Talk given by Dr Katie Snape

“What Has Genomics Ever Done for Us?

On Wednesday 14th October, we were honoured to have Dr Katie Snape come to talk to our Croydon Medical Society. Consultant and GPs, current and present, were joined by future doctors from local secondary schools.

Katie kindly gave time in her busy schedule with St George’s and King’s College Hospitals and Genomics England to give us a whistlestop tour of how genomics is already being used in our clinical work and how this will increase in the future – from antenatal screening to pharmacogenetics directing our prescribing – and everything in between.

The talk was very interactive with lots of questions from the audience. We left enlightened but also with more questions about how our clinical activities would be impacted more and more, and the ethical dilemmas attached to this new knowledge.

Biog: Dr Katie Snape is Principal Clinician at Genomics England, supporting development of a translational research programme for the adult population to generate evidence and digital infrastructure to assess the impact of pre-emptive genomic testing. Katie is a Consultant in Cancer Genetics at the South West Thames Centre for Genomics and the Tetiring Chair of the UK Cancer Genetics Group, a national organisation to improve the assessment and management of people with enhanced genetic cancer risk. Katie has a PhD in molecular genetics from the Institute of Cancer Research. Her PhD involved using next-generation sequencing technologies to identify cancer-associated genomic variation. Katie has a Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare and Biomedical Education, is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Reader at City, St George’s University of London. Katie specialises in germline predisposition to haematological malignancies, working in the Haematology Medicine service at Kings College Hospital.

In November we have CMS member, Dr Nicholas Cambridge giving a talk on Erasmus Darwin. We will also have our version of Desert Islands Discs, with Dr Nick Ford interviewing Dr John Spicer and hearing about his life and choice of music.