ABSTRACT
Support is requested for a Keystone Symposia conference entitled Leveraging Genomic Diversity to Promote
Animal and Human Health, organized by Drs. Michèle Ramsay, Han Brunner and Appolinaire Djikeng. The
conference will be held in Kampala, Uganda from November 25-29, 2018.
Genomic variation is a driving force of animal and human health and susceptibility to disease, but our focus
rarely spans human ethnic genomic diversity and genomic variation between animal breeds, limiting their
translational impact. This symposium aims to: 1) Highlight translational genomics in humans and animals
(clinical medicine and animal breeding for health and productivity), 2) Explore synergies and cross-disciplinary
learning, 3) Explore opportunities to leverage genomic diversity to push the current boundaries to translation,
and 4) Address translation and affordability in low- and middle-income settings. Large-scale genomics
initiatives like Genome England, the US Precision Medicine initiative, and the Human Heredity and Health in
African Consortium, are providing extraordinarily large data sets to explore useful genotype-phenotype
connections. Equivalent initiatives for animal data are starting. This meeting will explore the translation of
genomic research in animals and humans; high and low-resourced environments; ethnic diversity; and cultural
context. Identifying common themes in animal and human health opens up opportunities for repurposing of
ideas and applications, and for finding innovative solutions for translational genomics through cross-boundary
communities of practice.