This year’s abstract challenge was another great success. We received over 30 submissions and topics ranged from GWAS to RNA Seq to exome sequencing, and the list goes on. With so many excellent submissions this year, we chose 4 winners, with a tie for 3rd place.

Our first place winner is Dr. Sergey Kornilov, a Postdoctoral Associate in the Child Study Center at Yale University’s School of Medicine. Kornilov is part of the EGLab which performs research and clinical services focused on behavioral and molecular genetics. His submission focused on the genetic basis of developmental language disorder in a geographically isolated Russian-speaking population. Kornilov will present his work to the Golden Helix community in October and will receive a new Dell laptop as well as a free license of both SVS and VarSeq.

Hilal Al Shekaili

Our second place winner is Hilal Al Shekaili of the Friedman Lab in the Child and Family Research Institute of the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia. His submission surrounded novel genetic variants in a consanguineous family with Pyridoxine-dependent epilepsy. Al Shekaili will present his work to the community in September and will receive free license of both the SVS and VarSeq software.

This year, third place was a tie between Dr. Vivien Sheehan of Baylor College of Medicine and the Texas Children’s Hematology Center and Dr. Raluca Mateescu of the University of Florida.

Dr. Vivien Sheehan is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Baylor College of Medicine and a part of the Cancer and Hematology Center at Texas Children’s. Sheehan specializes in sickle cell disease and her projects range from clinical research to basic science. Sheehan’s submission surrounded the pharmacogenomics of hydroxyurea in sickle cell anemia. Sheehan will present her work in August and will receive a free license of the VarSeq software.

Dr. Raluca Meteescu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Florida. Meteescu’s research surrounds the biological traits of beef cattle, sheep and goat molecular genetics in an effort to improve animal production efficiency and enhancing animal products for human health. Meteescu’s submission surrounded the palatability of beef and she will present her work in July to the Golden Helix community. Meteescu will also receive a free license of the SVS software.

Congratulations to our winners and thank you to everyone who entered the competition and submitted excellent abstracts. We look forward to this event next year.