Progress and challenges implementing genomics into practice and society

October 2024 marks 20 years since the publication of the completed sequence of the Human Genome Project (HGP) in Nature. The International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium’s outstanding achievement gave rise to great hopes, with the expectation that it would enable ‘researchers around the world to conduct even more precise studies of our genetic instruction book and how it influences health and disease’. How much of this prediction has been realised in the intervening years?

This year’s conference offers an opportunity to hear about some of the achievements, hurdles and failures of the intervening period from a variety of perspectives: talks will include an overview of the scientific and technological advances; how genomics has affected families with rare conditions; population screening for cancer; the evolving ethical landscape; how genetic testing can be used to help prescribing; how epigenetics works, and how the burgeoning data from the human microbiome has cast light on heath inequalities.