Myths, misconceptions and exaggerations about genetics and genomics abound. For non-specialists, it can be hard to figure out what’s true.
To help industry leaders at life science and technology companies, biotech investors and others gain a better understanding of the current state of genomic science, Harvard Medical School’s Center for Biomedical Informatics (CBMI) at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine recently organized an executive education course.
“We want to give participants a practical working knowledge of what the field can and can’t do, and sketch a picture of what’s around the corner,” said Eric Perakslis, HMS instructor in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and executive director of CBMI. “There are things we get asked time and again when we’re called to speak and consult. We want this course to answer those questions using world-class experts, and do so in a novel way.”
A pilot version of the course ran for two and a half days in May. “Your Genome: The Lens for Understanding the Challenges of Precision Medicine” featured talks from dozens of HMS and affiliate faculty, staff and postdocs.
“We designed the course to allow students and faculty to interact in an intimate setting over the course of several intensive and fully packed days,” said Alexa McCray, HMS associate professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and co-director of CBMI. “The students learned from us and from one another and left the course with a deeper understanding not only of the language of genomics, but also of the amazing potential of genomic science.”
The 25 attendees applied what they were learning in a series of hands-on sessions where they reviewed their own freshly sequenced genomes with researchers and genetic counselors.
“We thought it might be beneficial for those who create or use genomic information to go through the experience of understanding the insights and uncertainties present in their own genomic data,” said course faculty member David Margulies, HMS assistant professor of pediatrics at Children’s Hospital.
“There is a grain of truth in the old medical adage, ‘see one, do one, teach one,’” said Isaac Kohane, HMS Lawrence J. Henderson Professor of Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital and co-director of CBMI. “By addressing the first two steps in this course, we hope that these executives will become the bearers of insights about this new and potentially transformative aspect of medicine to a much larger audience.”
The course also provided networking opportunities for participants, faculty and students to explore mentoring, business and research partnerships.
Although there were some “lessons learned” by the course organizers as well, such as the time and logistics required to prepare everyone’s genome sequences before the start of the course, feedback from participants and speakers confirmed that the pilot was successful enough to merit expansion into a full course. Course organizers are now preparing the follow-up.
Interested applicants can contact Katherine Flannery, program manager, at katherine_flannery@hms.harvard.edu for more information.
Support for the pilot course was provided by Claritas Genomics and Complete Genomics.
