After 4 very successful editions (Jan 2015, Leuven, March 2017, Antwerp and March 2019, Antwerp, March 2021, virtual), VIB is proud to present the fifth edition of this Tools & Technologies conference.

Next-generation sequencing has been and is still revolutionizing discoveries across life sciences. While established sequencing technologies are now fully embedded in the clinic and diagnostic settings, novel technological advancements spur the next revolution in sequencing technologies. These will open new avenues for research and enable new genomics insights not possible before. This conference aims to bring together experts in established and novel sequencing technologies and top scientists in the field.

Over the past decade, technological advances that enable the characterization of single cells at the molecular level rather than in bulk tissues have led to significant breakthrough discoveries with revolutionary insights in diseases, such as cancer, inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, the specific focus of this conference will be on advances in single-cell sequencing, ranging from transcriptomics, genomics, and proteomics to combined multi-omics analysis at the single-cell level. On top, with spatial context of cells becoming increasingly essential to unravel cell functioning and behavior, a dedicated session will focus on technological advancements in spatial sequencing and breakthrough scientific discoveries that these have enabled.

This exciting conference puts together an excellent program including renowned leaders in the field that will cover the following topics:

• Emerging sequencing platforms
• New applications of long-read sequencing technologies
• Computational genomics & data analysis
• Outbreak sequencing & population-scale
• Single-cell sequencing
• Spatial technologies

In addition to a great scientific and technology program, the conference will provide many opportunities to network during the breaks, poster sessions, and much more!

Poster information
The format for your poster should be: A0 (841 x 1189 mm / 33.1 x 46.8 in), portrait orientation. All accepted poster submissions will have a chance to win the Poster Prize!

The conference dinner on Monday 27 March is sold out. Should you still wish to have dinner with some conference attendees, you can find our restaurant recommendations here.

Host City: Ghent
Want to know more about the host city of this conference? Find out where the best restaurants, bars or last minute print shops are? Check the city page here.

Video's on demand:
Recordings are available upon speakers agreement. To see the recordings of the conference you need to be logged in with the email address you're registered with (right top corner).