Epidem&OMICS: The “omics” era of cancer epidemiology

Epidem&OMICS: The “omics” era of cancer epidemiology

Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), Madrid

November 28‐29, 2011

Organisers

            Carlos A. González, ICO, Barcelona, Spain

            Núria Malats, CNIO, Madrid, Spain

The plethora of omics data available at present also reaches epidemiologic studies providing a unique opportunity to further dissect complex exposures, genetic susceptibility, and phenotypes. Nevertheless, epidemiologists face several challenges in assessing and integrating, at the individual level, the complexity of this kind of data jointly with extensive information on environmental factors and behaviours in large epidemiological studies. Some of the challenges regard to the huge heterogeneity of the genetic alterations found through the new sequencing technologies, emphasising the notion of individualized diseases; the need to move from a candidate to an agnostic/exploratory exposure analysis incorporating epigenomics and metabolomics markers to better dissect the still “missing exposome”; the notion that nothing is static during an individual’s lifespan and the need to model this dynamic process; the necessity to consider intermediate outcomes such as gene expression and/or protein function and, at the same time, the need to consider comprehensive phenomes to better account for the underlying genetic pleiotropic effect in human organisms living in selected environmental conditions. The integration of several levels of data, from environmental exposures to epigenetics, metabolomics, as well as genetics, genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics information, requires the development of innovative designs as well as methodology, including bioinformatics and data reduction techniques. The course is addressed to the epidemiologic community with especial emphasis to the researchers interested/working on these topics interfacing biology and epidemiology.

MONDAY, November 28th

09:00 Welcome Address Carlos A. González, Núria Malats

Session I

Chair:  Paco Real, CNIO, Madrid,

09:15 Núria Malats, CNIO, Madrid, Spain

            Introduction: The Epidemiology in the OMICS world

10:15  Paolo Vineis, Imperial College, London, UK

            METABOLOMICS: An agnostic strategy to assess exposures

11:15  Coffee break

11:45 Antoni Agudo, ICO, Barcelona, Spain

            Examples of Epidemiologic Studies applying Metabolomics 

12:15  Mario Fraga, IUOPA, Oviedo

            EPIGENOMICS: The Exposome-Genome Interface

13:15  Lunch

Session II

Chair:   Paolo Vineis, Imperial College, London, UK

14:30  Roger Milne, CNIO, Madrid, Spain

             The GENOME: Candidate (SNP, Gene, Pathway) versus Agnostic (Genome Wide Association Study)                  Approaches

15:30  Núria Sala, ICO, Barcelona, Spain

            Examples of Genetic Susceptibility Studies

16:00  Coffee break

16:30  Eric Duell, ICO, Barcelona, Spain

            Gene*Environment Interactions

17:30  END of session

TUESDAY, November 29th

Session III

Chair: Roger Milne, CNIO, Madrid, Spain

09:00 Paco Real, CNIO, Madrid, Spain

            Other OMICS: Transcriptomics, Proteomics, … Massive Parallel Sequencing

10:00  Kristel van Steen, University of Liège, Belgium

            INTEGROMICS from the Statistics

11:00  Coffee break

11:30  Miguel Angel Pujana, ICO, Barcelona, Spain

            From NETWORK MODELING  to a mechanism of breast carcinogenesis

12:30 Alfonso Valencia, CNIO, Madrid, Spain

            INTEGROMICS from the Bioinformatics

13:30  Lunch

Session IV

Chair: Eric Duell, ICO, Barcelona, Spain

14:30  Victor Moreno, ICO, Barcelona, Spain

            COLONOMICS: the translation of omic derived knowledge into the clinics of colon cancer

15:00  Angela Brand, Maastricht University, The Netherlands

            The Public Health Impact of Epidem&OMICS

16:00  Coffee break and END of session