PRECISION MEDICINE
AND THE FUTURE
OF GENOMICS
PMFG SUMMIT 2025

Dr. Ambroise Wonkam

Johns Hopkins University

Dr. Ambroise Wonkam is Professor of Genetic Medicine and Director of the McKusick-Nathans Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Trained as a medical geneticist in Geneva, Switzerland, he holds a Ph.D. in human genetics from the University of Cape Town and has practiced medical genetics across both Europe and Africa.

Author of over 250 peer-reviewed publications, Dr. Wonkam’s research focuses on genetic modifiers of sickle cell disease, the genetics of hearing loss, and ethical issues in human genetics. He leads several major NIH- and Wellcome Trust–funded projects, including the Sickle Africa Data Coordinating Centre (SADaCC), HI Genes Africa, IFGENERA, and PUBGEM-Africa. His work spans multiple African countries and supports continental capacity-building in genomics. He has received numerous awards, including the HUGO African Prize, the Alan Pifer Award, and the South African Medical Research Council Gold Medal. Dr. Wonkam serves on editorial boards of leading journals and holds leadership roles with the African Society of Human Genetics, H3Africa, and G2MC.

Dr. David Bick

Genomics England

David Bick MD is the Principal Clinician for the Newborn Genomes Programme at Genomics England.  Prior to his work in England, he was the Chief Medical Officer and a faculty investigator at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology.  Dr. Bick also served as the Medical Director of the Smith Family Clinic for Genomic Medicine located on the campus of HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology and the Laboratory Director of the HudsonAlpha Clinical Services Laboratory.

He came to HudsonAlpha from the Medical College of Wisconsin where he was Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the Medical College of Wisconsin.  At the Medical College of Wisconsin he was the Director of the Clinical Sequencing Laboratory, Director of the Advanced Genomics Laboratory at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, Medical Director of the Genetics Clinic at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, and Chief of the Division of Genetics in the Department of Pediatrics at Medical College of Wisconsin. 

Dr. Bick received his medical degree from George Washington University School of Medicine in 1981 and completed his residency in Pediatrics at Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, CT.  At the Yale University School of Medicine, Dr. Bick completed a fellowship in Human Genetics and Pediatrics in 1986, followed by a post-doctoral research fellowship in Human Genetics in 1987.  Dr. Bick is board certified in Pediatrics, Clinical Genetics, and Clinical Molecular Genetics.

He is a leader in the field of genomic medicine and has published numerous peer-reviewed articles, chapters, and reviews.  Dr. Bick’s laboratories at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin were the first in the world to offer whole genome sequencing as a clinical test.  He also developed the first Genomic Medicine Clinic in the United Stat

Dr. Edison Liu

Jackson Laboratory

Edison Liu, M.D. is professor and special fellow of The Jackson Laboratory (JAX), an independent research institute focused on complex genetics and functional genomics situated in Maine, Connecticut, and California. Previously, he was president and CEO of The Jackson Laboratory, and Director of its NCI designated Cancer Center. Before that, he was the founding executive director of the Genome Institute of Singapore, the president of the Human Genome Organization (HUGO), the scientific director of the National Cancer Institute's Division of Clinical Sciences in Bethesda, Md., and professor of medicine, genetics, biochemistry, and epidemiology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Dr. Liu is an international expert in cancer biology, systems genomics, human genetics, molecular epidemiology and translational medicine with a focus on human breast cancer. He has authored over 340 scientific papers, reviews and books, and is a frequent commentator on the impact of technologies in the biosciences and medicine. He obtained his B.S. in chemistry and psychology, as well as his M.D., at Stanford University; his advanced training in medicine and oncology at Washington University, St. Louis, and Stanford, and post-doctoral training in molecular oncology at the University of California at San Francisco. Dr. Liu has received numerous awards, and is an elected member to the American Society of Clinical Investigation, a foreign member of the European Molecular Biology Organization, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Dr. Carlo Giaquinto

Penta Foundation

Dr. Carlo is the President of Penta Foundation. Full Professor of Paediatrics at the Department for Woman’s and Child’s Health of the University of Padova, Director of the PhD Course in Developmental Medicine and Health Planning Sciences and President of Fondazione Penta. His main interests are Paediatric Infections, Vaccinology and Clinical Trials in Children. Since 1990 he has been involved as scientific coordinator in more than 15 large EU funded projects.

At present he coordinates more than 20 international projects, including trials in developing countries. He is also the scientific leader of c4c, the largest paediatric IMI2 funded project, aiming to set up a European Paediatric Clinical trial platform.
He is the Author/Co-Author of more than 300 publications published in peer-reviewed and invited as speaker at about 400 conferences and international workshops across the world. Carlo Giaquinto was also awarded by the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases (ESPID) of the 2017 Bill Marshall Award.

Dr. Erin Riggs

Geisinger

Erin Rooney Riggs, MS, CGC is a genetic counselor and Associate Professor at the Geisinger Autism & Developmental Medicine Institute and the Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine. Her research is focused on developing and implementing standards for consistent, transparent gene and variant assessment, as well as facilitating active engagement from the patient community in the process of generating genomic knowledge. She is one of the principal investigators on the National Institutes of Health-funded Clinical Genome Resource (ClinGen), a worldwide effort to define the clinical relevance of genes and variants for use in precision medicine and research. She is currently the co-chair of the ClinGen Gene-Disease Validity and Education, Coordination, and Training working groups, and is leading a collaboration between ClinGen, the American College of Medical Genetics & Genomics (ACMG), the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP), and the College of American Pathologists (CAP) to update the classification guidelines for constitutional copy number variants. Erin also serves as an editor for Genetics in Medicine Open and is a member of the American Society of Human Genetics Digital Learning Committee.

Dr. Hakon Hakonarson

CHOP

Director, Center for Applied Genomics

Dr. Hakonarson is director of the Center for Applied Genomics and professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. He leads a $40 million commitment from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to genomically characterize approximately 100,000 children, an initiative that has gained nationwide attention in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Time Magazine, Nature, and Science.

Dr. Ma’n Zawati

McGill University

Ma’n H. Zawati (LL.B., LL.M., Ph.D. (DCL)) is the Executive Director of the Centre of Genomics and Policy in the Department of Human Genetics at McGill University. He is also an Associate Member of McGill¹s Biomedical Ethics Unit. His research concentrates on the legal, ethical and policy dimensions of health research and clinical care, with a special focus on biobanking, data sharing, professional liability, and the use of novel technologies (e.g. mhealth apps, WGS, WES) in both the clinical and research settings. Dr. Zawati is funded by CIHR, Genome Canada, and Genome Quebec. His work is interdisciplinary, drawing together perspectives from law, ethics, bioinformatics, genomics, and policy. He¹s also a frequent
presenter on a variety of the most critical and topical issues in healthcare and the biosciences. He has appeared at 100+ international conferences, symposia, meetings, and has shared his expertise with universities, research ethics boards and law firms. Dr. Zawati has published 13 book chapters and 45+ peer reviewed articles in leading publications such as Nature Reviews Genetics, the Canadian Medical Association Journal, the Journal of Law and the Biosciences, the Journal of Medical Genetics, and the McGill Journal of Law and Health. In 2015, he
was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarship (stay at Oxford University) and was named a Royal Society of Canada Delegate for the IAP Young Scientists of the Year international symposium. In 2014, the Young Bar Association of Montreal named him as one of its Lawyers of the Year.

Dr. Pamela Robertson

Broad Institute of MIT

Pamela is a Genomics Specialist and Senior Biocurator for the Clinical Genome Resource (ClinGen) program at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. She is a variant and gene curation framework expert across several ClinGen disease-specific expert panels and affiliated projects. Previously in Australia, Pamela was a Clinical Curation Scientist at the ZERO Childhood Cancer program. There she was involved in several aspects of the program including molecular analysis of germline and tumor sequencing data, creating molecular educational materials and workshops, and conducting research. Prior to that she worked in industry for a few years at a biotech start up and an IVF company where she did a mix of genomics analysis and quality control. Pamela has completed a PhD investigating the molecular biology of microRNAs in Head and Neck Cancer.

Dr. Patrick Tan

PRECISE/ Genome Institute of Singapore

Prof. Patrick Tan is the Executive Director of PRECISE, where he leads the national effort to implement Phase II of Singapore’s Precision Medicine Strategy. Under his leadership, PRECISE is driving the transformation of healthcare through deeper understanding of the Asian genome and the development of data-driven solutions to improve patient outcomes.

Prof. Tan also serves as Senior Vice Dean (Research) at Duke-NUS Medical School and Chief Scientific Officer at the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS), ASTAR. He played a pivotal role during the COVID-19 pandemic as Program Director of Operation Stronghold, establishing one of Singapore’s largest testing facilities through a partnership involving ASTAR, the National University Health System, and Temasek Holdings. A Harvard and Stanford-trained physician-scientist, Prof. Tan has received numerous prestigious honors, including the President’s Science Award, AACR Team Science Award, and the Japanese Cancer Association International Award. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and serves on several international advisory and editorial boards, including the Bioethics Advisory Committee and the Board of Reviewing Editors for Science.

Dr. Peter Goodhand

GA4GH

Chief Executive Officer, Global Alliance for Genomics and Health, President, GA4GH Inc. Toronto, Canada

Peter Goodhand is a leader in the global health sector, holding senior executive and board member positions in the health research advancement community.

He currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) and President of GA4GH Inc. The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) is a policy-framing and technical standards-setting organization, seeking to enable responsible genomic data sharing within a human rights framework. GA4GH Inc. is a non-profit corporation based in Canada that supports the long-term work of the broad-based Alliance.

Mr. Goodhand previously served as President of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) and President and CEO of the Canadian Cancer Society. Before joining the charitable sector, he had a 20-year career in the global medical technology industry.

Mr. Goodhand is currently Co-Chair of the International Health Cohort Consortium (IHCC) and serves on the governance boards of Global Genes and several national and international advisory bodies.

Dr. Stephen Kingsmore

Rady Children's Institute

Stephen F. Kingsmore, MD, DSc, is President and CEO of Rady Children's Institute for Genomic Medicine (RCIGM) where he leads a multi-disciplinary team of scientists, physicians, genetic counselors, software engineers and bioinformaticians who are pioneering the use of rapid Whole Genome Sequencing (rWGS®) to enable precise diagnoses for critically ill newborns. In 2021, he led the RCIGM team to set a new record of 13.5 hours for achieving the fastest molecular diagnosis using rWGS, breaking his previous 2018 world record of 19.5 hours. Dr. Kingsmore came to Rady Children’s in 2015 from Children’s Mercy Kansas City, where he was the Director for the Center for Pediatric Genomic Medicine and Executive Director of Medical Panomic, as well as the Dee Lyons/Missouri Endowed Chair in Genomic Medicine at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine. He previously served as President and CEO of the National Center for Genome Resources; Chief Operating Officer of Molecular Staging Inc.; Vice President of Research at CuraGen Corporation; Founder of GatorGen; and Assistant Professor at the University of Florida’s School of Medicine. Dr. Kingsmore is board-certified in Internal Medicine and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists. He received his MB, ChB, BAO and DSc degrees from the Queen’s University Belfast in Ireland. He trained in clinical immunology in Northern Ireland and did his residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina. In 2012, Dr. Kingsmore was named MedScape Physician of the Year and TIME magazine ranked his first record-breaking time of 50 hours for genome sequencing among the top 10 medical breakthroughs for that year. In 2013, he received the Scripps Genomic Medicine Award and the ILCHUN Prize of the Korean Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Dr. Tawfeg Ben Omran

Sidra Medicine

Dr. BEN-OMRAN is a senior consultant and Division Chief, Genetic and Genomic Medicine at Sidra Medicine and Hamad Medical Corporation. He is a Professor at Weill Cornell Medical College, Qatar & New York-USA. He is also a Distinguished Visiting Scientist at Boston Children’s Hospital-USA.

He contributes to the body of published knowledge in clinical and metabolic genetics, with over 200 published articles in peer reviewed journals, book chapters and abstracts. He is reviewer for many clinical genetics journals.

He is an active clinical researcher, collaborating on projects with local, regional & international communities. He is a lead primary investigator in many high profile research projects & clinical trials.