Fios in 2019

Season’s greetings from everyone at Fios Genomics! We hope you have a great holiday season and a well-earned break before the new calendar year begins.

A Flying Start

Fios’ Business Development team have been extremely busy this year, with over 400 face-to-face meetings all over the world. We have had enquiries and projects with clients from many different countries resulting in over 115 projects this year to date. The two main data types for our clients were transcriptomic and genotypic data, which is broadly similar to 2018. We have had an increasing interest in data mining projects, while differential expression is still a key analysis approach utilised.

If you would like to meet with us in 2020, get in touch now!

Team Growth

2019 saw the Fios team grow steadily throughout the year. The start of the year heralded a new Scientific Editor role in Fios, with steady growth in our Bioinformatics Operations, Project Management, and Business Development teams as well! In all, Fios was joined by seven new faces.

Notable Achievements

Publications

2019 heralded three published papers and others in pre-print stage.

‘Central nervous system regeneration is driven by microglia necroptosis and repopulation’. This paper was the result of our collaboration with the Medical Research Council Centre for Reproductive Health, The Queen’s Medical Research Institute, The University of Edinburgh.

‘Microbe-host interplay in atopic dermatitis and psoriasis’. This paper is the result of our collaboration with several organisations as part of the MAARS FP7 project.

‘Trilaciclib plus chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone in patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer: a multicentre, randomised, open-label, phase 2 trial’. Our collaboration with G1 Therapeutics is featured in this publication.

Additionally, we updated our publications page to reflect all of our 2018 publications as well.

‘An Introduction to the Microbiome: Challenges and Resolutions for Research’. Our first whitepaper, it centered on the topic of the microbiome and was written with major contributions from members of our Operations team.

Posters at ESMO and AACR Conferences

Our work was also featured on four posters – two at both ESMO and AACR conferences.

‘First-In-Human Dose-Escalation Study of G1T48, an Oral Selective Estrogen Receptor Degrader (SERD), in Postmenopausal Women with ER+/HER2- Locally Advanced or Metastatic Breast Cancer (ABC)’. This poster is the result of our collaboration with G1 Therapeutics.

‘Lerociclib (G1T38), an Oral CDK4/6 Inhibitor, Dosed Continuously in Combination with Osimertinib for EGFR^MUT Non−Small Cell Lung Cancer: Initial Phase 1B Results’. Our collaboration with G1 Therapeutics is featured in this poster.

‘P300/CBP Inhibitor CCS1477 Targets 22RV1 Prostate Tumor AR and C-MYC Gene Expression in Vivo’. This poster is the result of our collaboration with CellCentric.

‘Association of Tumor Fusion Burden with Immune Presence and Androgen Sensitivity in Prostate Cancer’. This poster is the result of our collaboration with Genentech.

Events and Conferences

This year, we not only doubled the number of events that we attended, but we also marked a number of ‘firsts for Fios’.

Highlights of the events that we attended include:

• Festival of Genomics, London in January. This was our first attendance at the Festival of Genomics for a number of years – revisit our highlights from the conference in our blog post. After a successful attendance last year, you will find us exhibiting in 2020.
• 14^th Annual Biomarkers Congress, Manchester in February. The ABC is a stalwart of our calendar and we are pleased to be returning in 2020 for both exhibiting and speaking slots. Our Technical Director spoke on Day 1 in Stream 1; Biomarkers in Drug Discovery & Development – Therapeutic Areas: Autoimmune, Immuno-oncology, Neuroscience, Oncology.
• Fios’ Breakfast Meeting, Boston in May. Our Breakfast Meeting was the first time we had ever held an event like this. It was well-attended with a fantastically engaged audience – and we learnt key lessons for hosting another event like this.
• Trade Mission to Switzerland in May. Another first for us in recent years, the trade mission to Switzerland allowed us to make new contacts in the Swiss pharma and biotech arena, learn more about their efforts, whilst also consolidating on existing relationships. Read more of the insights gained here.
• Microbiome and Probiotics Series: Europe, Rotterdam in May. Dr Paul McAdam, one of our Bioinformatics Team Leaders, attended – and summed up his thoughts and key points in a series of videos for us. Find the full-length video here – including a transcript.
• Genomic Medicine Edinburgh, in May. GME marked the start of a few local conferences for us. Two of our Business Development Managers, Ruairi and Eleanore, attended – it is always beneficial to meet with local companies and find out more about what the sector is working on.
• Genome Science, Edinburgh in September– two members of our Operations team attended the two-day event. It was very technical-focused, allowing them to catch up on recent developments and technologies used for genome science as well as highlighting some great applications of these for research-use.
• 4th Biomarkers & Precision Medicine USA Congress, San Diego in October. The San Diego conference is a star in our calendar, bringing fantastic talks and connections together for two days. This year’s event was particularly busy for the team, with more meetings arranged this year than ever before.
• Scottish Lifesciences Association Members Event, Edinburgh in October. As members of the SLA, it is great to attend the annual event and learn about the networks and connections that are being consolidated worldwide.
• ELRIG events throughout the year – our year started and ended with ELRIG events which was fantastic. CRISPR in Drug Discovery and Drug Discovery were insightful events and we took a lot from our attendance.

Read more of the highlights and insights from various events throughout 2019 and previous years on our blog here.

Find Us in 2020

Looking forward into 2020, you’ll find us either exhibiting at or attending conferences and events including:

• Festival of Genomics, London in January. We are attending and exhibiting at FoG this year. Drop by Booth 2 on either day to meet John and Tanya, two of our Business Development Managers, and members of our Operations team. We are looking forward to an interactive and informative few days.
• Biomarkers Series UK, Manchester in February. As part of the Biomarkers Series UK, we are exhibiting and speaking during the 15^th Annual Biomarkers Congress. Our talk is on Day 1 of the main conference (19^th February) at 2:50pm, and you will find us at Booth 11 on both days.
• Biomarkers and Immuno Series US, San Diego in October. It feels very far away, but we will be at the next Biomarkers conference in San Diego, 2020! We will have more information on exhibiting and speaking nearer the time.
• ELRIG, all year. With 2019 heralding more attendance at ELRIG events, this is set to continue in 2020. There are a number of events throughout the year – stay tuned for information on which ones we will be at.

We often decide to go to a number of events during the year – especially in the second half of the year. Keep up-to-date with our blogs and social media pages to find out more about the events that we are attending throughout 2020.

2019 has shown that our role as a bioinformatics service provider is needed, enabling our clients to conduct ground-breaking research and take key insights from their data. We look forward to 2020 and the new research opportunities that it brings!

Find our 2018 highlights post here.

Happy New Year!