Invited Speakers

Prof Lisa Matisoo-Smith 

Prof Lisa Matisoo-Smith is a Professor of Biological Anthropology in the Department of Anatomy, University of Otago School of Biomedical Sciences , New Zealand. Her research interests includes Biological anthropology and human genetic variation in ancient and modern populations. She is serving as an editorial member and reviewer of several international reputed journals. She has authored of many research articles/books related to Biological anthropology and human genetic variation in ancient and modern populations.  

Prof Stephen Robertson

Professor Stephen Robertson is the Curekids Professor of Paediatric Genetics. He was educated at the University of Otago graduating in Medicine in 1990. He specialized in Paediatrics and Clinical Genetics after training in Auckland and Melbourne.From 1999–2002 Stephen was Nuffield Medical Fellow at Oxford University, studying the genetic determinants of congenital malformations in children. His work has led to the implication of a new family of genes, the filamins, in the generation of these conditions. He remains an active clinical geneticist as well as continuing his research into congenital malformations.He heads the Clinical Genetics Group, which studies single gene disorders in children, with a particular emphasis on disorders that affect the development of the skeleton and the brain.Single gene disorders are typically rare but in aggregate account for a sizeable fraction of morbidity in the community. The era of large-scale DNA sequencing has brought an unprecedented opportunity to define their cause and study their pathogenesis. 

Dr Benjamin Halliday

Ben completed his BSc(Hons) in 2016, exploring the genetic drivers of childhood kidney cancers. Through this project he developed a passion for bioinformatics, particularly in the application of genome sequencing techniques to explore rare disease genetics. In 2017, Ben began his PhD in the Laboratory for Genomic Medicine. His doctoral research focused on the genomic investigation of patients with brain malformations, providing diagnostic answers for patients and their families, as well as improving understanding of the genetic pathways critical for brain development.  He is now a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, and contribute to several ongoing projects in the lab. His main project involves assessing the appropriateness of first-tier genomic diagnostic tools in New Zealand, and investigating why these tools have reduce performance in Māori and other Pacific Peoples.

Ms Emma Felix