“From April 2007 to August 2009, there’s been more learned about the root causes of disease than in the history of mankind,” says Eric Topol of Scripps Translation Science Institute in Los Angeles Times Magazine’s “Making Medicine Personal.” (Read the full article.) “I’ve been a scientist and researcher my entire life—that’s 30 years—and I’ve never seen anything like this.” These genetic discoveries are giving many researchers hope that soon our genes will be a determining factor in treatment protocols.

The strides in gene sequencing, in particular, have ushered in what Topol, who will speak at Aspen Ideas, calls “a new era of medicine.” Read about the first map of breast-tumor genomes that could revolutionize patient care in the latest issue of TIME magazine. (This week’s print edition also has a column about five new Alzheimer’s genes that have been identified.)

Covering topics from stem cell regeneration to robotics to artificial organs, to synthetic biology, leaders on the cutting edge of medical science, treatment, and technology will convene at Aspen Ideas. They include Siddhartha Mukherjee, Columbia University’s “biographer of cancer”; Hans Keirstead of UC Irvine’s stem cell research center; PTSD authority Edna Foa; Laura Stachel, founder of WE CARE, Tom Rando from Stanford’s Center on Longevity; and Eythor Bender of Berkeley Bionics, to name a few. The discussions are sure to push our assumptions about what we believe is even possible when it comes to our health and our options.