OmicsXchange

We relaunch the OmicsXchange podcast with a new season, featuring genomics initiatives that are making an impact on communities. In this first episode of season 2, we speak with James Hildreth Sr., President and CEO of Meharry Medical College, and Lyndon Mitnaul, Executive Director of Research Initiatives at the Regeneron Genetics Center. Hildreth and Mitnaul lead a new multi-institution project called Together for CHANGE, which aims to sequence the African American genome and build capacity to overcome inequities in STEM careers.

On episode 18 of the GA4GH OmicsXchange podcast, we speak with Dr. Eric Green, Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), on the Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) Precision Health Meeting. Visit agbt.org to register for the Precision Health Meeting, which takes place 8–10 September, 2022 in San Diego, USA. View the transcript of the episode here.

For the latest episode of the OmicsXchange, we were joined by Larry Babb and Alex Wagner to discuss the Genomic Knowledge Standards (GKS) Work Stream and the Variation Representation Specification (VRS) standard.

This is Episode 16 of the OmicsXchange, where we will be discussing the Atlas Variant Effects Alliance with Clare Turnbull and Lea Starita, co-chairs of the Clinical Variant Interpretation Working Group.

This is Episode 15 of the OmicsXchange, where we will be discussing the first gapless human genome sequence with Karen Miga. Miga is an assistant professor in the Biomolecular Engineering Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Associate Director at the UCSC Genomics Institute. She co-chairs the Telomere-to-Telomere Consortium and is the Project Director for the UCSC production centre of the Human Pangenome Reference Consortium (HPRC).

In today's episode, we are discussing genomic surveillance and outbreak response in Africa with Professor Alan Christoffels. Alan is the director of the South African National Bioinformatics Institute based at the University of the Western Cape. He is also the director of the bioinformatics unit of the South African Medical Research Council. Alan's lab builds computational tools for analyzing high throughput genomic data for infectious disease research. And he's also the director of the Public Health Alliance for Genomic Epidemiology or PHA4GE and a member of the founding working group of H3Africa.

In Episode 13 of the Omics Exchange podcast, we discuss the Data Connect API, a GA4GH-approved standard produced by the GA4GH Discovery Work Stream. We are here with Miro Cupak and Jonathan Fuerth from DNAstack and Aaron Kemp from Verily to learn more about how the community can leverage Data Connect to efficiently publish, explore, and search for biomedical data.

In today’s episode, we spoke with Professor Nicola Mulder from the University of Capetown on a large-scale, collaborative effort spearheaded by the Human, Health, and Heredity in Africa Consortium, or H3Africa, to sequence genomes from regions and countries in Africa that have historically been missed or overlooked. Their key findings were recently published in the journal Nature. Nicky has been a part of the GA4GH community since its inception, and is now a Driver Project Champion of H3Africa. Welcome Nicky. View the episode transcript here.

In today’s episode, we spoke with Max Barkley, software developer and team lead at DNAStack, on the GA4GH Connection Demos. This initiative aims to demonstrate interoperability through real-world implementations of GA4GH standards,across multiple institutions. Max initially got involved in GA4GH several years ago through the DURI Work Stream, and he now co-leads the Federated Analysis System Project, or FASP, which is responsible for setting up the GA4GH Connection Demos.

On Episode 10 of the OmicsXchange Podcast, we're speaking with Meg Doerr, a Principal Scientist in Data Governance and Ethics at Sage Bionetworks. Meg is the Programme Committee Chair for the upcoming GA4GH 8th Plenary meeting, which will take place on September 29 and 30. It will be our first fully virtual meeting and we are delighted to have had Meg’s guidance in developing the programme.

On Episode 9 of the OmicsXchange Podcast, we speak with Laura Paglione—co-lead of the GA4GH Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Advisory Group—on amplifying underrepresented voices within the Genomics and Health Data Community.

On episode 8 of the OmicsXchange, we are speaking with Caroline Cake, CEO of Health Data Research UK, about the HDR UK response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and their role in setting up the International COVID-19 Data Research Alliance.

We continue to discuss the role of data sharing during the COVID-19 pandemic, speaking with members of the international genomics community on initiatives that leverage collaboration, interoperability, and open science to advance research into the novel coronavirus. For this episode, we speak with Kathi Lauer—a virologist and Industry Officer for External Relations at the ELIXIR Hub in the UK—on ELIXIR’s efforts to respond to the pandemic.

We continue our series on the role of data sharing during the COVID-19 pandemic in which we speak with members of the international genomics community about new initiatives that leverage collaboration, interoperability, and open science to advance research into the novel coronavirus. This episode, we hear from Johan Ordish, active member of the GA4GH Regulatory and Ethics Work Stream, on COVID-19 data sharing from a regulatory and ethics perspective.

The urgency of scientific data sharing is never more apparent than during a global disease outbreak. Today, we hear from Mark Fiume, CEO of DNAstack and co-lead of the GA4GH Discovery Work Stream about the COVID-19 Beacon, an initiative aimed at making viral genomic datasets discoverable for investigators around the world.

Large-scale sequencing initiatives around the globe are generating massive volumes of clinical genomic data that have the potential to inform research into human health and disease. But controlling access to these data is currently a cumbersome endeavor. For this episode, we're speaking with Melanie Courtot and Craig Voisin of the GA4GH DURI Work Stream about the challenges presented by data access control and the solutions they're developing within their teams. View the full transcript here.

February 29, 2020 marks the 13th International Rare Disease day held each year on the last day of February since 2008. Established by the European Organization for rare disease, this day of observance aims to raise awareness and improve access to treatment. We're here with human geneticist Heidi Rehm to talk about the opportunity of genomic and health related data sharing to advance rare disease research. View the full transcript here.

January 28, 2020 marks the 7th anniversary of GA4GH - the international standards organization for genomics. On Episode 2 of the OmicsXchange, we’re here to speak with Peter Goodhand, CEO of GA4GH, and Ewan Birney, Chair of the GA4GH Executive Committee, as we reflect on GA4GH’s role - past, present, and future - in advancing genomic and health-related data sharing. View the full transcript here.

December 10 is International Human Rights Day. For our first guest here on the OmicsXchange, we are talking with Dr. Bartha Knoppers - professor of human genetics and the director of the Center of Genomics and Policy at McGill University - on how article 27 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights is important for global genomic data sharing. View the full transcript here.