Second Annual Meeting 2025 of the CGI-Clinics Project
Participants at the CGI-Clinics second annual meeting
We met in Barcelona, Spain on 23 – 24 January 2025 for the second Annual Meeting of the CGI-Clinics project, which has just entered its third year. The consortium came together to share updates and achievements from the past 12 months, creating a great opportunity for partners to celebrate their progress and focus on the work that remains for the project’s upcoming years. Consortium members who were unable to attend in person were able to listen to the talks online and contribute live in Q&As.
Santi Demajo & Olivia Tort
Olivia Tort, CGI-Clinics Executive Coordinator from IRB Barcelona, began the meeting by celebrating our recently achieved milestone. “We started the project with a prototype of the CGI tool,” she said, “And now we have developed the first iteration of a professional decision-support tool to analyse cancer mutations, which will continue evolving throughout the rest of the project.” This takes us from phase 1 of the project, set-up, to phase 2, validation.
Throughout the first day, we heard updates from several work package leaders. Rachel Warden (European Association for Cancer Research) discussed the communication and dissemination activities associated with the project, emphasising the importance of patient and healthcare professionals’ involvement in the development of the CGI tool.
We also heard from Vanesa Abon (FCAECC) about patient empowerment and policies, including the upcoming development of the EduCGI website to help patients understand their disease journey from a molecular perspective, and recent patient involvement in the project through focus groups and interviews.
Mireia Montras (VHIO) updated us on the progress of virtual molecular tumour boards, which are now linked to the CGI platform. The aims of these boards are to provide expert opinion on individual patient cases, comprised of an online panel of experts in areas including genomics, pathology, oncology, biology and patient advocacy. They are a crucial component to the use of the CGI tool both during the project and beyond.
From left to right: Rachel Warden, Vanesa Abon & Mireia Montras
Our guest speaker Giovanni Tonon, Director of the Centre of Omics Sciences and of the Functional Genomics of Cancer Unit at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, Italy, delivered a Keynote Talk on ‘Harnessing data to improve cancer treatment’, emphasising the need for standardisation in semantics between all involved in a cancer patient’s journey and a need for interconnectedness.
“In the era of precision oncology,” Professor Tonon stated, “Every patient is an ultra rare patient; we have to collaborate.”
Nuria Lopez-Bigas joined the meeting remotely
Project Coordinator, Núria López-Bigas, ended day one with reflections on the lessons learned during this second year of the project, emphasising that the project aims for “quality interpretation today, and improved interpretation for the future.” She addressed what she called “the elephant in the room”, the sustainability of CGI-Clinics. A lively discussion followed between Nuria and partners, considering various models and methods to ensure the sustainability of the project beyond the 5-year duration.
Santiago Demajo (IRB Barcelona) began day two’s talks with a focus on the past year’s technical development of the tool adapted to clinics through interplay between IRB Barcelona and the ten clinical partners, including meetings with hospitals, gathering feedback and refining the CGI tool in response. The new CGI has a brand-new platform co-developed with Eurecat and an improved pipeline of analysis produced at IRB Barcelona. The consortium was then given a demonstration of the current CGI platform by Paula Gomis (IRB Barcelona), showcasing the improved pipeline that is now more efficient and error-proof than previous iterations.
Talks followed on data management, coordination, validation and implementation of the CGI tool in healthcare, and the adaptation of the CGI tool to haematological malignancies. CERTH updated us on their ongoing work to design additional materials to complement the “I want to know more” section of the EduCGI platform, covering themes such as empowerment, participation in clinical trials, and patient rights and responsibilities.
Giovanni Tonon, Ainoa Forteza & Luís Martí Bonmatí
We also enjoyed a second Keynote Talk from Luís Martí Bonmatí, Director of Medical Imaging at La Fe Health Research Institute and a leader in clinical imaging, who discussed the essential role of EUCAIM in medical imaging and cancer. He discussed the impact of artificial intelligence on clinical practice, notably its ability to harmonise data in a way that was previously not possible, a topic that is highly relevant to CGI-Clinics for its paralelisms in the use of AI-based methods to improve diagnostics. Dr. Martí Bonmatí is also a member of the CGI-Clinics External Advisory Board.
Two focused workshops were held during the meeting, facilitated by Paula Gomis (IRB) and an external company Qualud. The first workshop brought together members of the project consortium, including molecular biologists, molecular pathologists, and bioinformaticians involved in genomic test interpretation and reporting. A second workshop was held for the project’s oncologists and clinicians. Both workshops aimed to analyze the CGI-Platform from a usability perspective, focusing on evaluating, discussing, and identifying areas for improvement in its various functionalities. The sessions were tailored to address the most relevant features for each professional profile. The participants were highly engaged, providing valuable insights and feedback that will contribute to enhancing the platform.
Participants at one of the meeting’s workshops
All members of the newly formed External Advisory Board were in attendance throughout the meeting both in person and virtually, and ended it by sharing their feedback and suggestions moving forward. “The expertise in the Advisory Board is diverse and works together in a very complementary way,” said Edwin Cuppen, Scientific Director at Hartwig Medical Foundation, and the Chair of the Advisory Board. He continued, “The Board is fully committed to helping make the project a success.”
This meeting provided an excellent opportunity to reflect on the project’s progress, made possible by the unwavering efforts of all our partners. As a community-driven initiative at its heart, CGI-Clinics thrives on collaboration. We’re excited about the advancements to come in 2025!
About the CGI-Clinics Project
The CGI-Clinics project is a five-year EU project, and stakeholders are encouraged to follow its progress by signing up for the newsletter or following the project on social media.
