To make a long story short, we had a blast at ASHG14.
The traffic at our booth was terrific. Every day we had scheduled presentations on VarSeq, SVS, and GenomeBrowse which were very well attended. And of course, there were our new t-shirts. The new designs were well received. If anything we promise to bring more next year. In particular more in size s 🙂
The conference is a great venue to connect with existing clients and meet with new prospects and partners. On our end, we make sure that we have people from marketing, product development, and support in the booth. That way, we have better, more indepth conversations staying connected to our user base.
Now, the conference itself had excellent tracks. Naturally, given our focus on clinical testing, I attended a number of sessions on the clinical use of genomic data. It’s clear that gene panels are used routinely for clinical testing. If anything those panels are becoming larger and larger.
A number of sessions dealt with more complex issues around the usage of whole exomes and genomes in clinical settings. As we are trying to understand how to diagnose and treat rare and/or complex disorders, the field has to deal with ambiguity around the level of disclosure. In a number of sessions the issue of incidental findings as well as findings of unknown clinical relevance were discussed. Judging based on the outcome of the discussion, this will be largely driven by the patient’s comfort level to be informed.
We could have not launched VarSeq at a better time. The field is ready to take the next step in using genomic data for diagnostic purposes. The next twelve months will be exciting for us until it is time for ASHG15 in Baltimore.
In the meantime. Stay twisted.
About Andreas Scherer
Dr. Andreas Scherer is CEO of Golden Helix. The company has been delivering industry leading bioinformatics solutions for the advancement of life science research and translational medicine for over a decade. Its innovative technologies and analytic services empower scientists and healthcare professionals at all levels to derive meaning from the rapidly increasing volumes of genomic data produced from next-generation sequencing. With its solutions, hundreds of the world’s hospitals and testing labs are able to harness the full potential of genomics to identify the cause of disease, develop genomic diagnostics, and advance the quest for personalized medicine. Golden Helix products and services have been cited in thousands of peer-reviewed publications. Golden Helix is also on the Inc 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the US.
He is also Managing Partner of Salto Partners, Inc, a management consulting firm headquartered in Nevada. He has extensive experience successfully managing growth as well as orchestrating complex turnaround situations. His company, Salto Partners, advises on business strategy, financing, sales, and operations. Clients are operating in the high-tech and life sciences space.
Dr. Scherer holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Hagen, Germany, and a Master of Computer Science from the University of Dortmund, Germany. He is author and co- author of over 20 international publications and has written books on project management, the Internet, and artificial intelligence. His latest book, “Be Fast Or Be Gone”, is a prizewinner in the 2012 Eric Hoffer Book Awards competition, and has been named a finalist in the 2012 Next Generation Indie Book Awards!
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