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Liquid Biopsies – Course and Conference Office

EMBL Course

Liquid Biopsies

Overview

Course Overview

Liquid biopsies have the advantage of being largely non-invasive and providing a vast amount of information for the detection and monitoring of diseases such as cancer. This course will provide an overview in the several techniques to detect and analyse circulating tumour cells (CTCs), cell free tumor DNA (ctDNA), miRNA in liquid biopsies, cell free tumour RNA (ctRNA) and proteins. Participants will be introduced to all aspects ranging from proper sampling through error free sequencing to data analysis. Additional lectures will cover extracellular vesicles and clinical aspects using liquid biopsies, especially in the field of cancer diagnostics.

Please note that all participants are expected to engage in all sessions.

Audience

This course targets early-career scientists entering the field of liquid biopsy analysis and wanting to learn about the benefits and limitations of different approaches.

Modules/Resources

  • Ultra-sensitive mutation detection using sequencing
  • Single-cell analysis in liquid biopsies
  • Digital PCR applications in the liquid biopsy workflow
  • Protein analysis in liquid biopsies
  • miRNA analysis in liquid biopsies
  • Hands-on data analysis and interpretations

Learning Outcomes

Participants will receive an overview of various workflows in liquid biopsies, from sample preparation to data analysis. The course provides and overview of the current methods. Whereby a strong focus will be on experimental design, best practices, pitfalls as well as dos and don’ts. After the course, participants should be able to assess the best methods for their application as well as design their experiment.

Participant Commitment

  • The virtual course will start on Monday 27 September, with an onboarding session and access to the pre-recorded lectures and pre-course study materials (exercises, assignments, etc.). It will continue on Friday 8 October with the regular programme.
  • The course will start on Friday 8 October, and after a break over the weekend, will continue on Monday 11 October with the regular programme.
  • The virtual course includes recorded lectures, interactive discussion sessions, online practicals, hands-on exercises, student presentations and networking.
  • Full-time attendance is required for the course duration.
  • Selected participants will have access to the recorded talks 2 weeks before the start of the event. Please note that watching the recordings prior to the start of the course is required and will take approximately 15 hours.
  • Information on the live stream and access to the virtual course platform will be provided shortly before the start of the event.
  • Access to the recorded talks and the virtual course platform will be available for 2 weeks after the end of the event.

What past participants say about the course:

“The Liquid Biopsy course gave me plenty of new insights for different applications of the technique in cancer. I learned new techniques, discussed my project with top peers and met a lot of highly motivated young professionals. I incorporated the learned applications in my research and this really improved my current project.” Aleksei Tikhonov, Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, RAS, Russian Federation. 

Speakers and Trainers

Joerg Bantin

Bio-Rad

Germany

Marco Bianchi

Bio-Rad

Germany

Stefan Fliges

Stefan Filges

Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg

Sweden

Amin Forootan

MultiD Analyses AB

Sweden

Andrea Huxhold

QIAGEN

Germany

Romy Kirsten

Romy Kirsten

National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg

Germany

Mikael Kubista

Mikael Kubista

Institute of Biotechnology and TATAA Biocenter

Czech Republic

Pia Scheu

Bio-Rad

Germany

Eddy van Collenburg

Bio-Rad

Germany

Scientific Organisers

Course Organisers

Maria Mercedes Bacadare Goitia

Course and Conference Team Lead

EMBL Heidelberg

Germany

Irena Provaznikova

Training Lab Technician

EMBL Heidelberg

Germany

Nathalie Sneider

EMBL Heidelberg

Germany

Programme

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  • The virtual course will start on Monday 27 September with an onboarding session and access to the pre-recorded talks from invited speakers and trainers. The course will continue on Friday 8 October with the regular programme.
  • Participants will be required to view the pre-recorded talks (15 h) prior to the main start of the course on Friday 8 October. During the five-day course duration, full-time attendance is required.  

All times in the programme below are shown as the time in Europe/Berlin.

To find out the equivalent time zone in your location, enter Berlin, the programme time and date along with your city into the Time Zone Converter.

Day 0 – Monday 27 September 2021
TimeSpeaker
13:00-15:00Onboarding
15:00End of Day 0 – Continued access to networking and discussion platform, pre-recorded lectures and course materials on eCampus

Day 1 – Friday 8 October 2021
TimeSpeaker
Pre-analytical day
13:00-13:15Welcome, house notes and course overview
13:15-14:30Icebreaker activity (flash talks)
14:30-14:45Break
14:45-15:30Interactive Lecture: Background lecture with live Q&A
Anders Ståhlberg – Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Sweden
15:30-15:45Break
15:45-16:30Live Q&A session Based on pre-recorded talks
Romy Kirsten – National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg, Germany
Anders Ståhlberg – Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Andrea Huxhold – QIAGEN, Germany
16:30-16:45Break
16:45-17:45Student presentations
17:45-18:00Break
18:00-18:30Speed Networking
18:30End of Day 1 – Continued access to networking and discussion platform, pre-recorded lectures and course materials on eCampus
Day 2 – Monday 11 October 2021
TimeSpeaker
Session: Single Cell day
12:45-13:00Overview of the day
13:00-13:30Group discussion from Pre-analytical day
13:30-14:30Live Q&A session based on pre-recorded talks: Single Cell analysis
Beata Ramasz – EMBL Heidelberg, Germany
Anders Ståhlberg – Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Sweden
14:30-14:45Break
14:45-15:45Interactive practical session: Single cell workflow
Beata Ramasz – EMBL Heidelberg, Germany
15:45-16:00Break
16.00-17:00Student presentations
17:00-17:15Break
17:15-17:45Networking activity: Online Pictionary
17:45End of Day 2 – Continued access to networking and discussion platform, pre-recorded lectures and course materials on eCampus
Day 3 – Tuesday 12 October 2021
TimeSpeaker
Session: ddPCR and miRNA day
12:45-13:00Overview of the day
13:00-13:30Group discussion from Single Cell day
13:30-14:30Live Q&A session to pre-recorded talk + practicals session: Digital PCR
Pia Scheu – Bio-Rad, Germany
Marco Bianchi – Bio-Rad, Germany
Eddy van Collenburg – Bio-Rad, Germany
14:30-14:45Break
14:45-15:45Interactive practical session: miRNA workflow
Manuel Marceliano Luna Santa-María – Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Sweden
15:45-16:15Networking break
16:15-17:15Interactive practical session: miRNA analysis
Mikael Kubista – Institute of Biotechnology and TATAA Biocenter, Czech Republic
17:15-17:30Break
17:30-18:30Student presentations
18:30End of Day 3 – Continued access to networking and discussion platform, pre-recorded lectures and course materials on eCampus
Day 4 – Wednesday 13 October 2021
TimeSpeaker
Session: Sequencing day
12:45-13:00Overview of the day
13:00-13:30Group discussion from ddPCR and miRNA day
13:30-14:30Live Q&A session to pre-recorded talks
An Hendrix – Ghent University, Belgium
Tony E. Godfrey – Boston University School of Medicine, USA
Michael Pfaffl – Technical University of Munich, Germany
14:30-14:45Break
14:45-16:45Interactive practical session: SIMSen-Seq
Stefan Filges – Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Sweden
16:45-17:00Break
17:00-18:00Student presentations
18:00End of Day 4 – Continued access to networking and discussion platform, pre-recorded lectures and course materials on eCampus

Day 5 – Thursday 14 October 2021
TimeSpeaker
Session: Protein day
12:45-13:00Overview of the day
13:00-13:30Group discussion from Sequencing day
13:30-15:30Interactive practical session: Data Analysis of SIMSen- Seq data
Stefan Filges – Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Manuel Marceliano Luna Santa-María – Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Tobias Österlund – Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Sweden
15:30-15:45Break
15:45-16:30Live Q&A session based on pre-recorded talks
Lei Chen – Uppsala University, Sweden
Ulf Landegren – Uppsala University, Sweden
16:30-16:45Break
16:45-17:45Interactive practical session: PEA assay
Lei Chen – Uppsala University, Sweden
17:45-18:00Break
18:00-18:30Networking activity: Bar mixer
18:30End of Day 5 – Continued access to networking and discussion platform, pre-recorded lectures and course materials on eCampus

Day 6 – Friday 15 October 2021
TimeSpeaker
12:45-13:00Overview of the day
13:00-13:30Group discussion from Data Analysis and Protein day
Anders Ståhlberg – Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Sweden
13:30-14:15Live talk with Q&A session
Valérie Taly – Paris Descartes University, France
14:15-14:45Live Q&A session based on pre-recorded talks
Anders Edsjö – Skåne University Hospital, Sweden
Toni E. Godfrey – Boston University School of Medicine, USA
14:45-14:50Group picture
14:50-15:00Break
15:00- 16:00Meet the experts in Breakout Rooms
16:00-16:30Closing remarks and farewell
16:30End of the Course

Practical Information

Registration Fees and Motivation Letter

The course is limited to 16 participants. For selection purposes, please note that your application will not be considered without a letter of motivation.

Registration

Registration Fees (include admission and all course materials):

Academia295 Euro
PhD Student295 Euro
Industry520 Euro

Confirmation and Payment

The registration fee should be paid only after acceptance to the course. The results will be announced approximately 2-3 weeks after the application deadline.

Motivation Letter Submission

After you have logged in and successfully registered, you will receive an email asking you to submit your motivation letter. Click on the link provided and enter your motivation letter in the text box provided. Alternatively you can submit your motivation letter by clicking on the link on the confirmation page directly after registering.

Instructions

  1. Include your relevant skills, experience and qualifications showing why you would be suitable for the course.
  2. Explain why you would like to attend, including what you can contribute and how you think you will benefit from the course.

Please note:

Motivation letter length: 
The maximum limit of 2000 characters (ca. 200 words) refers to manually typed text (spaces included).

Free field text length: The maximum characters for your answers in the free field text boxes is 255 (spaces included).Text only: If you copy-paste the text, hidden formatting might still be included and you will be informed that your text exceeds the character limit. We recommend either:

  1. saving your text as text only in your editor or Email programme, OR
  2. copy-pasting it into Notepad and then onto the website.

Symbols: If you have special symbols in your text make sure you are using Unicode characters, otherwise these will not be recognised by the tool.

Further Details

For further information about registration and motivation letter submission please refer to the FAQ page.

Financial Assistance

Financial Assistance

Limited financial assistance is provided by the EMBL Advanced Training Centre Corporate Partnership Programme and EMBO in the form of both registration fee waivers and travel grants. Availability is limited to events in Heidelberg and will be indicated during the abstract or motivation letter submission process. A list of external funding opportunities can be found here, and information on attending a conference as an event reporter here.

Onsite events: Your place in the meeting is only confirmed by paying the registration fee, which is mandatory even when receiving a fee waiver.

Virtual events: You are not required to pre-pay the registration fee to be selected for a fee waiver for a virtual meeting.

EMBO childcare grants are available for EMBO Practical Courses and Workshops at all EMBL sites.

Courses

Registration Fee Waiver

The fee waiver will cover the registration sum that you have paid to attend the course.

Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds Travel Grant

Applies to selected courses only. Availability will be indicated during the abstract or motivation letter submission process.

This grant covers costs related to your attendance to the course (registration, travel and accommodation costs). The grant is restricted to PhD students and postdocs who conduct basic biomedical research.
Whether you are eligible to apply for a travel grant, depends on when you received your university entrance qualification (e.g. Abitur, A-Levels, High School Diploma, Final State Examination):

– for PhD and MD students, as well as graduates, the university entrance qualification must not have been obtained more than 11 years ago at the time of the envisaged course
– for postdocs, the university entrance qualification must not have been obtained more than 13 years ago at the time of the envisaged course

Further details

For further information about financial assistance please refer to the FAQ page.

Technical Requirements

Technical Requirements

Below you will find the software and technical requirements for this course. You will need admin rights to be able to install the software on your computer and we recommend you try this before the course. If you do not have admin rights, please contact your technical support team in advance to make sure the software can be installed.

Additional Software

The EMBL eCampus learning platform will be used to collaborate, communicate and network with all of the course participants. All participants will receive information on how to join shortly before the course. We recommend using Chrome, Safari or Mozilla Firefox browsers for eCampus. 

Zoom will be used for the live talks and Q&A sessions. More information will be provided closer to the start of the course.

Other Information

While using the software during the course, please make sure you have nothing else using your bandwidth. We recommend using a wired connection.

Virtual Participation Guidelines

Guidelines

Please do:

  • Use the event-specific hashtag #EMBLLiquidBiopsies during the event for any related tweets
  • Tweet unless the speaker specifically says otherwise
  • Be mindful of unpublished data
  • Be respectful in tone and content

Please don’t:

  • Share your login details to eCampus with others
  • Broadcast the conference to unregistered participants
  • Capture, transmit or redistribute data presented at the meeting unless presenter gives explicit consent
  • Use offensive language in your posts
  • Engage in rudeness or personal attacks

Additional information can be found in our Code of Conduct.

Sponsors

Media Partner

Sponsorship Opportunities

We offer a variety of event sponsoring possibilities, with the flexibility to select a set sponsorship package or combine individual sponsorship options to suit your event budget. Discounts are available for companies sponsoring multiple events at EMBL Heidelberg. View other conferences, or contact sponsorship@embl.de for further information.

If you are interested in becoming a media partner of this event, please visit our media partnerships webpage.

Date: 8 - 15 Oct 2021

Location: Virtual


Deadline(s):

Application: Closed


Organisers:


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