[Updated: 11:18 am PT] One of the most fastest-moving, highest-impact innovation stories in history is happening in genomics. Lucky for those of us who follow the business on the West Coast, this epic story is playing out right where we live, right now.
Everyone in the Valley knows about Moore’s Law, and how computing power and speed doubles every 18 to 24 months, but fewer realize that the rate of progress in whole-genome sequencing is outpacing the rate of progress in the semiconductor business. That’s why I’m psyched to have pulled together many of the leaders in this field for a half-day conference, “Computing in the Age of the $1,000 Genome.” The conference is now less than a week away, on Monday October 24. It will be hosted by the folks at QB3, in Genentech Hall at UCSF’s Mission Bay campus.
This event will feature a cast of speakers from Complete Genomics, PacBio, 23andMe, Microsoft, EMC/Isilon, PerkinElmer, Stanford University, Mohr Davidow Ventures, and a handful of hot Silicon Valley genomic computing players like DNAnexus, Ingenuity Systems, and NextBio.
We’re putting these speakers together with terrific guest moderators from Fortune, Wired, and leading life sciences companies for a series of interactive chats. There will be no PowerPoints, and plenty of time for networking. Promise.
So, here’s how the afternoon will flow:
1:00 pm: Registration and networking.
2:00 pm: Welcoming remarks, QB3.
2:05 pm: Opening keynote chat: How new DNA sequencing technologies are creating computing’s next big challenge.
Luke Timmerman, Xconomy national biotech editor (moderator)
Hugh Martin, CEO, PacBio
Cliff Reid, CEO, Complete Genomics
2:40 pm: The challenges big computing companies are wrestling with in genomics.
Tim Hunkapiller, consultant, Life Technologies (moderator)
Paul Rutherford, chief technology officer, EMC/Isilon
Jim Karkanias, senior director, Microsoft Health Solutions
Alex Dickinson, senior vice president, Illumina [Added speaker: 11:18 am PT]
3:10 pm: Networking break.
3:45 pm: Strategies from the new wave of genomics computing startups.
Rob Arnold, general manager, Geospiza unit, PerkinElmer (moderator)
Andreas Sundquist, co-founder and CEO, DNAnexus
Doug Bassett, chief scientific officer, Ingenuity Systems
Ilya Kupershmidt, co-founder and VP of products, NextBio
4:15 pm: How will doctors use all these genomes for personalized medicine?
David Ewing Duncan, author, “Experimental Man” (moderator)
Atul Butte, associate professor, Stanford; co-founder, NuMedii
Ashley Dombkowski, chief business officer, 23andMe
4:45 pm: Closing keynote chat. The big medical and societal implications of the $1000 genome.
Thomas Goetz, executive editor, Wired (moderator)
Sue Siegel, general partner, Mohr Davidow Ventures
John Wilbanks, senior fellow, Kauffman Foundation; director, Sage Bionetworks
5:30-6:30 pm: Networking Reception.
As with all Xconomy events, we make special discount tickets available for people in startup companies, and for students (which applies to undergrads, graduate students and postdocs at any of the institutions around the Bay Area like UCSF, Stanford, and UC Berkeley). There is still time to get tickets for this opportunity to learn about the state of the art in genomics, and meet the personalities who are driving progress. I’m looking forward to seeing lots of readers there on Monday, and posing a few questions to these folks myself.
