Spracklen Appointed Program Committee Chair for the American Society for Human Genetics 2026 Annual Meeting
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Associate Professor of Epidemiology Cassandra Spracklen has been appointed as the program committee chair for the American Society for Human Genetics (ASHG) 2026 Annual Meeting, which will be held October 20-24, 2026, in Montreal.
The ASHG Board of Directors selected Spracklen thanks to her standing in both the society and the larger research community. She has served previously in several roles for ASHG, including as a member of both the program committee and the awards committee, and for over ten years as a judge for the society’s DNA day essay contest.
Established in 1948, the American Society of Human Genetics is the world’s largest professional community driving the field of human genetics and genomics research and translation, with decades of leadership supporting new discovery and applications. Their annual meeting has grown to become the world’s largest annual meeting in human genetics and genomics with attendance of 8,000 or more each year.
“This is an incredible honor,” says Spracklen, who is believed to be the youngest person to ever be appointed to the role. “At the end of the day, along with the committee that I lead, I’ll be responsible for planning the entire conference.”
For the 2026 annual meeting, the program committee has put in place a Distinguished Speaker Symposium centered around the importance of incorporating population diversity across all stages of genetic research—from cohort design and data generation, to data analysis, data interpretation, and clinical translation.
“We’re excited to present this symposium because genetic diversity is one of our most powerful tools for understanding biology,” says Spracklen. “When we study a wider range of human populations, we discover new DNA variants, refine risk prediction, and uncover disease mechanisms that we would miss otherwise. It also focuses on implementation and finding ways to ensure that genomic medicine benefits reach communities around the world. With equity and representation, we can help ensure that the science we produce can be translated into better healthcare for everyone.”
Spracklen's research seeks to discover how genetic variants influence the risk for type 2 diabetes and related cardiometabolic traits, such as fasting glucose, cholesterol levels, and high blood pressure, and the mechanisms through which they act. Genetic studies have recently identified many DNA regions that affect whether an individual has inherited a high risk for type 2 diabetes. However, most of these findings are not yet being used to identify new drugs to treat or prevent disease because, as within most of these DNA regions, the specific DNA variants and genes that influence disease risk have not yet been identified.
The overarching goal of Spracklen’s research is to combine epidemiologic, genetic, and bioinformatic methodologies to tease apart results from genome-wide association studies and identify which DNA variant(s) are ultimately responsible for a given cardiometabolic trait.
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Cassandra Spracklen
