UCSF Speakers Shine at Precision Medicine World Conference

Published Date:

February 5, 2020

Dr. Valentina Pedoia speaking at PMWC 2020 — Valentina Pedoia, PhD, presenting her research on AI and machine learning in imaging. Photo: Courtesy of PMWC Intl.

By Sarah Paris

Thirty-one leading UC San Francisco experts presented their work at the 2020 Precision Medicine World Conference (PMWC) – the largest contingent from any institution. Their talks highlighted the latest advances across a broad scope of precision medicine, with topics ranging from AI, data science, clinical diagnostics, and genomics to medical imaging, precision oncology, and immunotherapies, all breaking new ground in the movement towards a personalized approach to healthcare.

Beyond sharing their own expertise, participants also benefitted from the dialogue with others in this emerging and dynamic discipline. "I learned a lot from the many perspectives that different people brought to PMWC. It was a great way to understand where the field was headed," said Christopher Hess, MD, PhD, the chair of the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at UCSF, who participated in the Intelligent Medical Imaging panel (see below.)

One clear trend was a more comprehensive inclusion of areas not traditionally associated with precision medicine. "This was the first year that there was a full-day session dedicated to cardiology," noted Peter Ganz, MD, chief of cardiology and professor of medicine at UCSF, who had been selected to chair that session. Liviu Klein, MD, associate professor of medicine, was among the participating cardiologists. "Following my presentation, I heard from numerous attendees that our proposal of integrating remote device data is the best for moving forward with truly personalized care for heart failure patients," he said.

Another extended session, chaired by Aleksandar Rajkovic, MD, PhD, chief genomics officer of UCSF Health, was devoted to women's health. Among the participants was Amy Murtha, MD, chair of the UCSF Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences. After her presentation on the mechanisms of preterm birth, she was approached by several individuals whose work focuses on artificial intelligence. "The opportunity to apply this burgeoning technology to a poorly understood, complex medical condition is very exciting," Murtha said.

Preterm birth and its connection to oral health was also a topic shared by Michael Reddy, DMD, DMSc, dean of UCSF’s School of Dentistry (see previously posted story.)

The three-day conference followed an awards reception at UCSF, where venture capitalist Brook Byers and Laura van’tVeer, PhD, professor of laboratory medicine, were honored for their efforts advancing precision medicine (see previously reported story.)

“It was great to see how much is moving ahead in precision medicine, especially from our colleagues in the Bay Area, as well as from all over the State of California. And nothing charged me more than to see how much UCSF is leading this field, delivering precision medicine in real patient care,” said Atul Butte, MD, PhD, the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Distinguished Professor at UCSF and director of the UCSF Bakar Computational Health Institute.

CSF will continue its co-sponsorship of PMWC in 2021 as UCSF leaders consider precision medicine a priority and a promising means to achieve better outcomes and health care equity for all.

“As a co-sponsor, UCSF had an important influence in shaping the overall meeting program, and the many outstanding presentations from UCSF demonstrated our leadership in developing and delivering precision medicine approaches that have impact for investigators and providers,” concluded Keith Yamamoto, PhD, director of UCSF Precision Medicine and vice chancellor for Science Policy and Strategy.

Highlights of the Conference

UCSF users signed into MyAccess may view the videos of the sessions listed below by unlocking access here ⇒⇒⇒ UCSF Access
The videos will be released to the public by the conference organizers sequentally.

Antibiotic Resistance – fireside chat with Keith Yamamoto, PhD, and Margaret Riley, PhD (available to the public)
Practicing Safe, Fair and Responsible Data Analytics & AI – fireside chat with Atul Butte, MD, PhD, and Cora Hahn, Chief Health Data Officer, UC Health (available to the public)
Preterm Birth & The Promise Of Biomarkers (Part One) with Amy Murtha, MD, and Part Two with Laura Jelliffe-Pawlowski, PhD
Deriving Cardiovascular Clinical Insight from Remote Sensors with Geoff Tison, Gregory Marcus, and Liviu Klein
Intelligent Medical Imaging panel with Sharmila Majumdar, Valentina Pedoia, and Christopher Hess
Data Science Drives Healthcare with Sharat Israni and Sharmila Majumdar