Luminesce Alliance Conference 2024: inspiring insights from precision medicine experts

The inaugural Luminesce Alliance Conference was held on 7-8 November 2024 at the UNSW Sydney, Australia.

Themed “Paediatric Precision Medicine: Advancing research and patient care”, the conference assembled leading international and Australian researchers across a diversity of organisations and disciplines including government,  institutes, children’s hospitals, universities, and the private sector.

Attendees had the opportunity to learn from more than 40 experts across two days. Thought leaders delved into crucial topics, from the adoption of new technology to manage big data, to the implementation of advanced therapeutics, the importance of psychosocial research and the inclusion of families throughout the research pipeline. These all work together to ensure the best patient outcomes.

“The conference gave us a platform to share and learn from others, and importantly, to determine what delegates feel needs to happen next to escalate paediatric precision medicine research,” said Kathryn Griener AM, Chair of Luminesce Alliance and the Conference.

“Bringing together a diversity of researchers and clinicians to learn about aspects of paediatric precision medicine research available to them, beyond their discipline, was an energising experience for all the participants. We are delighted to see many follow up conversations are occurring. As a result of the conference, participants have learnt how to access a full pipeline of research support beyond their current organisations, to help accelerate precision medicine research discovery and implementation.

Conference Highlights

International Keynote speakers

We thank our international keynote speakers pictured above L-R: Professor Elaine Mardis, Institute for Genomic Medicine at Nationwide Children’s Hospital,  Professor Gary Freed, University of Michigan, for so generously participating in a week of meetings as well as the conference, to share their significant experience and expertise.

A special thank you also to Professor Neil Sebire, Great Ormond Street Hospital, who navigated with exceptional grace and ease, the technical and time zone challenges of speaking with us live late at night his time.

Our impact for children’s health

At the conference we were delighted to launch the latest Luminesce Alliance 2023-2024 Impact Report.

The report provides a succinct overview of the work of our lead researchers and their teams, and some of their patients and families, many of whom were featured at the conference.

The report is testament to their collaborative passion and commitment to harness the benefits of precision medicine for children with cancer, rare diseases and neurological disorders.

We invite you to explore their challenges and achievements here.

Associate Professor Wendy Gold and parent advocates

Thank you to A/Prof Wendy Gold and Emma Daley (pictured above), Brett Anslow, Kris Pierce and Lauren Jenson for sharing their personal family journeys towards diagnosis and management of their child’s rare disease.

We invite you to view videos of their sessions at the links below and read about Emma and her daughter Holly, and Kris and her son Will, on pages 11 and 19 in the Luminesce Alliance 2023-2024 Impact Report.

Session 1.0: Emma Daley | Session 3.1: Brett, Lauren and Kris

Prize winners, supported by Westmead Research Hub

• Best oral presentation: Ms Lauren Lu, Honours Student, Children’s Medical Research Institute: PeptAIde: Accelerating Antimicrobial Peptide Discovery Using AI Ensemble Techniques
• Highly commended oral presentation: Dr Lauren Brown (pictured above with Chair, Kathryn Greiner AM), Children’s Cancer Institute: CBL mutations in CNS and solid tumours – a new therapeutic opportunity?
• Best poster: Sarah Shin, Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network: Poster 108 Newborn Screening for Duchene Muscular Dystrophy: Development of a scoping study

Thank you

To our partners, lead investigators, industry & volunteers

The Luminesce Alliance team want to acknowledge the significant contribution of our partners Children’s Cancer Institute, Children’s Medical Research Institute, Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network, UNSW Sydney and University of Sydney; our lead investigators and their teams, and industry experts for their support of the scientific program.

We also wish to acknowledge the amazing team of volunteers who came and helped over the two days (some of whom are pictured above) –  we couldn’t have done it without you!

To our sponsors

Luminesce Alliance thanks our sponsors, whose professional expertise provides substantive contributions to excellence in precision medicine research and translation.

Sponsors

Links

Conference videos Thursday

Pictured above: Kathryn Griener AM and Dr Kim Sutherland, NSW Health

• Session 1.0 Keynote Dr Kim Sutherland, NSW Health; Advanced Therapeutics
• Session 2.1 Precision Therapy for Cancer Therapeutic and Innovative Applications
• Session 2.2 Conference Abstracts Presentations
• Session 3.1 Functional Genomics and Precision Therapy: Cell And Gene Therapy Advancements
• Session 3.2 Innovation and Commercialisation Opportunities: Paediatric Cancer Drug Discovery Innovation
• Session 4.1 No one left behind: truly engaging families in precision medicine
• Session 4.2 Innovation and Commercialisation Opportunities

Conference videos Friday

• Session 5.1 Precision medicine informed by real world data
• Session 5.2 Kids Advanced Therapeutics Pipeline N=1 clinical trials in paediatric advanced therapies
• Session 6.1 HSIE and Precision Therapy – Delivering outcomes focused sustainability for children
• Session 6.2 Conference Abstracts Presentations
• Session 7.1 The road ahead in genomics and genetic testing
• Session 7.2 Health Systems Implementation and Economics (HSIE) & Psychosocial Workshop
• Closing Session Reflections and next steps for paediatric precision medicine and Prize Awards

For details of the program, speakers, sponsors and more see Luminesce Alliance Conference 2024.