03/09/2015

Genomics, Genetics and Exercise Biology - a celebratory symposium

A symposium of world experts in the field was held in Santorini in Greece  from 14th to 17th May 2015 in relation to Genomics and related topics for sports medicine, exercise and anti-doping. 

The symposium was initiated by Prof Yannis Pitsiladis and FIMS was represented with four members of the organising committee - Yannis Pitsiladis, Konstantinos Natsis, Katharina Grimm and Nick Webborn. The FIMS President and Secretary General attended session, too. The proceedings of the symposium will form the basis of the first FIMS edition of BJSM in 2015.

The symposium was a resounding success with a commitment made by major international research groups to work collectively to improve research quality. This will be called the Human Athlome Project.

Additionally, a consensus statement was produced on Direct-to-Consumer marketing (DTC) test for Talent ID.The view amongst sport and exercise genetics researchers is that genetic tests have no role to play in talent identification or the individualised prescription of training to maximise performance. Despite the lack of evidence, recent years have witnessed the rise of an emerging market of Direct-to-Consumer marketing (DTC) tests that claim to be able to identify children’s athletic talents.  Consequently, in the current state of knowledge, no child or young athlete should be exposed to DTC genetic testing to define or alter training or for talent identification aimed at selecting gifted children or adolescents. 

Look out for the full paper in the forthcoming FIMS edition of BJSM.