The Joint Program on Evolutionary Medical Genomics (EvoMG Program) is an initiative led by three institutions located at the PRBB in Barcelona, the CRG, UPF-MELIS, and IBE. The goal of this program is to put together researchers from different areas to promote the application of evolutionary approaches to better understand disease and improve human health. 

Our evolutionary history has shaped our genomes and thus our disease susceptibility. Each patient can be viewed as the result of an evolutionary process that started billions of years ago and continues to this day. Genomic diversity emerges as a signature of this evolutionary process: across phyla, species, populations, and cells. Exploiting this diversity to improve human health is the overarching goal of Evolutionary Medical Genomics.

This emergent discipline lies at the intersection of two larger disciplines: medical genomics and evolutionary medicine. While medical genomics is providing invaluable insights into human disease, approaching it through the principles of evolution, inspired by evolutionary medicine, promises novel discoveries and methodologies. 

Research in Evolutionary Medical Genomics includes a wide range of topics, all of which have in common their evolutionary approach to understanding and/or tackling human disease. These include personalized medicine, the evolution of the disease, comparative genomic models of disease, the evolution of aging, cancer evolution, microbial pathogenicity and microbiome-host (co-)evolution, viruses, and evolutionary immunology.

The first symposium of the joint program on Evolutionary Medical Genomics of the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), and the Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (IBE-CSIC) will bring together researchers from all these areas. Recent and ongoing advances in medical genomics and the increasing diversity of available genomes make this symposium very timely to attract both evolutionary biologists working on disease-relevant projects as well as other researchers interested in human health, from biomedical researchers to clinicians, who are intrigued by novel way of thinking about disease.

The talks of the symposium will be accessible to a very broad audience as all the speakers are used to speaking to a non-specialized public and will cover diverse topics as well as related methodologies and model systems.

The Director of the IBE, Salvador Carranza, will participate in the opening of the inaugural event along with the Coordinator of the Evolutionary Medical Genomics Research Program Manuel Irimia, Luis Serrano, Director of the CRG, Cristina Pujades, Vice-Rector for Research at UPF, and Núria Montserrat, the current Minister of Research and Universities in the Government of Catalonia.

The symposium will begin on November 20th and will run for three days. Access the schedule and learn more about the symposium here.