Johns Hopkins experts to present genetics advances at international meeting this weekend

Johns Hopkins genetics researchers Aravinda Chakravarti, Ph.D., and David Valle, M.D., will each present at the joint conference of the Human Genome Meeting 2013 and the 21st International Congress of Genetics. The conference, which will take place in Singapore April 13-18, 2013, will focus on the genetics and genomics of world health and sustainability. Chakravarti and Valle are the former and current director, respectively, of the Johns Hopkins University McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine.

Both Chakravarti and Valle will speak at the conference's Mendelian Genetic Diseases session, to be held on April 13 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. local time. Chakravarti will relate his findings about Hirschsprung's disease, an inherited intestinal disorder that, he has found, can be caused by a number of different rare genetic variations. Valle will speak about the work of the Baylor-Johns Hopkins Center for Mendelian Genetics, a four-year, National Institutes of Health-funded search for the culprits behind single-gene diseases usually called Mendelian disorders.

On April 18 at 8:30 a.m., Chakravarti will chair a plenary discussion in which he will reflect on progress in genomics since the sequencing of the human genome 10 years ago, focusing on the areas of ethical issues, identifying disease genes and understanding gene mechanisms.Related stories: