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2025

The Molecular Quilt of Bodies & Health


  • Session 1: The Evolving Quilt

    • An Introduction to Integral Anatomy

      Exploring the principles and import of an integral approach to human anatomy supported with visuals from the laboratory.

    • The Three Flavors of Danger

      To survive as a species, all organisms must protect their genome integrity from invaders. About 1.7 billion years ago, archaebacteria evolved selective defenses such as CRISPR-Cas to specifically cut DNA sequences in invading bacteriophage. Multicellular eukaryotes like us needed to evolve new defenses to protect our genome integrity against intracellular infections such as retroviruses, to defend against extracellular infections...

    • Contemporary Prevention of Major Cardiovascular Events. An Existential Crisis.

      A discussion focusing on tools for coronary artery disease screening, risk stratification, and treatment including novel use of proteomics in preventing cardiac vascular events.

    • Open-source antibodies as a path to enhanced research reproducibility and transparency

      I will use my talk to champion the adoption of open-source antibodies to enhance reproducibility and transparency in biomedical research. We have established a pipeline for democratizing antibody availability through open-source antibodies, drawing a parallel to the benefits of open-source software. This entails not only making the ready-to-use antibodies available to the research community but also providing the material (plasmid...

  • Session 2: From Molecules to Public Health

    • Multiomics at Illumina: Sequencing Beyond the Genome

      Illumina’s mission to unlock the power of the human genome has led to the development of genome sequencers that have transformed clinical diagnostics and biomedical research. Illumina is building on that vision by extending the use of their sequencing instruments beyond traditional genomics with a portfolio of multiomics products spanning epigenetics, transcriptomics, and proteomics. These end-to-end multiomics products will enable...

    • Selective targeting of bad bugs in the gut may have many health benefits

      We live among microbes that preceded us on Earth by a few billion years. As new kids on the block, we are hosts to more than thirty trillion bacterial organisms per person, not far from the total number of cells in the human body. Most commensal bacteria reside in our intestines where they are not only benign but also do...

    • Neurosurgical Public Health: What the heck is that?

      This session will focus on the critical role of public health in society as well as specific to the field of pediatric neurosurgery. Firearm injury represents the #1 means of death for our nation’s children. The effect on survivors is lifelong. The experience of waiting in the pediatric emergency department after a school shooting only to find that none of...

    • COVID-19, the Unlikely Architect of Public Health’s Future

      There is a near-certain probability that we will face another COVID-like event. The challenge is that we can’t predict exactly what will come next. Drawing from his experience leading BARDA DRIVe, a newly formed U.S. government biosecurity unit, Sandeep will share key lessons from his experience in the pandemic response on how we can better prepare for a future "Threat...

  • Session 3: Computation and the Quilt

    • Powering Proactive Healthcare: Leveraging AI to Reshape Our Healthcare System

      Many of us know that AI has tremendous potential to change healthcare. But we are still far from leveraging its full potential. This talk presents a new model, MetisAI. MetisAI leverages large datasets to accurately find millions of patients at risk of adverse health events. This allows timely medical interventions that reduce costs while improving lives.

      MetisAI is...

    • The Intelligence Revolution: Building WISE-R’s Living Platform

      This presentation reveals the transformative journey of WISE-R, born from a critical realization: in today's data-rich world, organizations are drowning in information yet starving for true intelligence. Despite investing millions in data and AI, organizations around the world consistently miss the strategic opportunities that define their future. This paradox drove the creation of WISE-R's revolutionary living intelligence platform.

      Through...

    • The AVOID-OME: Speeding drug discovery by unlocking machine learning on anti-targets

      Small molecule therapies represent a significant portion of FDA-approved drugs, yet their development is often hindered by the challenge of balancing on-target activity with desirable pharmacokinetic (PK) properties. Pharmacokinetic properties, which encompass absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME), determine a drug's fate within the body and are crucial for its efficacy and safety. Currently, the optimization of these properties is...

    • Human-Centered AI Approaches to Endometriosis Detection and Management

      Endometriosis affects an estimated 6–10% of women of reproductive age, yet it remains underdiagnosed, under-researched, and poorly understood. This talk presents human-centered AI approaches to improve the detection and management of endometriosis, leveraging patient-generated data and large-scale observational health records. By integrating AI-driven phenotyping, predictive modeling, and real-world patient insights, this work aims to advance early detection and empower individuals...

  • Session 4: Weaving the Quilt

    • Indigenous Health through DNA and Data Futures

      Traditionally, the innovation pathway as it relates to genomic data derived from Tribal Nations and their members has been largely one-sided. Genomic and health data have often been collected from Indigenous peoples via recruitment in large-scale genomic diversity projects and clinical testing with the promise that derived benefits of such research would ameliorate disparities in health outcomes. However, the promises...

    • Self Compassion Delivers Everything Self Improvement Promised

      The messages we receive from the external world on a moment to moment basis often give us the feedback that we need to be doing more, and that what we are doing needs to be better. It is no wonder that our internal dialogue follows the same narrative. Consequently, we feel at our core that we are not loveable, not...

    • A.I. and Human Values

      The advent of artificial intelligence challenges us to look at ourselves and articulate our own uniqueness. What separates human thinking from artificial thinking? Human experience from artificial experience? At a time when, for both practical and ideological reasons, the artificial is going to be elevated over the human, we need to understand the value in the human version of things....

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      16th Annual GoldLab Symposium

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      May 15-16, 2025

    • Beyond Firebreak: Mental Health and Reentry for Incarcerated Firefighters

      Since World War II, several states have relied on incarcerated individuals to fight wildfires, providing them with the same high-level training as state-certified wildland firefighters. For many, this work offers a rare sense of freedom—access to open air, better meals, new skills, and a break from confinement. Yet, despite the dangers, incarcerated firefighters earn as little as a few dollars...