2019 NF Conference

2019 NF Conference

The Children's Tumor Foundation holds its 2019 Neurofibromatosis Conference this weekend, commencing 21st of September 2019, at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco. Lasting until Tuesday, the conference will play host to a number of the world's leading authorities on NF, including a number of our Medical Advisory Board. Amongst the headline speakers will be Professor Gareth Evans, Chair, Nerve Tumours UK Medical Advisory Board, Professor Ros Ferner and Dr Shruti Garg. 

We continue to work very closely with the Children's Tumor Foundation on joint initiatives to raise awareness of Neurofibromatosis around the globe.   

Professor Rosalie Ferner is the first to speak on the 22nd of September about Diagnostics and Imaging at 13:45 US time (21:45 UK time).

Professor Gareth Evans is then set to speak the following day at 14:00 US Time (22:00 UK time) about the Genetics of NF2 and Schwannomatosis

Dr Shruti Garg is then the last of our UK based speakers who will be speaking later that day about Clinical Science Platform Presentations at 17:15 US time (1:15 UK time). 

Each day, headed by a keynote speaker, will offer up a range of sessions in which various important topics and research will be discussed amongst numerous medical professionals.

• Day 1 will be centred around clinical care, the natural history of NF, and the psychosocial issues surrounding NF patients.
• Day 2 will be largely focused on cancer, including the predictions of future prevention and curing of cancer, the diagnostics and imaging of cancer, and the mechanisms of NF2 loss-driven Tumorigenesis.
• Day 3 will look at the advances in Neurobiology and Neuropathic pain, metabolic rewiring in NF2 Mutant Tumors, Cutaneous Neurofibromas, Genetics of NF2 and Schwannomatosis, and the targeting of gene editing and gene therapy for NF 
• Day 4, the final day will be a much shorter day in which there will be a lengthy discussion on animal models before the second "Hackathon Outcome" is discussed

Hackathon:

"The Children’s Tumor Foundation (CTF), the Neurofibromatosis Therapeutic Acceleration Program (NTAP), Sage Bionetworks, and the Silicon Valley AI group (SVAI) are excited to announce the second Neurofibromatosis (NF) hackathon that will be held in San Francisco in concomitance with the 2019 CTF Patient Forum and NF Conference.  After the first NF2 hackathon organized by Onno Faber in 2017, the this new event will focus on analyzing diverse datasets including genomic, drug screening, drug-target association, imaging, and other data for all three conditions of NF (NF1, NF2, Schwannomatosis).

The goals of the NF Hackathon are: 1) to make use of the data that our researchers and scientists have already produced, 2) to incentivize data sharing as a powerful practice that will allow researchers to move at a faster pace and create new insights, and 3) to create innovative collaborations between diverse disciplines.

The hackathon is going to be collaborative in nature, with teams working on one or multiple tracks in a collaborative spirit, but still competing to find the best answer to the questions with the support of NF experts and technology experts to act as mentors and guides. The teams will assemble on the first day and will have 48 hours to present their work to a committee that will judge their work.

The winning teams will be presenting their findings during this session."

For more information on the conference itself then please visit the website by following the link below: