This conference is part of an annual meeting series initiated in 1991 to bring together genome sequencers, bioinformatics specialists, biologists, and geneticists and foster interactions leading to meaningful advances in functional genomics. For decades, the meeting benefited from the leadership of Dr. Jeffrey H. Miller as its lead organizer. Its continuing goal is to translate the influx of genome sequence information into useful biological knowledge and studies.

​

The Lake Arrowhead 2027 meeting will focus on microbial communities, pathogens, the human microbiome, and genome evolution, with particular attention to the ways microbial genomics can help address pressing environmental and public health challenges. Topics will include microbial responses to climate change, infection surveillance, neglected infectious diseases and the populations most affected by them, environmental remediation, and conservation.

Genomics has reached a point at which determining an organism’s complete genome sequence is viewed as a beginning rather than an endpoint. The sequence itself is a powerful tool for guiding the studies needed to understand an organism’s biology. Achieving that understanding requires detailed genetic analysis as well as rapidly developing experimental, computational, and functional-genomics approaches. The growing role of artificial intelligence in these efforts, and its broader implications for genomic research, will also be considered.

The meeting will cover microorganisms for which extensive analyses already exist, as well as those for which new biological and technical strategies are being developed. Its emphasis on biodiversity, microbial communities, human health, pathogenic organisms, bioenergetics, and environmental change gives the 2027 meeting special significance. The program will feature a combination of invited presentations and poster sessions and will bring together approximately 150 participants.