Speaker Profile
Ph.D., VP Scientific Research, Illumina
Biography
At Illumina, Dr Taft leads a team of scientists focused on the deployment of genomic technologies for patients worldwide, especially the use of whole genome sequencing as a platform for genetic testing. His activities include oversight of the Illumina Clinical Services Laboratory’s clinical whole genome sequencing test, pediatric and adult diagnostic trials, bioinformatic innovation and novel application development. Dr Taft has also championed a philanthropic program, iHope, that provides patients across the globe pro bono access to clinical whole genome sequencing, which, through a partnership with Genetic Alliance and a $120M in-kind donation, will scale to support tens of thousands of patients over the next five years. Dr. Taft has helped describe more than a dozen novel genetic disorders, and was one of the first to use short-read whole genome sequencing to resolve an undiagnosed disease. He is an active advisor to rare genetic disease focused technology companies, nonprofits and academic institutions.
Session Abstract – PMWC 2023 Silicon Valley
Track Chairs:
Sharon Terry, Genetic Alliance & Alice Rathjen
- PMWC 2023 Award Ceremony:
Pioneer Honoree: David Bentley, Ilumina
- Learnings and Advancements of Population Studies (PANEL)
Chair: Sharon Terry, Genetic Alliance
- David Bentley, Illumina
- Slavé Petrovski, AstraZeneca
- Andrea Ganna, FinnGen
- Robert Wildin, University of Vermont Health
- Alexander Charney, Mount Sinai - Precision Medicine in Understudied Populations
- Ryan Taft, Illumina
- Aimé LUMAKA, WALGEMED - Building Future Precision Care in Qatar
Chair: Khalid Fakhro, Sidra Medicine
- Ziyad M. Hijazi, Sidra Medicine
- Edison T. Liu, The Jackson Labs
- Challenges and Opportunities for National Precision Medicine Initiatives (PANEL)
Chair: Alessandro Riccombeni, Microsoft UK
- Catalina Lopez-Correa, Genome Canada
- Khalid Fakhro, Sidra Medicine
- Framework to Improve the Translation of Genomics into the Clinic (PANEL)
Chair: Kathleen Barnes, Tempus Labs
- Carlos Bustamante, Galatea Bio
- Ora Gordon, Providence
- Abasi Ene-Obong, 54gene - Identifying Relationships Between Disparate Data Sets to Monitor and Control Pathogen Outbreak (PANEL)
Chair: Charles Chiu, UCSF
- Amy Kirby, CDC
- Smruthi Karthikeyan, Caltech - Increasing Diversity in Population Studies
- Manual Rivas - Global Biobank Engine, Stanford Rivas Lab
- The Missing Diversity in Human Epigenomic Studies
- Charles E. Breeze, National Cancer Institute
- The Transition from Genomics to Phenomics in Precision Population Health
- Lee Hood, Phenome Health
