Search
The Australian Genomics Cardiovascular Disorders Flagship was a national multidisciplinary collaboration. It aimed to investigate the feasibility of genome sequencing and functional genomics to resolve variants of uncertain significance in the clinical management of patients and families with cardiomyopathies, primary arrhythmias, and congenital heart disease.
Head, Epigenetics
Honorary Research Associate
To describe the perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and health care workers on genomics in cancer care to inform the National Framework for Genomics in Cancer Control (the Framework).
The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) Phenopacket Schema was released in 2022 and approved by ISO as a standard for sharing clinical and genomic information about an individual, including phenotypic descriptions, numerical measurements, genetic information, diagnoses, and treatments. A phenopacket can be used as an input file for software that supports phenotype-driven genomic diagnostics and for algorithms that facilitate patient classification and stratification for identifying new diseases and treatments.
Genomic sequencing in congenital heart disease (CHD) patients often discovers novel genetic variants, which are classified as variants of uncertain significance (VUS). Functional analysis of each VUS is required in specialised laboratories, to determine whether the VUS is disease causative or not, leading to lengthy diagnostic delays.
Genomic information is increasingly used to inform medical treatments and manage future disease risks. However, any personal and societal gains must be carefully balanced against the risk to individuals contributing their genomic data. Expanding our understanding of actionable genomic insights requires researchers to access large global datasets to capture the complexity of genomic contribution to diseases.
Whole genome sequencing offers significant potential to improve the diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases by enabling the identification of thousands of rare, potentially pathogenic variants. Existing variant prioritisation tools can be complemented by approaches that incorporate phenotype specificity and provide contextual biological information, such as tissue or cell-type specificity.
Aleksandra Filipovska has been elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.
A national alliance of the brightest minds in genomic science, academia, policy makers, industry and Indigenous leaders will work to break down barriers to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can benefit from advances in genomic medicine if they choose.