Organized by one of the key research institutes of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), the conference "Genomeet 2013", is expected to be attended by the several leading experts from India and abroad. The conference to be held at New Delhi from March 8-10, 2013, will be focused on the topic "Vitamin B12 and one-carbon metabolism in health and diseases". It would also be an excellent platform for networking with scientists and experts, who will present their latest results which will provide an opportunity to update delegates with the latest advances in this field.

The scientific program will consist of various thematic sessions besides poster sessions. A few abstracts will be selected by the scientific committee for oral presentations. The conference will be followed by workshops (hands on training) from March 12-16, 2013 in next generation sequencing and high throughput liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) based proteomics workflow.

The conference comes in the backdrop of the reports from various parts of India that have projected 30-60 percent of the population irrespective of the age group being deficient in Vitamin B12. At the same time, there has been a lack of concerted efforts from the clinicians and researches to understand the importance of this vital vitamin in India and conditions arising due to its deficiency, some of which are trans-generational.

Being an important micronutrient linking our diet to health, the deficiency of this vitamin B12 leads to high levels of homocysteine, a key intermediate in the one-carbon metabolism pathway that has been associated with several complex disorders. Therefore, the meeting will deliberate on the genetic, epigenetic and dietary factors that predispose Indians to Vitamin B12 deficiency and hyper-homocysteinemia and provide mechanistic insights on the role of one carbon metabolism in health and disease.