By Ken Stone
Former British Prime Minister David Cameron will return to San Diego in June, four months after a visit to Illumina, the DNA-sequencing giant.
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He’ll be a keynote speaker at BIO 2017, a June 19-22 biotech convention expected to draw 16,000 to the San Diego Convention Center.
“Mr. Cameron will use his vast experience as a global leader to reflect on the rapidly changing global landscape both here and abroad,” said Jim Greenwood, BIO president and CEO. “Our audience will enjoy these helpful and timely insights as we navigate a potentially new and challenging transformational political environment.”
Cameron, 50, is typical of major speakers at the BIO International Convention. In 2014, Hillary Clinton appeared in San Diego as well as Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group.Cameron was leader of the United Kingdom from May 2010 until July 2016. He led a Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government from 2010 until 2015 and continued as prime minister after winning an outright majority at the 2015 general election.
He stepped down as prime minister shortly after the UK voted in a June 2016 referendum to leave the European Union, the Brexit. Cameron had campaigned for Britain to remain in the EU.
In February, after meeting with executives and touring Illumina’s San Diego headquarters, Cameron hosted a town hall meeting with company staff.
“Speaking to a standing room only crowd, Cameron recalled his personal experience caring for his first son Ivan, who suffered from Ohtahara syndrome and died in 2009,” Illumina said at the time.
“He recalled the lack of information genetic counselors could provide at the time about whether he and his wife were at risk for having future children with the condition as an example of why he made genomics research a priority in Britain.”
Illumina quoted Cameron as saying: “When I became prime minister, I thought that if there were areas where we could do much better in terms of trying to shine a light onto those dark areas about our health and our makeup then we ought to do it.”
Another keynoter is Kathleen Rubins, the first person to sequence DNA in space.
In August 2016, aboard the International Space Station, the UCSD graduate and microbiologist used a hand-held DNA sequencer called the MinION made by Oxford Nanopore Technologies to determine the DNA sequences of mouse, E. coli bacteria and lambda phage virus.
UC San Diego will supply at least two speakers at BIO 2017 as well, including:
- Dr. Victor Nizet, vice chair for basic research and chief of the Division of Host-Microbe Systems & Therapeutics.
- And Dr. Don Norman, departments of Cognitive Science, Psychology, and Electrical and Computer Engineering.
In recent days, the former British leader has been vacationing in Florida, according to British media, which said he was at e Everglades National Park with his wife and three children.
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