SYNOPSIS

In the 6th installment of our annual HTS symposiums, our prominent guest speakers from the biotech enterprises, academia, government agencies, food industry, laboratory and consulting/analytical companies will present and discuss the latest updates on HTS, its many applications and the benefits and challenges of implementing and using HTS in their organizations. Our colleagues in the FDA, CDC and USDA FSIS will provide insight into how the utilization and implementation of HTS in their organizations for nearly a decade have improved food safety and human health in the U.S. and beyond. In addition, the attendees and participants in this meeting will learn about and share their knowledge and experience with the special topic of this year’s HTS symposium, ‘big data.’ We will explore what big data is, what its values are, how it is produced, collected, stored, maintained, and integrated with the data from other sources, and how it is analyzed and visualized in order to lead us to the best course of action. Our panel of experts, one from the agencies and the other from the food industry, will discuss the important issue of data sharing, its necessity and importance, and the real and perceived obstacles that hinder it.

Background: In order to ensure human health, global food safety systems need to keep pace with new scientific breakthroughs and technological innovations. However, the use and implementation of new technologies within these intricate and multifaceted systems pose many challenges. High-throughput or next-generation sequencing (HTS/NGS) is one of the latest technologies with enormous potential to monitor, control and combat bacterial virulence, toxicity, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), pathogenicity, and thus to enhance the current food safety measures. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA FSIS) were among the first to recognize the potential of HTS to improve our food safety systems, and the year 2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the use and implementation of HTS by these agencies. The food industry has also shown great interests in HTS since its inception, and several large food companies have invested in HTS and its required infrastructure while others have tried and experimented with HTS using third parties. Nevertheless, the industry remains behind the government in integrating and using HTS in significant ways to upgrade their food safety systems.

This technology is developing fast. With each innovation and iteration, new sequencers have become faster, cheaper, more portable, and more powerful, producing progressively higher quality, longer and larger number of reads. The amount of data or throughput of these new instruments is astounding. The sequence data is now one of the main contributors to ‘big data,’ a new, rich, and valuable resource for Knowledge to some, and just another buzz phrase, a source of mystery and anxiety to others. Big data is an indispensable source for machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) whose applications and influences in our lives are growing widely and rapidly whether we realize and like it or not.

WHAT TO EXPECT

The attendees will have the opportunity to meet with and hear from prominent scientists affiliated with FDA, CDC, FSIS USDA, Academia, food industry, consulting and analytical companies and biotech enterprises. The topics include the news and views on HTS and food safety, the latest HTS inventions, innovations, products and research, the benefits, opportunities, obstacles and challenges of the use and implementation of HTS especially by the agencies and the industry. The special topic for this year's symposium is 'big data' with a focus on the new, safe and secure data sharing schemes that pave the way for creating an integrated database that helps generate the best predictive and modeling tools to enhance our food safety systems.

Two panels of experts, one from the federal agencies, and the other from the industry and academia, will discuss the important issue of data sharing, its necessity and importance, and the real and perceived obstacles that hinder it. The attendees will have the opportunity to network with this outstanding group of scientists and pose their questions to the panels and participate in their discussions.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

This symposium is designed to meet the needs of food safety professionals from industry, academia and government in food processing, food safety, quality assurance, regulatory functions, public health administration, and those involved in developing or using pathogen detection equipment and methods. Students in food science and food safety are strongly encouraged to attend this symposium.

SYNOPSIS

WHAT TO EXPECT

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

Information Packet and Agenda

Bio-Abstracts

SYNOPSIS

WHAT TO EXPECT

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

I﻿nformation Packet and Agenda

B﻿io-Abstracts

Information Packet and Agenda

Bio-Abstracts

Registrations are closed

2023 IFSH High-Throughput Sequencing (HTS) Symposium