Conference Registration, Conference Materials Pick-Up, Morning Coffee, Tea and Breakfast Pastries in the Exhibit Hall

Biomarker Development and Clinical Practice in Precision Medicine
Sung-Liang Yu, Professor, Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences and Medical Biotechnology, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taiwan

Precision medicine is the trend of modern therapy promoted by United States President, Obama, particularly, the APPLLO Oncology Network has officially gone globally in Jul 2016. According to the cancer therapeutic strategies, we developed two lung cancer prognostic markers for chemotherapy, a 5-gene marker and a 5-microRNA marker that predict survival of patients with non-small cell lung, NSCLC and a 6-CNV marker (copy number variation) that can predict overall and disease-free survivals of patients with EGFR-activating mutation treated with EGFR-TKI. Cancer patients largely may benefit from the development of molecular target therapy and companion diagnosis. Patients avoid inappropriate treatment, adverse effects and poor life quality as well as unsatisfied survival by personalized medicine. We developed a quantification method for gene mutation by DNA mass spectrometry that can detect as low as 1% gene mutations. Based on these assays we establish an ISO15189 certificated reference Lab to provide more than 10,000 clinical services for clinical trials and translational medicine. Recently, we identified the YAP1 R331W as an allele predisposed for lung adenocarcinoma with high familial penetrance. The adjusted Odds Ratio is 6.4 after screening for 3,000 individuals. It is the first germline driver mutation found in Asia. In the middle of 2016, we carried out PT test (proficiency test) of cfDNA for T790M detection which is the first time performed in Asia. The genomic approaches are also applied for other diseases, including colorectal, gastric, ovarian cancer and leukemia. Most importantly, how to reduce the cancer incidence is the critical issue we should try to overcome in the near future.

Coffee and Tea Break with Light Snacks and Visit the Exhibitors

Technology Spotlight:
Bioinformatics is the Linchpin in Precision Medicine
Pei-Lung Chen, Associate Professor and Attending Physician, National Taiwan University Hospital

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has become much more affordable, which allows clinical applications of genome-scale data.  However, it is now clear that sequencing is only one perspective of a more complex story.  In this presentation Dr. Pei-Lung Chen will share the experience in applying NGS to genomic medicine and clinical genetic testing. Dr. Chen will demonstrate how advanced genomics analysis promises better outcome of clinical applications as well as precision medicine.

Technology Spotlight:
Pioneering the Path Toward Precision Oncology Through Next-Generation Sequencing
Joe Daniel, Oncology Leader - Asia Pacific and Japan, Thermo Fisher Scientific

We will discuss the design elements and rationale of our Oncomine® Assay product line in the following applications:

• Solid tumor assays for detection of SNVs, indels, CNVs, and gene fusions in a single workflow
• Liquid biopsy assays for cfDNA and CTC analysis
• Immune response assays

Networking Lunch: Visit Exhibitors and Engage with Fellow Delegates

Translatome Analysis by NGS: Filling the Gap Between Transcriptome and Proteome Results in Biomarker Discovery
Joseph T. Tseng, Associate Professor, National Cheng-Kung University, Taiwan

Ribosome profiling or ribo-seq is a new technique that provide genome-wide information on protein synthesis in vivo, and filled the technological gap existing between our abilities to quantify the transcriptome and the proteome. The applications of ribosome profiling were used to identify the translation start sites, the distribution and the speed of translating ribosome, and to study the effects of microRNAs on translation. This technology already dramatically change our understanding of translational control. In my lab, we have successfully established and modified this technology to get a more high quality data with lower cost. And the translatome result of different kinds of colon polyps were analyzed. From the results, we identity several good biomarkers for further validation and highlight the importance of Ribo-Seq technology in biomarker discovery.

Technology Spotlight:
Real World Data of ctDNA Assay with cSMART Technology for NSCLC in China
Kevin Wang, General Manager, Oncology department, Berry Genomics Corp.

We will share thousand patients’ data of ctDNA assay with cSMART technology for NSCLC. It combined the clinical treatment and molecular data. The data will point out the high sensitive and absolute quantity through cSMART technology.

Coffee and Tea Break

Panel Discussion: The Engagement of Academia and Industry in Moving NGS into the Clinic and Applications
Topics Addressed:

• ctDNA studied using NGS
• NIPT
• Liquid Biopsy Development
• IP Challenges
  

Panelists:

• John Leite, Illumina
• Barbara Rudolph, Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP
  
• Alex Pertsemlidis, UT-Health Sciences Center at San Antonio
• Hui Jiang, BGI
• Kevin Wang, Berry Genomics
• Joe Daniel, ThermoFisher Scientific
• Ting-Chang Chang, President, Taiwan Precision Medicine Society
  

Networking Reception with Beer, Wine and Appetizers

Close of Day 1 of the Conference.

Morning Coffee, Tea and Breakfast Pastries and Networking in the Exhibit Hall

Recent Advances on Small RNAseq-based Circulating RNA Profiling and its Applications
Kai Wang, Principal Scientist, Institute for Systems Biology, United States of America

Circulating RNA has gained significant interest due to their potential diagnostic applications. Despite its potential, it is a challenge to accurately obtain the spectrum of circulating RNA.  We made improvements on next generation sequencing based small RNA profiling.  These advances will serve as the foundation of moving this promising field forward.

Coffee and Tea Break and Networking in the Exhibit Hall

Technology Spotlight:
The New Era of Cancer Precision Treatment: NGS-based Clinical Companion Diagnostics
Chien-Hsiang Tang, R&D Director, LihPao Life Science Corp.

Precision Medicine has been an emerging approach for cancer diagnostic treatments through improvement on technology and reduction on supplies. Countless advances in Precision Medicine have already led to powerful new discoveries and treatments. Over the years, our laboratory dedicates to the research on personal genetic profiling with NGS (next generational sequencing) platform. With strong clinical practices in Taipei Veteran General Hospital, the laboratory forwards the molecular diagnostic practice to the cancer patients. Under College of American Pathologists (CAP) accredited laboratory, our current services include Colorectal Cancer (CRC), Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC), and Comprehensive target-drug-panels, and more beneficial servicing panels will be launched soon. Through target-drug related NGS genetic profiling, the effectiveness of medication could be greatly improved, thus, reduced the possibility of cancer reoccurrence for patients.

Networking Lunch in the Exhibit Hall: Visit Exhibitors and Engage with Your Fellow Delegates

Technology Spotlight:
Development of NGS Methods Tailored For Circulating Cell-Free DNA (cfDNA)
Mengchu Wu, Director of Application Development, Personal Genomics

Scalable Data Management and Analysis Infrastructure for Clinical Sequencing – From Mapping to Interpretation
Adam Yao, Research Scientist, Academia Sinica, Taiwan

There is an emerging need for data management, integration, analysis, and interpretation of data generated from NGS (next-generation sequencing) technologies. Our group consisting of a multidisciplinary team has built a scalable infrastructure capable of effectively handling the above tasks. Our infrastructure contains a bioinformatics pipeline to process NGS data, an analysis pipeline to annotate all genetic variants detected in patient samples, and a genome variant database to store known genetic variants and their clinical interpretation. This infrastructure is easily adaptable for various research settings ranging from small research labs to large sequencing centers.

Coffee and Tea Break and Networking in the Exhibit Hall

Use of High-Throughput Sequencing for Disease Gene Discovery: the Path from Helix to Health
Wen-Hung Chung, Director, Whole-Genome Research Core Laboratory of Human Diseases, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taiwan

Although array-based genotyping methods for common variants have thus far succeeded in explaining a modest fraction of the genetic components of human diseases, recent advances in next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have rapidly facilitated substantial progress. This outcome is expected because NGS can directly identify the causal variants whereas chip-based platforms generally only capture a few percent of the estimated heritability for these diseases. With further developments in sequencing technologies for data acquisition and more effective tools for data analysis and clinical extraction, NGS now becomes technically feasible to search for Mendelian disease genes in an unbiased manner with strategies that depends on the availability of well-phenotyped patients and family members. Here, we show our attempts to uncover novel disease-causing mutations for rare hereditary diseases (e.g. hereditarily cutaneous diseases, rare neurological diseases, and inherited pediatric conditions) by whole-genome or whole-exome sequencing. In particular, we apply a more comprehensive approach to detect rare variants that contribute considerably to these conditions. Through unveiling the genetic basis of these disorders and the identification of new genes and pathways, a better understanding of disease pathogenesis is obtained, ultimately leading to the development of therapeutic strategies and accurate prediction of clinical outcome.

Application of Next-Generation Sequencing on Pre-implantation Genetic Screening
H. Sunny Sun, Director/Professor, Institute of Molecular Medicine, College of Medicine; Director, Center for Genomic Medicine, National Cheng Kung University Taiwan, Taiwan

Close of Conference