Background
Australian experts continually grapple with geographic distance from (mostly) northern hemisphere peers. To overcome this, Melbourne Genomics focused particular effort on international and national engagement during the 2016 to 2019 program.
A strategy was developed to:
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Give profile to the unique strengths of Melbourne Genomics’ members and the outcomes of their collaboration
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Ensure Victoria benefits from the best of global knowledge
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Assert and enhance Victoria’s profile as a leader in bringing genomics into healthcare
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Establish a strong foundation for future opportunities in genomics
A key element of this strategy was a program to attract international expert visitors to spend time in Melbourne, and to send Melbourne Genomics experts to spend time with peers outside Australia.
Project description
The objective: to share knowledge and experience and bring the best of the world’s expertise to benefit Victoria, by facilitating face-to-face, person-to-person immersive contact between international peers.
The visits and visitors program had three distinct categories:
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Experts-in-Residence: Clinical Flagships and Advisory Groups nominated an expert of their choice to host in Melbourne for one to two weeks. Experts were embedded within the Flagship or Group to facilitate mutual sharing of knowledge, skills and experience.
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Immersion Visits: Melbourne Genomics leaders invited highly-placed opinion leaders in genomics for a one-week visit to directly experience the Alliance and its work.
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Alliance Ambassadors: early-to-mid career professionals from the Melbourne Genomics member organisations selected to travel nationally or internationally to achieve a specific linking or learning goal, with new knowledge and experience to be shared on their return.
Activities
Between January 2017 and December 2019, Melbourne Genomics hosted 12 Experts-in-Residence and three Immersion Visitors, and supported five Alliance Ambassadors.
Notable visitors included:
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Professor Yehuda Carmeli, Founder and Head of the Division of Epidemiology at Tel Aviv Medical Center and of the National Institute for Infection Control and Antibiotic Resistance (2018).
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Danielle Ciofani, Director of Data Strategy and Alliances at the Broad Institute of Harvard University and MIT (2018)
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Professor Anthony Brookes, Professor of Genetics at the University of Leicester, who led the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health’s standard ‘ADA-M’ – a computer-readable model for consent and data use conditions (2019)
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Professor Dame Sue Hill DBE, Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Officer Responsible for Genomics at NHS England, a globally recognised leader in genomics (2019)
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Jillian Hastings Ward, Chair of the Participant Panel for the 100,000 Genomes Project (2019)
Outcomes
Professor Carmeli’s visit resulted in his team establishing links with Victorian genomics experts. This has subsequently led to Israeli superbug isolates being sent to Melbourne for whole genome sequencing as part of an outbreak investigation.
Professor Hill and Jillian Hastings Ward’s visit resulted in significant media exposure and raised interest from local and global experts in Melbourne Genomics’ program of work.
Strong links were built with individual experts, their organisations and their networks.
Victoria has benefited from global knowledge, and there has been national and international recognition for the Melbourne Genomics program and lessons learned as a result of these visits.
Melbourne Genomics’ collaborative model has become recognised as the international gold standard for bringing genomics into healthcare. This has resulted in international recognition for Victoria, as well as worldwide profile and linkages for Victoria’s experts.
Lessons learnt
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There was significant value for the Clinical Flagships, Advisory Groups and Melbourne Genomics program team in the opportunity to discuss issues/challenges with experts face-to-face – often resulting in validation that the problems encountered were shared (despite differences of geography, systems, etc).
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The visits and visitors program made enduring connections with experts in similar fields. There was significant value in being able to collaborate with experts in niche fields.
Full list of visits and visitors
Visitor type |
Name |
Institute |
Host group |
Immersion visitor |
Prof Anthony Brookes |
Professor of Genetics, University of Leicester, United Kingdom |
Alliance management |
Immersion visitor |
Prof Dame Sue Hill |
Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Officer Responsible Officer for Genomics, NHS England, United Kingdom |
Alliance management |
Immersion visitor |
Prof Yehuda Carmeli |
Founder and Head of Division of Epidemiology at Tel Aviv Medical Center and the National Institute for Infection Control and Antibiotic Resistance, Israel |
Controlling Superbugs Clinical Flagship |
Expert-in-Residence |
Dr Austin Kulasekararaj |
Consultant Haematologist, King’s College Hospital, United Kingdom |
Bone Marrow Failure Clinical Flagship |
Experts-in-Residence |
Broad Institute visitors: |
*Director of Data Strategy and Alliances **Senior Software Developer Broad Institute, USA |
GenoVic Project Control Group |
Expert-in-Residence |
Dr Cynthia Powell |
Professor of Paediatrics and Genetics, University of North Carolina, USA |
Congenital Deafness Clinical Flagship |
Expert-in-Residence |
Dr Daniel Gale |
St Peter’s Associate Professor of Nephrology, University College London, United Kingdom |
Kidney Genetics Clinical Flagship |
Expert-in-Residence |
Ellen Graham |
Deputy Director, Genomics Unit, NHS England, United Kingdom |
Alliance management |
Expert-in-Residence |
Prof Glenda Halliday |
NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow Central Clinical School, University of Sydney |
Complex Neurological and Neurodegenerative Diseases Clinical Flagship |
Expert-in-Residence |
Dr James Holman |
Research Environment Programme Lead at Genomics England, United Kingdom |
GenoVic Project Control Group |
Expert-in-Residence |
Dr Jennelle Hodge |
Associate Professor of Clinical Medical & Molecular Genetics, Indiana University |
Lymphoma Clinical Flagship |
Expert-in-Residence |
Ivo Fokkema |
Leiden Open Variation Database developer, Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands |
Diagnostic Advisory Group |
Expert-in-Residence |
Jillian Hastings Ward |
Chair of the Participant Panel, 100,000 Genomes Project, United Kingdom |
Community Advisory Group |
Expert-in-Residence |
Dr Kilannin Krysiak |
Clinical Fellow, Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine, USA |
Diagnostic Advisory Group |
Alliance Ambassador |
Dr Anna Tanska |
Laboratory Scientist/Manager Molecular Pathology, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre |
American Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting |
Alliance Ambassador |
Dr Claire Gorrie |
Lead Bioinformatician, Controlling Superbugs Clinical Flagship |
Dr Estee Torok (jointly appointed across the University of Cambridge, Addenbrookes Hospital, and the Sanger Institute at the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus) |
Alliance Ambassador |
Dr Dhamidhu Eratne |
Key Clinician, Complex Neurological and Neurodegenerative Diseases Clinical Flagship |
American Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting |
Alliance Ambassador |
Dr Lilian Downie |
Key Clinician, Congenital Deafness Clinical Flagship |
Broad Institute, Partners Healthcare Laboratory Molecular Medicine, Seqaboo team at Harvard Medical School |
Alliance Ambassador |
Lyndon Gallacher |
Genetic Counsellor, Victorian Clinical Genetics Services/Murdoch Children’s Research Institute |
Daniel MacArthur Laboratory, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |