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One highlight of the forum was meeting Barack Obama and Dr. Sonia Vallabh. Both have worked against major adversity to develop health solutions. Dr Vallabh is a scientist working on rapid dementia, a genetic disease that killed her mother, and she is also at risk of developing dementia.

The launch of the new large Illumina sequencer, the Novaseq X, which can produce whole human genomes at US$200, is a potential game-changer.

Genomics Forum. Here, I highlight that it is not the technology & economics of scale that matter, but if we DO NOT use it to make a better, fairer, and safer world, we will waste a lifetime opportunity.

While cheaper genomes can decrease the genomics disparity of Global South, it could also increase the disparities in the region and it will be our job to make sure that we remain scientifically competitive.

Another highlight of my trip was to spend time with people like @EricTopol, @fdesouza, @clopezcorrea, @christian_happi and @BarackObama and get feedback on our use of genomics to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are now engaging to try to make genomics more accessible for other diseases.

Twitter thread on this event:

https://twitter.com/Tuliodna/status/1575842511607586816

News date: 2022-10-04

Links:

http://www.krisp.org.za/manuscripts/CERI_KRISPnewsletter_Vol5(6)_OctNov.pdf