#EAPM: QUB moun ede Kongrè a fleri

Mark Lawler is a man of many talents. He’s a professor and cancer genomics expert at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), an award-winning researcher, a scientific writer, a special-event organizer, a Joycean scholar…and an occasional performance artist, ekri Ewopeyen Alliance pou Medsin Personalize (EAPM) Direktè Egzekitif Denis Horgan.

He is also a board member of the European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM), the chair of the Alliance’s Research Working Group, and was the indispensable ‘local organizer’ for EAPM’s highly successful first annual Congress held in Belfast at the end of November last year.

More than 650 delegates were present over the four days in the Northern Ireland capital, with 250 speakers across the week, 200 abstracts on show and over 1,000 tweets sent out live. Many of these speakers and delegates travelled from overseas to Belfast specifically to attend the Congress.

Meanwhile, EAPM’s very popular daily newsletter received in excess of 10,000 downloads across the duration of the event, and many speakers and attendees were captured in video interviews, with more than 60 videos being filmed at the Belfast Waterfront venue.

The Belfast Congress had many highlights and end results, not least the fact that EAPM has now been involved in two sets of Council Conclusions that will have an impact on the future of health in general and targeted treatments and diagnoses in particular.

The first of these was the landmark Luxembourg conclusions on access to personalised medicine two years ago. More recently, and emerging in part from the EAPM Congress, we now have the 'Council conclusions on Health in the Digital Society - making progress in data-driven innovation in the field of health’, under the auspices of the Estonian presidency.

This has already made the Congress a lasting success and another feather in Yer Man’ Mark’s cap.

reklam

In some ways, it was incredible that the Congress was such a success. Issues concerning the Irish border in a post-Brexit world, the sudden influence of the DUP at Westminster, and the stalemate at Stormont, meant that it was no easy feat to pull organisations together on the ground and bring about such a landmark event in Belfast.

As part of the organization, there were several events held outside the Congress in the name of fun and networking. These included a reception at Belfast City Hall followed by a themed dinner, a visit and Gala Dinner at the famous Titanic complex, several award ceremonies, a local-gin tasting event and, last but not least, a stand-up and stand-out performance from Mark himself which surprised, amused and totally enthralled those who saw it.

Those who have read the book Ulysses, by James Joyce, will doubtless know that it is intended to, in some ways, mirror the journey of Odysseus/Ulysses as recounted by Homer in his epic poem, in which the hero takes ten years to get back to his home island of Ithaca from Troy.

In Joyce’s Ulysses, Leopold Bloom journeys from one side of Dublin to the other on 16 June, 1904 (a date now dubbed ‘Bloomsday’ by fans of the writer). Prior to this, Joyce had become well known through his largely autobiographical Yon pòtrè yon atis kòm yon jèn gason with its own hero Stephen Dedalus. Stephen also makes an important appearance in the later book.

Joyce courted controversy (for example, Ulysses was was the subject of an obscenity trial in the US) and the tale of the writer’s career was told by Mark - complete with performing artist white-painted face - through reviews, letters, stories and songs in a hilarious and accomplished one-man show which was never less than highly entertaining from start to finish.

All-in-all, EAPM is indebted to Mark for being in at the very start of a project that, while not taking ten years and certainly not one day, was safely navigated to journey’s end in Belfast in similar style to the journey of Odysseus across the waves and that of Joyce’s Leopold Bloom, as he navigated his way across Dublin.

The Alliance looks forward to Mark, QUB, and the city of Belfast being active at the Alliance’s upcoming second annual Congress, to be held in Milan at the end of November, when we’ll be exchanging the Irish Sláinte! for the Italian Saluti!