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Press ReleasesPress Releases
| Rapid Development of Biotechnology will Continue to Personalize Medicine |
16.09.2002
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The top experts, scientists and representatives of the biotech companies attending the two-day international conference on gene technology held in the Vanemuine Conference Hall in Estonia, noted that the rapid developments in biotechology sector enabled by genomics are going to revolutionize medicine in near future.
The third annual Gene Technology Forum hosted by the Estonian Genome Foundation and held from September 13-14, focused on the future of personalized medicine in this era. More than 400 scientists, physicians, students, healthcare officials, business executives and investors from the Baltic States, Scandinavia, Western Europe and North America participated at the forum.
According to Prof. Andres Metspalu, member of the scientific programme committee of Gene Technology Forum 2002, the forum was successful based on the interest of participants and the high level of presentations. “Held now for the third year, the Forum proved that this event has won international recognition among the professionals and organizations involved in the field of gene and biotechnology” said Metspalu.
The keynote speaker of the forum was Professor Dr. Detlev Ganten, Director of the Max-Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (Germany), who presented his vision about the development of medicine in coming years taking into account the possibilities and challenges laying behind personalized health care. He noted that the concept of “personalized medicine” is commonly associated with hope, hype and fears. Prof. Ganten emphasized that the development of biotechnology has enabled to change fundamentally the ideology of patient treatment, in comparison to common medicine focusing mainly on studying the patient’s phenotype. Personalized medicine combines the useful tools of molecular genetics enabling the physicians and scientists to concentrate on studying patient’s genotype, e.g. looking at the patient from inside. He suggested that the next 10 years will show how successful we will be. Although the future is still uncertain, it is certain, that medical care and investment in the life sciences will be more important and rewarding than ever.
The second day of the forum was opened by Prof. Richard M. Myers, Director of the Stanford Human Genome Center (USA), who gave an overview of the current state of completion process of human genome sequencing. According to Prof. Myers, there has been 100-to 200-fold increase in the efficiency of the technology used for sequencing during the last decade and thus, the final sequence of human genome will be completed a few years earlier than predicted and should be published by April 2003. Prof. Myers was one of the authors of the article describing the rough draft of human genome published in February 2001.
Professor Andres Metspalu gave a thorough update about the latest developments of the Estonian Genome Project. Just days before the conference Estonian Genome Project Foundation opened its laboratory facilities in Tartu. The opening denoted the end of a 3-year preparatory period and readiness of the Gene Bank to launch the pilot project aiming to collect phenotype and genotype data from 10 000 people in three Estonian counties: Tartu, Saare and Lääne-Viru Counties.
More detailed discussions at the forum focused on genetic causes of different diseases; genetics of tuberculosis, breast cancer and eye diseases were discussed in length. The forum continued discussions about the ethical and legal aspects of conducting population-wide genome research.
Prof. Alexandre Mauron, from Geneva Medical School of Genetics, elaborated on bioethical dimensions of genome research. He presented an intriguing approach to common perception about the genome that has become a functional equivalent of the soul. However, “why is "neuronal manipulation", for example, through education regarded as being ethical and genomic manipulation unethical”, asked Mauron. In a sense we are our DNA but we are also stories, experiences. Human has become a shaper of himself.
Among the other topics covered by the speakers, the progress made in recent years towards developing secure medical and genetic information management systems, large-scale data aggregation and analysis tools for genomic and pharmacogenomic research was presented.
The winner of first Gene Technology Award, established by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Estonian Genome Foundation, was announced at the forum. The award of 50 000 EEK (ab USD 3000) was given to Asper Biotech Ltd., a local biotechnology company, for a unique genotyping system, Genorama QuattroImager. The system allows the company and its customers to convert information generated by the Human Genome Project, the SNP Consortium database, other public databases, and corporate genomics efforts into information directly useful to drug discovery and development. In other words, the system enables to take the raw data of DNA sequence and convert it to information that pharmaceutical/biotech companies and academic labs can use in assessing how well a drug works, why it works, how to avoid or minimize drug side effects, whether a particular gene is an appropriate development target, and which genes work together in disease states. These issues cut to the core of basic research and pharmaceutical development and are of intense economic and social interest.
Two awards were announced at the forum in connection with the traditional student essay contest, organized by the Estonian Genome Foundation and EGeen International Inc. The winner of the first price (10 000 EEK ab 630 USD) of the essay contest subtitled “Prerequisite of Estonian Success” was Martin Meltsas, a biology student of Tartu University, and the second price (5 000 EEK ab 315 USD) was won by Marko Saag, a law student at the Law Institute of Tartu University.
Sponsors helped more than 100 students and around 250 physicians and researchers to attend the forum with reduced participation fee. The list of sponsors of the third international Gene Technology Forum included the Estonian Biocentre (EU funded project GENEMILL), Egeen International Inc. The Wellcome Trust, IBM, Tartu City Government, University of Tartu, KPMG, Embassy of France and Embassy of Germany in Estonia.
The third international Gene Technology Forum 2002 was organized by the Estonian Genome Foundation http://www.genomics.ee , established in 1999. The Foundation specializes in organising, co-ordinating and promoting R&D activities, training and promotional activites in the fields of gene and biotechnology.
For additional information please contact:
Prof. Andres Metspalu
Head of the Department of Biotechnology, University of Tartu
Member of the Scientific Programme Committee of Gene Technology Forum 2002
Tel +372 7 375 030
Mrs. Maris Väli
Estonian Genome Foundation
Head of the Organizing Committee of Gene Technology Forum 2002
Tel +372 7 375 030
E-mail: maris.vali@genomics.ee
press_16_09_02_eng.pdf (37.98 KB)
press_16_09_02_eng.doc (77 KB)
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