Biography
Olena Vaske is the Founder of the Treehouse Childhood Cancer Initiative at the University of Santa Cruz Genomics Institute, where she is Assistant Professor of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology. Dr. Vaske is the scientific lead for the California Kids Cancer Comparison (CKCC) project, one of the demonstration projects of the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine, a public-private effort recently launched by Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. Dr. Vaske’s research focuses on developing novel RNA-Seq analysis approaches to discover druggable targets for pediatric cancer patients. Dr. Vaske holds a PhD in Bioinformatics from the University of British Columbia and a BSc (Hons) in Molecular Genetics and Biology from the University of Toronto.
Recently, several unique partnerships for population sequencing studies have been launched. Various medical organizations and pharmaceutical and direct-to-consumer testing companies are included in these partnerships. The designed studies are expected to create new insights, identify new disease targets, and improve individualized patient care. In this session we will hear updates about several of these collaborative population studies to learn about the various opportunities created, the resulting benefits for each of the partners, and the challenges that need to be overcome in relation to data flow and data sharing.