Tuesday, September 23rd, 2025
9:00 am - 7:00 pm
Merkin Lobby and Auditorium
There is a pressing need for new drug targets, as well as assays and biomarkers to evaluate therapeutic efficacy and enable patient stratification. While genetic studies of disease hold great promise for providing these insights, the translation of genetic associations into actionable targets continues to pose significant challenges. Transformative progress has been made to traverse the path from such genetic associations to disease-driving targets and cellular programs, as well as the translation of such insights to genetically-informed therapeutic strategies. The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Genomic Mechanisms of Disease is thrilled to host our annual V2F symposium highlighting some of the important work and progress ongoing across the vibrant Broad Institute and international community in this domain, with a focus on health care innovation and translation. Please join us for an exciting day of science and discussions around this topic.
Co-chaired by Melina Claussnitzer and Kasper Lage
Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Genomic Mechanisms of Disease at the Broad Institute
Agenda |
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8:30am - 9:00am |
Registration |
Merkin Lobby |
9:00am - 9:30am |
Welcome Remarks Melina Claussnitzer, PhD Director of the Broad Diabetes Initiative (BDI), Associate Director of Scientific Strategy for the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Genomic Mechanisms of Disease, and Institute Member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard |
Broad Auditorium |
9:30am - 10:15am |
Keynote: “AI-ML + Multiplex Libraries for New Functions and New Therapies” George Church, PhD, Professor of Genetics and Professor of Health Sciences and Technology, Director of the U.S. Department of Energy Technology Center and Director of the National Institutes of Health Center of Excellence in Genomic Science |
Broad Auditorium |
10:15am - 10:30am |
Break
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Merkin Lobby |
10:30am - 11:30am |
Session I: Scaling Variant Interpretation |
Broad Auditorium |
10:30am - 11:00am |
“Genetic Subtypes of Obesity: A Shortcut to Function” Ruth Loos, PhD, Professor, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, University of Copenhagen, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Genomic Mechanisms of Disease at the Broad Institute |
Broad Auditorium |
11:00am - 11:30am |
Jason Flannick, PhD Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and the Division of Genetics and Genomics at Boston Children’s Hospital, and an Associate Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard |
Broad Auditorium |
11:30am - 12:00pm |
“Mapping Genetic Effects for High-Dimensional Molecular Phenotypes at the Single-Cell Level” Wei Zhou, PhD, Assistant Professor, Center for Genomic Medicine of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Associate Member, Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard |
Broad Auditorium |
12:00pm - 1:00 pm |
Lunch |
Merkin Lobby |
1:00pm - 2:00pm |
Session II: Regulatory Landscapes and Gene Control |
Broad Auditorium |
1:00pm - 1:30pm |
“Improving Variant Effect Prediction in Seq2accessibility Models Using Personal Genomes” Jesper Madsen, PhD, Associate Professor of Computational Biology in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Southern Denmark, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Genomic Mechanisms of Disease at the Broad Institute |
Broad Auditorium |
1:30pm - 2:00pm |
“Spatiotemporal Mechanisms of Distal Gene Regulation by Enhancers” Anders Sejr Hansen, PhD, Class of 1943 Associate Professor, Associate Member of the Broad Institute, Member of Broad Gene Regulation Observatory and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Genomic Mechanisms of Disease, Extramural Member of KI Integrative Cancer Research. Department of Biological Engineering at MIT
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Broad Auditorium |
2:00pm - 2:15pm |
Break
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Merkin Lobby |
2:15pm - 3:15pm |
Session III: Decoding Variant Effects through Cellular Maps
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Broad Auditorium |
2:15pm - 2:45pm |
Chloé Villani, PhD Institute Member of Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Principal Investigator at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Cancer Research, and Director of the Single Cell Genomics Research Program at the Center for Immunology and Inflammatory Diseases (CIID) |
Broad Auditorium |
2:45pm - 3:15pm |
“Predicting Gene-Regulatory Function from DNA Sequence with Deep Learning” Johannes Linder, PhD, Machine Learning Scientist at Calico Life Sciences LLC |
Broad Auditorium |
3:15pm - 5:00pm |
Session IV: Translating Variants into Therapeutic Insights |
Broad Auditorium |
3:15pm - 3:45pm |
“Genetic Influences on Human Hematopoiesis” Vijay Sankaran, MD, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute |
Broad Auditorium |
3:45pm - 4:15pm |
“Engineering Bespoke Genome Editing Therapies and Beyond” Ben Kleinstiver, PhD, Associate Professor at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School |
Broad Auditorium |
4:15pm - 5:00pm |
Keynote Robert Plenge, MD, PhD Executive Vice President, Chief Research Officer, and Head of Research at Bristol Myers Squibb |
Broad Auditorium |
5:00pm - 7:00pm |
Poster Session and Reception |
Merkin Lobby |
