CRISPR and Beyond: Perturbations at Scale to Understand Genomes (Virtual Conference)

Owing to the ongoing situation with Covid-19, this event will be organised as a virtual conference.

We are pleased to announce our third conference on genetic perturbations at scale. The development of CRISPR/Cas-based technologies and DNA synthesis make it possible to modulate genomes with relative ease. These tools can help us understand how genetic variation influences phenotype and thereby answer long-standing questions in biology that impact human health, laying the foundations for precision medicine for heritable diseases and cancer treatment.

This rapid advancement in gene-editing technology enables us to begin to understand the functional implications of natural and disease-related human genetic variation. This year’s programme will cover approaches that modulate the genome and its context at scale, from single nucleotides and genes to hundreds of growth environments.

We will discuss (i) assays that focus on individual nucleotides in coding and non-coding regions to understand the effects of single mutations; (ii) focused- and genome-wide randomization methods that assess the influence of changing sequence structure and content; (iii) genome-wide knock-out, knock-down, and upregulation experiments to measure the phenotype when a gene is perturbed; (iv) interaction screens to uncover context-specificity of effects; (v) methods and applications of gene editing (vi) single cell readouts and other emerging technologies. Computational approaches are integral to all these topics, and will be covered by invited speakers, as well as sought for in submitted abstracts.

The conference will bring together biomedical researchers working on high throughput screening, genome engineering, and/or variant effect interpretation. We welcome abstracts on all major themes of this meeting to oral or poster presentations.

The conference will start at approx. 13.00 on 1 September and finish at approx. 5pm on 3 September 2021. All times are given in British Summer Time. See the time where you are here.

Topics will include:

• Disease models
• Coding variation
• Genetic interactions
• Single cell approaches + perturbations
• Emerging technology
• Regulatory variation

Scientific programme committee

John Doench
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, USA

Jolanda van Leeuwen
University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Leopold Parts
Wellcome Sanger Institute, UK

Lea Starita
University of Washington, USA

Confirmed speakers

Megan Dennis – University of California Davis, USA
Sascha Hoogendoorn – University of Geneva, Switzerland
Barbara Mair – Boehringer-Ingelheim, Austria
Anna Gloyn – Stanford University, USA
Jesse Bloom – Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre, USA
Jolanda van Leeuwen – University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Martin Kampmann – University of California, San Francisco, USA
Peter Smibert – Immunai, USA
Rebecca Shapiro – University of Guelph, Canada
Kristen Knouse – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Gosia Trynka – Open Targets, UK
Lars Velten – Centre for Genomic Regulation, Spain

Conference organisers

Lucy Criddle, Conference & Events Organiser
Treasa Creavin, Scientific Programme Manager

Registration includes:

• access to the virtual event portal (Log in details will be emailed a few days before the event starts)
• live-stream sessions, including posters and online networking channels
• recordings of the live-stream sessions, available ‘on-demand’ for four weeks after the event ends.

*To increase the international diversity of attendees at our meetings, we have reduced fees for delegates from Lower and Middle Income Countries (see list of countries here) If you are in need of financial support would like to apply for a bursary, please follow the instructions below.

Bursaries

A limited number of bursaries are available to cover up to 100% of the registration fee.

To apply, please complete your event registration and bursary application via this unique link before the bursary deadline. For your application to be considered and your place reserved, you must also submit the following supporting documents:

• letter stating financial need and explaining how you will benefit from attending the event
• brief CV

We will be contact with the result of your application shortly after the bursary deadline.

If you have any questions, please contact the conference organiser.

We welcome abstracts from all areas relevant to the main themes of the meeting, for both oral and poster presentations. Several oral presentations will be chosen from the abstracts submitted.

Abstracts will only be considered from registered delegates. Please use our online abstract submission system and follow the instructions given to ensure your abstract is submitted correctly. All abstracts must be submitted by the deadline. If you are intending to submit more than one abstract, please contact the conference organiser prior to registration.

The scientific programme committee will assess your abstract after the deadline has passed and you will be notified whether you have been selected for an oral or poster presentation.

All those accepted for a poster presentation will be given the opportunity to upload a short video describing their work.

Abstract deadline: 20 July 2021

How to upload an abstract once you have already completed registration:

1. Log back into your registration account using either Firefox or Internet Explorer as your browser, via link above the ‘Share’ button on the right hand column of this page
2. Click on ‘Account’ (top right).
3. Then click on ‘View account history’. This will show a table of your event registrations.
4. In the right-hand column you will see the option to ‘Upload file’ – click on this and select to upload an abstract.