Why this symposium?

The analysis of DNA variations, including Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs), is a standard research approach to understand causes of disease, in particular the so-called "complex” diseases such as diabetes, osteoporosis, cancer, Alzheimer disease, etc. Since the Human Genome project, the field has been changing fast with large scale projects, biobanks, and databases (e.g., UK Biobank, TopMed, GWAS catalogues), and novel technology being continuously introduced, including Next Generation Sequencing, microarrays, single cell technologies, iPS, and multi-omics. In the past decade we have also witnessed a slow but steady movement of these discoveries and potential applications into clinical and public health settings with substantial progress being made in pharmacogenetics and polygenic risk scores. In addition, the use of genetic information has also found applications beyond healthcare, in areas such as archeological genetics and forensic genetics, making it an increasingly relevant topic in the public debate.

This symposium brings together a star-studded cast of international top-experts in diverse areas in this exiting and fast developing field to give us state-of-the-art insights where we stand and what the future might bring. The symposium also celebrates the 20^th anniversary of the infamous SNP course organized by the Laboratory for Population Genomics at Erasmus MC. In this course several of the speakers have featured as either participant and/or speaker, and it has trained several hundreds of students and interested scientists over the years in this area. The symposium forms the closing two days of the regular SNP course program for which further information will follow in due time.

Audience and participation

The symposium is organized for all academic levels and for all scientific backgrounds, but is somewhat advanced and requires some background knowledge of the central molecular biological dogma’s (e.g., DNA- and gene-structure, DNA encodes RNA encodes protein, etc.) and of basic genetic principles. We welcome professors, senior scientist, PhD students, postdocs, and technicians, clinicians as well as basic scientists, and from all scientific disciplines (from medicine to biology, and epidemiology, psychology to economics). The symposium is open to all scientific institutes in- and outside the Netherlands, such as the Erasmus MC Postgraduate School Molecular Medicine, NIHES, and MGC, and other research schools, as well as for other universities in- and outside the Netherlands.

Program