This course introduces precision medicine: its potential, limitations, and transformative impact on medical practice. It starts with a beginner-friendly overview, featuring case studies and guest lectures on its use in diagnosing rare diseases and cancer treatment. Participants will explore precision medicine “omics” techniques, including genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and microbiomics, with a tour of the University of Alberta’s precision medicine labs to see these methods in action. The course demonstrates how machine learning interprets omics data from biobanked samples, enabling personalized treatments and preventive strategies. Participants can opt for free analysis of their samples to receive tailored lifestyle or diet recommendations.
Instructor: Dr. David Wishart
Dr. David Wishart (PhD Yale, 1991) is a Distinguished University Professor in the departments of biological sciences and computing science at the University of Alberta. He also holds adjunct appointments with the faculty of pharmaceutical sciences and with the department of pathology and laboratory medicine. He has been with the U of A since 1995 and holds a Canada Research Chair in computational metabolomics. Dr. Wishart’s research interests are very wide ranging, covering precision medicine, analytical chemistry, food chemistry, natural product chemistry, molecular biology, protein chemistry and neuroscience.
