Devin Absher, PhD
Leading scientists traveled from all over the world to share new discoveries and advances in the fields of genomics and immunology at the sixth-annual Immunogenomics Conference (IGC) hosted by the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology. Researchers presented data on topics ranging from results of promising cancer treatment trials to the relationship between immune system cells and genetic expression.
“The topics discussed here will change the field of immunology,” said committee chair and HudsonAlpha faculty investigator Devin Absher, PhD. “It’s exciting to have this caliber of ideas added to the already impressive research ecosystem at HudsonAlpha, and we always look forward to sharing the breakthroughs we’re working on here with other top scientists in the field.”
Jian Han, MD, PhD, conference committee chair, HudsonAlpha faculty investigator and iRepertoire founder, added, “The human immune system works like an extraordinarily well-organized fighting force, battling disease in the human body. It only makes sense that researchers in the field need to work together closely as well. We always look forward to contributing to that effort.”
Jian Han, MD, PhD
Keynote speakers at IGC include Jeff Bluestone of The University of California-San Francisco, Ellen Rothenberg of the California Institute of Technology, Mark Davis of Stanford University and Cisca Wijmenga of University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands.
Science Magazine’s Seth Scanlon, a conference committee chair, said, “This is an incredible collection of scientific talent. Bringing these researchers together has the potential to spark field-altering collaborations.”
Presenting sponsor of IGC for 2018 is iRepertoire, a Huntsville-based company located on the HudsonAlpha campus that offers reagents and services to amplify and sequence the immune repertoire with Next Generation Sequencing.
Other sponsors include Bay City Capital, YongLin Healthcare Foundation, and Illumina. Exhibiting sponsors are Data in Science Technologies, Nanostring, Twist Bioscience, Qiagen, and UAB Comprehensive Arthritis, Musculoskeletal, Bone and Autoimmunity Center.
