With regret, the symposium has been postponed
due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Revised dates to follow

Monday 4th and Tuesday 5th May 2020
​Harbourview Ballroom, Taronga Centre
Sydney, Australia


​Confirmed 2020 Speakers Include:

Prof Carl Wittwer - 
  • Professor of Pathology at the University of Utah Medical School and adjunct professor of BioMedical Engineering at the University of Utah. 
  • Introduced SYBR Green I,  fluorescent hybridization probes, melting analysis, and high-resolution melting (HRM) to real-time PCR, techniques that are widely used today. 
  • Primary inventor of the LightCycler® system, with over 10,000 units placed worldwide by Roche.
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Prof Wittwer will be presenting on:
1) Extreme molecular diagnostics
2) Reverse transcriptase kinetics (Nick Rejali)
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Dr Jan Ruijter - 
  • Developer of LinRegPCR, a program for the analysis of quantitative PCR data based on PCR efficiency values derived from amplification curves, and Factor-qPCR, a program to remove between-plate variation in a multi-plate qPCR experiment (http://LinRegPCR.nl).

Dr Ruijter will be presenting on:
1) Reported Cq and delta-Cq values cannot be interpreted.
2) Removal of artifact bias from qPCR results using DNA melting curve analysis

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​Prof Michael Pfaffl
  • Life Science Center Weihenstephan, Technical University, Munich, Germany.
  • A leading scientist in the field of Gene Quantification, RT-qPCR technology, RNA sequencing, and complex data analysis in mRNA & small-RNA expression profiling.
  • Developer of REST -  "A mathematical model for relative quantification in real-time RT-PCR"
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Prof Pfaffl will be presenting on:
1)  Transcriptional Biomarkers in Liquid Biopsy – applying small-RNA Seq and RT-qPCR to identify valid ‘Biomarker Signatures’ in blood and circulating extracellular vesicles.
2)  A MIQE compliant efficiency corrected relative quantification model (REST) for gene expression profiling.​


Prof Jo Vandesompele
  • Professor at Ghent University, Belgium, and chief scientific officer at Biogazelle.
  • Jo Vandesompele obtained a Master of Science in Bioscience Engineering (1997) and a PhD in Medical Genetics (2002). Since 2007, he is professor in Functional Cancer Genomics and Applied Bioinformatics at Ghent University and co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Biogazelle.
  • He is author of more than 200 scientific articles in international journals, including some pioneering publications in the domain of nucleic acid quantification. His H-index is 74, with over 42,000 citations (Google Scholar, May 2018).
  • Jo Vandesompele is member of the cancer expertpanel (Research Fund Flanders - FWO) and frequently invited speaker at international conferences and workshops.
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Prof Vandesompele will be presenting on:
1) From reference genes to global mean normalization – how to improve the accuracy of your qPCR results
 2) The MIQE guidelines: minimum information for accurate quantitative PCR results


Prof Stephen Bustin
  • Professor of Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medical Science , Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge and Chelmsford
  • ​His research focuses around developing novel approaches for the early diagnosis of fungal and bacterial pathogens as well as addressing problems associated with the RT and PCR steps. He has authored numerous papers, review articles and book chapters aimed at improving the reproducibility and robustness of real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR), as well as three books “A-Z of quantitative PCR” (2004), “The PCR Revolution” (2011) and “PCR Technology” (2013). He has published an online series of qPCR-related books under the title of “Definitive qPCR”. 

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​Enjoy the Taronga Centre's boutique dining and million dollar views, while learning from key pioneers/experts in qPCR and dPCR.

Both research and diagnostic applications will be covered.