Portal team presents at Festival of Genomics

The Festival of Genomics was held in Boston on October 3-4, and the Type 2 Diabetes Knowledge Portal was well represented. This meeting brings together multiple stakeholders in genomics and health care, using innovative formats to educate, promote connections, and spark conversations.

On the first day of the meeting, Nöel Burtt presented a talk focusing on the T2DKP: "The Type 2 Diabetes Knowledge Portal: accelerating action from data."

Nöel Burtt speaking at the Festival of Genomics

The next day, T2DKP team members participated in a session with an unusual format, designed to stimulate interaction and conversation: "In the Loop."  Jason Flannick, Senior Group Leader for the Portal project, chaired the session, which was entitled "Complex data, complex solutions: tackling the challenges of genetic data sharing, interpretation, and representation." "Loop leaders," all from the Broad Institute, included:

• Sean Simmons, speaking on "Technological solutions to privacy concerns around data access and utilization";
• Moran Cabili, speaking on "Ethical and technical challenges to genetic data access";
• David Siedzik, speaking on "Analysis tools for genetic data and their scalability"; and
• Maria Costanzo, speaking on "Representing and democratizing access to genetic association results."

Left to right: Jason Flannick, Sean Simmons, Moran Cabili, David Siedzik, and Maria Costanzo participate in an "In the Loop" session

The session began with an introduction from the chair and speakers, and then the audience broke into four groups for discussion with each of the Loop leaders. Each leader facilitated a discussion among two different groups, and then the entire group convened again to sum up the discussions. The group may not have come up with any breakthrough ideas, but participants definitely emerged with a clearer picture of the many challenges around aggregating and representing genetic data.

The T2DKP team is headed next to the American Society of Human Genetics meeting. Stay tuned for a preview of our participation there in the next blog post!