Professors Dianne Nicol and Don Chalmers, along with PhD candidate Jan Charbonneau recently attended a HeLEX Conference at the University of Oxford in the UK ‘Translation in Healthcare Conference: Exploring the Impact of Emerging Technologies’ which ran from June 23-35.
Jan presented on her recent survey of attitudes towards direct to consumer genetic testing and the professors led a session with close collaborator Professor Jane Kaye (Oxford) entitled Embedding Biobanks as Tools for Translational Research – Has the Biobank Bubble Burst? The topics covered the promise of biobanks, good governance and collaborations, levelling-off and sustainability and included a significant discussion on the headline question. It is intended that a paper will be written based on this session, authored by attendees at the session.
Over 100 people attended the conference, including leading scholars in the field from the UK, Canada, the USA, Australia, Belgium and many other countries. There was also the option of attending virtually using video linking, increasing the opportunity for participation. (Posted by Dianne Nicol.)
Photo from Twitter @HeLEXOxford