AACB AIMS 2018 Combined Scientific Meeting

The Australasian Association of Clinical Biochemists and the Australian Institute of Medical Scientists will be holding the AACB AIMS 2018 Combined Scientific Meeting at the International Convention Centre (ICC) Sydney from 3–5 September 2018.

The meeting combines the AACB 56th Annual Scientific Conference and the AIMS 47th National Scientific Meeting. The theme for the conference is ‘Diagnosis to Cure’, with related topics to be explored over the course of three days. The first day is ‘metabolism day’ — topics to be covered include inborn metabolic syndromes and the gene and enzyme therapies. Carolyn Sue, Kevin Carpenter, Michael Tchan, Ian Cateson and Tina Yen will provide insights into some of these conditions. The David Curnow Lecture and Saal Foley Lecture will also be held on this day.

On day two, the focus will be on cancer. This includes molecular diagnosis and classification, immunotherapies and drug treatments. Dr Ken Dutton-Regester from QIMR, the recipient of the 2017 Queensland Young Tall Poppy Science Awards, will talk about melanoma genetics and biology. This year will also feature the David Rothfield Memorial Oration, an honorary lectureship that is jointly sponsored by the RCPA, AACB, RCPAQAP and NATA and alternates each year between the RCPA Pathology Update and the AACB Annual Scientific Meeting. The oration will be presented by Professor Andy Hoofnagle from Washington University, who will talk about proteomics.

The second day will be concluded by Dr Roger Reddel, who will introduce Procan, a new database that Australian researchers are setting up that will feed the information gathered through analysing the proteins of 70,000 cancer samples. This will be made available worldwide and is expected to become the reference for recommending the best-known treatments for patients.

The last day will focus on chronic diseases such as diabetes, kidney disease, auto-immune conditions and bleeding disorders. These diseases are a huge burden on the health system and speakers will cover topics such as monitoring response to treatments in chronic leukaemia, organ transplant surgeries and biomedical ethics.

Other highlights include: industry exhibition, submitted oral papers and posters, networking functions, industry symposia, meet-the-experts breakfast sessions and the gala dinner.