNAseq results (inspecting data from different conditions, visualising count-based data, differences between polyA selected and ribosomal depleted samples, functional analysis of differential expression data, network analysis of differential expression data)
  Aridhia is a world-leading health informatics company developing technology and capability that supports the management of chronic diseases, precision medicine and biomedical research through the use of biomedical informatics and analytics. Aridhia was co-founded in 2007 by David Sibbald a software entrepreneur and philanthropist; and Professor Andrew Morris who is Chief Scientist for Health in Scotland, Professor of Medicine, Director of the Institute of Population Heath Sciences and Informatics, and Vice-Principal of the University for Data Science at the University of Edinburgh. Based in Edinburgh and Glasgow, Aridhia is made up of a multi-disciplinary team of 50, data scientists, clinicians, computer scientists, software developers and healthcare experts. MARKET FOCUS: Aridhia was founded on the principle that in order to bring about real change within healthcare, a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach is vital. No matter where you look in healthcare or research three common themes emerge. – Collaboration is the solution to solving difficult challenges and translating research into clinical practice. – Information Governance is central to all uses of data. – Building commercial solutions to population scale while offering personalised choice. We came together because we believe that the prevalence of chronic diseases threaten to strain healthcare systems everywhere unless academia, governments, healthcare organisations, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies collaborate and use their collective power to invest strategically in global solutions for the delivery of clinical care for chronic disease within the next 10-15 years. To meet this need we have created AnalytiXagility, a collaborative data science platform for healthcare and research, allowing users to build informatics solutions utilising Aridhia’s analytics platform, data science services, API services and app development capability. AnalytiXagility is the platform that underpins the world-leading Stratified Medicine Scotland – Innovation Centre. For further information, please visit www.aridhia.com
  QIAGEN Bioinformatics is powered by CLC bio, Ingenuity, and BIOBASE. We offer bioinformatics software tools for next generation sequencing (NGS) data analysis and interpretation. Our solutions are designed to be universal, so you can mix and match the technologies best suited to your needs.
  Diagenode Corporation is a global Epigenetic company and Diagnostics assay manufacturer based in Liège, Belgaum and Denville, NJ, USA. Diagenode offers the most comprehensive range of Epigenetic products in the world, amongst its product portfolio are the famous Bioruptor® Shearing devices, Premium® and Blueprint® antibodies, IP-Star® automated workstations and many reagents. From Diagenode’s founding in 2003 in Liège as a local Biotechnology startup, the company has expanded rapidly. Diagenode has opened its US branch in 2006 and developed a distribution and partnering network across the entire world with strong anchorages in Japan and other Asia-Pacific countries. Diagenode has been profitable since its creation. The company planned to develop extensively its range of innovative products in both the Epigenetics and Infectious diseases markets. In October 2013, Diagenode’s headquarters have moved into a brand new facility near to the Univeristy of Liège’s campus.
  Kapa Biosystems is a life science reagents company that utilizes a proprietary directed evolution technology to optimize enzymes for PCR, real-time PCR and next-generation sequencing applications. Visit our booth to learn how our latest DNA and RNA library preparation products simplify workflows and improve next generation sequencing results. KAPA Hyper Plus (is) a single tube DNA fragmentation and library preparation workflow in 2.5 hours. KAPA Stranded RNA-Seq Kits with RiboErase (is) an effective enzymatic method for depletion of up to 99.9% Ribosomal RNA for preparation of high-quality libraries for transcriptome sequencing.