Talks — ESHG 2026¶
The primary artifact of this vault: one Markdown file per talk. ESHG 2026 is a hybrid meeting — some talks are tool / pipeline / package debuts, others are clinical-genetics / cohort readouts, others are pure-methods papers, others are Award Lectures. The per-talk schema accommodates all four with one Anchor field and adds a European-cohort tag because cohort-anchored talks at ESHG cluster around a small set of named biobanks.
Status: Template + master index. Per-talk pages will be populated once the EJHG abstract supplement lands (typically week of the meeting, ~early June 2026) and the speaker list reconciles against session assignments. Pre-meeting stubs flagged
*expected per Programme-at-a-Glance + speaker list*are sourced from the public Programme-at-a-Glance, the confirmed-speakers page, lab websites, and consortium dashboards (FinnGen, UK Biobank, Generation R, GeneRISK); titles and assignments will be reconciled with the EJHG supplement.
Per-talk template¶
Each talk file (e.g., mendel-lecture-2026.md, finngen-r13-cancer.md, ukb-cancer-prs.md) follows this schema. Copy and fill:
# <Talk title — short>
> **Session:** <session ID (PL/E/I/S/C) + name + date + time CEST + room> · **Track:** <track / theme> · **Abstract:** <EJHG abstract #, if assigned>
## At a glance
- **Speaker:** <name, degrees>
- **Affiliation:** <institution, department, lab, country>
- **Day / session / track:** <Sun Jun 14 / S07 Cancer Mechanisms / Cancer Genetics>
- **Talk title:** <full title as in programme>
- **Anchor type:** <tool / package / pipeline | study / cohort / readout | methods paper | award lecture>
- **Anchor:** <package name + Bioconductor/CRAN/PyPI link | study acronym + NCT or cohort | manuscript citation + DOI | award name>
- **European cohort tag:** <FinnGen R13 / UK Biobank / Generation R / GeneRISK / Estonian Biobank / deCODE / SweBCG / HEBON / GC-HBOC / CanRisk / EBMT / N/A>
- **Co-authors / consortium:** <if applicable — e.g., FinnGen, UK Biobank, GBMI>
- **Preprint / paper:** <medRxiv / bioRxiv / EJHG / HGG Advances / Nature Genetics DOI, if accompanying>
## Key result
<One paragraph. Numbers + cohort size + effect size if known. If pre-program,
mark `*expected per <lab page / cohort dashboard / prior-year talk>*` or
`*pre-supplement speculation*`.>
## Methods / approach
<2–4 sentences. What cohort, what assay, what statistical / computational
method, what comparator. For tool talks: what it consumes / produces, key
methodological idea, language / framework. For award lectures: career
retrospective vs landmark contribution framing.>
## Why it matters for the corpus
<1–2 sentences. The cancer-genomics relevance specifically — does it inform
hereditary-cancer panel design, cancer-PRS stratification, somatic-mosaicism
detection, pharmacogenomics-guided oncology, or methods used in AACR / ASCO /
ASH / ASHG talks?>
## Cross-links to corpus
- **ASHG 2026:** <related Oct talk, if applicable — ESHG-first / ASHG-update pattern>
- **AACR 2026:** <related session / poster>
- **ASCO 2026:** <trial / biomarker that uses the method / cohort / panel>
- **EHA 2026:** <same-week heme-genomics tie-in (June 11–14, Stockholm)>
- **ASH 2026:** <CHIP / MN-predisposition tie-in>
- **ISMB 2026 / RECOMB 2026 / ECCB 2026:** <methods-paper sibling>
- **AGBT 2026:** <upstream platform if this talk applies a new sequencing modality>
- **EuroBioC 2025 tools:** <Bioconductor package used / extended>
- **Other ESHG 2026 talks:** <session-mates, same-cohort, same-method>
## Sources
- EJHG abstract: <DOI / URL or "pending supplement">
- Preprint / paper: <medRxiv / bioRxiv / journal DOI>
- Lab page / cohort dashboard: <URL>
- Recording (post-meeting): <ESHG virtual platform link or YouTube>
- Trade-press recap: <GenomeWeb / Bio-IT URL>
Master talk index¶
The shortlist below is for stub creation only — most entries are *expected per Programme-at-a-Glance + speaker list* and will be reconciled with the EJHG abstract supplement when released. Stubs prioritize the cancer-genomics-relevant subset of the programme (hereditary cancer, cancer-PRS, somatic mosaicism, clonal hematopoiesis, large-cohort pan-cancer readouts, pharmacogenomics in oncology) plus the load-bearing award lectures + cohort plenaries that we'd want to cite from cancer-talks downstream.
| Talk | Speaker (expected) | Affiliation | Day / Session | Track | Anchor type | European cohort tag | Cancer-genomics relevance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opening Plenary (PL1) | TBA | TBA | Sat Jun 13 / PL1 14:00 | Society | award lecture | N/A | Variable — depends on opening speakers |
| Mendel Lecture | TBA | TBA (international keynote) | Plenary (PL2–PL6) | Award | award lecture | N/A | Variable — Mendel often goes to landmark genetics investigators |
| ESHG Award Lecture | TBA | TBA (European mid-career to senior) | Plenary (PL2–PL6) | Award | award lecture | N/A | Variable |
| ELPAG Award Lecture | TBA | TBA (Ethics / Public Policy) | Plenary (PL2–PL6) | ELSI | award lecture | N/A | Indirect — clinical-implementation ethics |
| Young Investigator Awards | TBA (winners announced ~April) | Multiple | Plenary slots | Trainee plenary | mixed | Variable | Variable but often high-signal |
| FinnGen R13 update | FinnGen leadership / scientific team | Univ. of Helsinki / FinnGen | TBD (likely S-track) | Cohort / GWAS | study / cohort / readout | FinnGen R13 | High — cancer-PRS, Finnish hereditary-cancer prevalence, drug-target validation |
| UK Biobank WGS + proteomics cancer overlay | UKB scientific team | UK Biobank | TBD (likely S-track) | Cohort / GWAS | study / cohort / readout | UK Biobank | High — cancer-PRS, hereditary-cancer prevalence, multi-omics integration |
| Generation R cancer-genomics arm | Generation R PIs | Erasmus MC, Rotterdam | TBD | Cohort | study / cohort | Generation R | Indirect — pediatric / early-life cohort |
| GeneRISK polygenic-risk pilot update | Perola / Widén / Ripatti | FIMM / Univ. of Helsinki | TBD (likely S Polygenic Scores) | Statistical Genetics | methods paper | GeneRISK / FinnGen | High — first-in-class polygenic-risk return-of-results to patients, including cancer-PRS |
| Estonian Biobank cancer module | Mägi / Metspalu group | Univ. of Tartu / EstBB | TBD | Cohort | study / cohort | Estonian Biobank | Medium — pan-cancer germline-somatic on national cohort |
| deCODE pan-cancer germline update | Stefansson / deCODE team | deCODE genetics | TBD | Cohort | study / cohort | deCODE | High — large-effect cancer-predisposition variants |
| Cancer Mechanisms symposium (S-track) | multiple | Multiple | TBD | Cancer Genetics | mixed | Multiple | Core — mechanistic cancer-genetics |
| Rare Cancers symposium (S-track) | multiple | Multiple | TBD | Cancer Genetics | study / cohort | Multiple | Core — rare cancer genetics overlap with AACR rare-cancer sessions |
| Polygenic Scores symposium (S-track) | multiple (Mavaddat / Pharoah / Wray / Khera-aligned EU labs) | Multiple | TBD | Statistical Genetics | methods paper | UKB / FinnGen / GBMI | Core — cancer-PRS trial-stratification relevance |
| Extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) Educational (E-track) | Mischel / Verhaak / European collaborators | Multiple | TBD (E-track) | Cancer Genetics | methods paper | N/A | Core — ecDNA crossing from AACR / ASHG into ESHG education programme |
| Episignatures Interactive (I-track) | Sadikovic / European episignature labs | LHSC London ON / European partners | TBD (I-track) | Clinical / Methylation | tool / pipeline | N/A | Medium — methylation-based tumor classification overlap |
| Pharmacogenomics Interactive (I-track) | Swen / van der Wouden (Ubiquitous-PGx) / Karolinska | LUMC / Karolinska | TBD (I-track) | Pharmacogenomics | study / cohort | Ubiquitous-PGx / Nordic registries | Medium — DPYD/UGT1A1/TPMT/CYP2D6 oncology-drug dosing |
| Long-read sequencing Educational (E-track) | European clinical adopters (PacBio / ONT) | Multiple | TBD (E-track) | Clinical / Diagnostics | tool / pipeline | N/A | Medium — clinical WGS programs using HiFi / ONT, AGBT crossover |
| AI in Functional Genomics Educational (E-track) | DeepMind / EvolutionaryScale / European AI-genomics labs | Multiple | TBD (E-track) | Computational / ML | methods paper | N/A | Core — foundation-model variant predictors used in AACR variant-classification |
| ELSI in AI Genomics Educational (E-track) | multiple (EU AI Act framing) | Multiple | TBD (E-track) | ELSI | discussion | N/A | Indirect — EU AI Act clinical deployment of cancer-AI |
| Hereditary breast / ovarian cancer panel-design (S/C track) | Mavaddat / Pharoah / GC-HBOC / HEBON / SweBCG | Multiple | TBD | Cancer Genetics | study / cohort | GC-HBOC / HEBON / SweBCG / CanRisk | Core — pan-European panel harmonization |
| Lynch syndrome / colorectal cancer (S/C track) | Mecklin / European Lynch Consortium | Multiple | TBD | Cancer Genetics | study / cohort | InSiGHT / European registries | Core |
| Clonal hematopoiesis at European population scale (S/C track) | multiple (UKB / FinnGen CHIP-aligned) | Multiple | TBD | Statistical Genetics / Cancer Genetics | study / cohort | UKB / FinnGen | Core — bridge to EHA 2026 (same week!) and ASH 2026 |
| Gene Editing symposium (S-track) | multiple (CRISPR therapeutics + base editing) | Multiple | TBD | Therapy | tool / pipeline | N/A | Indirect — gene-edited oncology cell therapies overlap |
| Repeat Expansions symposium (S-track) | multiple | Multiple | TBD | Mendelian | methods paper | N/A | Indirect — methods bleed into cancer microsatellite-instability work |
| Chromosome X Genetics symposium (S-track) | multiple | Multiple | TBD | Population Genetics | methods paper | N/A | Indirect |
Additional shortlist candidates to stub post-supplement-release:
- Cohort updates: GBMI (Global Biobank Meta-analysis Initiative) cancer cross-biobank; Million Veteran Program European-equivalent partners; H3Africa cancer-genomics arm presentations at ESHG; Genomics England 100k follow-on / NHS GMS readouts; All of Us European-collaboration arm if presented.
- Methods / tools: DeepVariant / GLnexus EU clinical deployments; CADD v2; PRS-CSx / SBayesRC cross-ancestry methods; mosaic-variant callers; pangenome / HPRC + European pangenome-reference clinical applications; AlphaMissense follow-ons; ESM / EVO genomic foundation models.
- Pre-conference courses to flag: Clinical NGS Data Interpretation Course (Jun 11–12) — content overlap with cancer somatic / germline variant interpretation.
- Dysmorphology sessions (I-track, two parallel): ESHG signature format — face-recognition AI + variant-prioritization tools (Face2Gene / DeepGestalt successors); indirect cancer relevance through cancer-predisposition syndromes.
Cross-cutting themes (for themes.md, deferred until post-meeting)¶
To synthesize across talks/ once populated:
- FinnGen R13 + UK Biobank cancer-PRS convergence. Two of the largest European cohorts with cancer modules co-presenting — readouts from both anchor the trial-stratification feasibility story carried forward to ASCO 2027.
- Pan-European hereditary-cancer panel harmonization. GC-HBOC + HEBON + SweBCG + CanRisk + French / Italian registries — variant-classification standardization across single-payer systems.
- ecDNA crosses into ESHG. A topic that has lived primarily at AACR / ASHG arrives in the ESHG educational track, signaling broader clinical-genetics awareness of focal-amplification biology.
- EU AI Act overlay on foundation-model variant predictors. AlphaMissense follow-ons + ESM/EVO genomic models meet European clinical-deployment regulation — first major meeting where this overlay is explicit.
- Pharmacogenomics-guided oncology dosing in Nordic + Dutch systems. Ubiquitous-PGx + Nordic PGx registries provide outcomes data on DPYD, UGT1A1, TPMT, CYP2D6 in oncology — bridge from ESHG into ASCO 2026 supportive-care sessions.
- CHIP at European population scale. UKB + FinnGen CHIP overlays bridge to EHA 2026 (same week, Stockholm) clonal-hematopoiesis-to-MN risk sessions, and into ASH 2026 / SABCS 2026 (anthracycline-CHIP downstream).
- GeneRISK polygenic-risk return-of-results. First multi-year cohort of return-of-PRS-to-patients including cancer-PRS — behavior change + clinical-pathway data.