By Sarah Paris

Established in 2009 and co-hosted by UC San Francisco, the prestigious Precision Medicine World Conference (PMWC) will be held online and free for the first time in a special, three-day meeting focused on the COVID-19 pandemic. The gathering is a unique opportunity to hear from top leaders in academia, government, and the pharmaceutical industry, particularly for anyone not able to attend previously due to lack of travel time or funds.

“This conference will convene leading university and pharma/biotech researchers, together with academic and government policymakers, to consider both the impact of the pandemic and how it has spurred unprecedented collaborations and innovations and transformed healthcare delivery, streamlined clinical trials, and highlighted disparities,” said Keith Yamamoto, PhD, director of UCSF Precision Medicine and vice chancellor for Science Policy and Strategy. Yamamoto co-organized the meeting, along with Leroy Hood, PhD, (Providence St. Joseph Health) and Tal Behar (PMWC).

Scientific presentations will include advances in understanding the immune response, and precision medicine-driven development of new diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines, and population health strategies. UCSF Panelists include:

• Keith Yamamoto, PhD, and Peter Walter, PhD, discussing the pivot of basic researchers to COVID-relevant research and the perils of the “valley of death” in advancing discoveries to application. Yamamoto, who serves as session chair, will also provide opening remarks to the conference;
• Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, MD, PhD, and Diane Havlir, MD, addressing the health disparities that the pandemic has brought into focus;
• Aashish Manglik, MD, PhD, and Danielle Swaney, PhD, talking about the creation of the antiviral “Aeronabs” and the identification of SARS-CoV-2 host-protein targets for new therapeutics;
• Joe DeRisi, PhD, delivering updates on COVID-19 molecular testing;
• Charles Chiu, MD, PhD, describing the creation of a sustainable diagnostic testing ecosystem;
• Laura Esserman, MD, MBA, and Pelin Cinar, MD, on how cancer care has been impacted by the pandemic;
• Elissa Epel, PhD, highlighting the mental health crisis that has arisen in the wake of the stress of the past year.

Other prominent academic speakers include Eric Topol, MD, (Scripps Institute); Stanford professors Yvonne Maldonado, MD, and Michael Snyder, PhD; Vanderbilt Dean and CEO Jeffrey Balser, MD, PhD; and Duke chancellor emeritus and director of Personalized Healthcare, Ralph Snyderman, MD. Leading pharma executives, include Pfizer’s Philip Dormitzer, MD, PhD, and Moderna’s Tal Zaks, MD, PhD; government speakers include the FDA’s Peter Marks, MD, PhD, and acting commissionar Janet Woodcock, MD.

Anthony Fauci, MD, who has been called “the face of America's fight against coronavirus,” will receive the PMWC’s Luminary Award, recognizing him as a “relentless crusader against some of humanity’s most virulent medical threats.”

The conference runs from January 25-27. Full program and registration here: https://www.pmwcintl.com/covid/

Advancing precision medicine is one of Chancellor Hawgood’s priorities. UCSF has co-sponsored the Precision Medicine World Conference since 2016 to help bring key parties and stakeholders together to address major issues in health care and science. 

The UCSF Precision Medicine program uses advanced computing tools to aggregate, integrate and analyze vast amounts of data from basic science, clinical, personal, environmental and population health to better understand biological processes and define disease mechanisms, and to develop and deliver more precise diagnostics, therapeutics, and prevention measures. Everyone, including patients, can contribute their own data to this dynamic network. 

To-date, UCSF is home to dozens of major research projects as part of its precision medicine program. They can be accessed in this searchable database.

Precision Medicine in Action