Personalised Medicine… and omics for all
Two young researchers have organized a multidisciplinary focus group for sharing experiences with the use of omics-techniques. Backed by the Personalised Medicine Network, the OMICs-focus group is just one example of a range of initiatives and events underway in the network.
More about the Personalised Medicine Network
- The Personalised Medicine Network has 238 members
- 2nd annual meeting of the network is November 8
- Next quarterly seminar on approaches to personalised medicine June 16
- Join the Personalised Medicine Network
- Center for Clinical Genomic Data “CONNECT”
- PhD Course on Personalised Medicine
- Master’s course on Personalised Medicine
More about the OMICs-focus group
- The OMICs-focus group has 71 members
- Next meeting May 19 (and 22nd of September)
- Join the OMICs-focus group by sending email to focus.omics@au.dk
- Find upcoming meetings and read more about the focus group
They expected about ten participants for the first meeting in their newly established OMICs-focus group and booked a meeting room accordingly. However, as the date approached back in March of this year, Joanna Kalucka and Christian Damsgaard had nearly 50 registered participants for their event. They switched venues to an auditorium to accommodate the large gathering, and the OMICS-focus group launched as a huge success right out of the gate.
“We want to create a space where researchers can share their knowledge on omics-techniques regardless of their field of study, their department or career level. So many of us use these techniques in our research and it seems obvious that we should learn from each other’s mistakes and advances,” says Joanna Kalucka, assistant professor at the Dept. of Biomedicine.
Two Health networks set to help
The idea for the focus group was hatched out between her and Assistant Professor Christian Damsgaard from the Dept. of Biology at the Faculty of Natural Sciences. They met through their common affiliation with Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, where they decided to arrange meetings for like-minded researchers whether they work in proteomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, or any other omics-area.
“All we really needed was someone to back the idea and help with the practicalities of facilitating the focus group. We teamed up with both the Personalised Medicine Network and the Inflammation Network, who quickly lend us their support,” explains Christian Damsgaard.
Their idea definitely seems to have broad appeal. The first meeting saw attendance from ten different departments across the university and included the whole range from master’s students to full professors. The second and third meetings are scheduled for May 19 and the next for September 22 respectively, and starting from September, the group will also host bi-weekly ‘Come to Code’-workshops, where researchers can meet up for three-hour sessions to work on their coding projects and help each other along.
First of many
Deirdre Cronin Fenton, associate professor and vice chair of the Personalised Medicine Network, is excited to see initiatives like the OMICS-focus group sprout and was immediately keen on helping out the two young founders.
“This is exactly the kind of thing we want to see grow out of the research networks. It is open to everyone and is all about enabling interaction between researchers in specialised areas. I believe groups like these are ideal for that,” says Deirdre Cronin Fenton.
The steering committee of the Personalised Medicine Network hope to see more groups of this sort in the future, and the founders of the OMICS-group already have a few ideas set to go for anyone who wants to facilitate the next focus group.
“There are lots of basic methods and techniques that many of us would probably be interested in practicing together in groups. Why not have a microscopy focus group for example?” says Joanna Kalucka. “Right, or one for bio-imaging in general,” adds Christian Damsgaard.
Anyone can join
Whether you are interested in focus groups or not, the Personalised Medicine Network has a lot to offer – especially junior researchers trying to establish themselves at the university.
“We have our quarterly seminars spanning a wide range of topics, our annual meeting for all members of the network, and also PhD- and master’s degree courses in Personalised Medicine – these are heavily subscribed though, so don’t hesitate in signing up,” says Deirdre Cronin Fenton.
She also refers to the new Center for Clinical Genomic Data “CONNECT”, which offers researchers 10 hours of support on making use of clinical and genomic data in personalised medicine research completely free of charge.
“Some may have a hard time seeing how their research fits with ‘personalised’ medicine - particularly if you do not work with cutting edge gene technology or omics. However, the goal of personalised medicine is providing more precise diagnosis, more effective treatment, and fewer side effects for patients. As such, we need to take an interdisciplinary approach. If anyone doubts whether the network is for them, I encourage them to sign up for the seminars, look through our webpage, sign up to our newsletter, and register for the annual meeting,” says the vice chair of the network.
Contact
Associate Professor and Vice Chair Deirdre Cronin Fenton
Department of Clinical Medicine - Department of Clinical Epidemiology
Mail: dc@clin.au.dk
Phone: +45 87 16 82 09
Assistant Professor and co-founder of the OMICs-focus group Joanna Maria Kalucka
Department of Biomedicine and Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies
Mail: joanna.kalucka@aias.au.dk
Phone: +45 52 16 98 17
Assistant Professor and co-founder of the OMICs-focus group Christian Damsgaard
Department of Biology and Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies
Mail: christian.damsgaard@aias.au.dk
Phone: +45 26 84 05 38