PSB Workshops

The increasing availability of primate genome sequences has resulted in an unprecedented opportunity to identify the specific changes that distinguish our genome from that of other primates. The focus of the workshop will be to present the latest progress in efforts to use computational and experimental genomics to identify the genes and genomic variations that underlie human uniqueness.

New discoveries in biological, biomedical and health sciences are increasingly being driven by our ability to acquire, share, integrate and analyze, and construct and simulate predictive models of biological systems. While much attention has focused on automating routine aspects of management and analysis of "big data", realizing the full potential of "big data" to accelerate discovery calls for automating many other aspects of the scientific process that have so far largely resisted automation: identifying gaps in the current state of knowledge; generating and prioritizing questions; designing studies; designing, prioritizing, planning, and executing experiments; interpreting results; forming hypotheses; drawing conclusions; replicating studies; validating claims; documenting studies; communicating results; reviewing results; and integrating results into the larger body of knowledge in a discipline. Against this background, this workshop explores the opportunities and challenges of automating discovery in biological and biomedical sciences through advances in Discovery Informatics: (i) Understanding, formalization, and information processing accounts of, the entire scientific process; (ii) Design, development, and evaluation of the computational artifacts (representations, processes) that embody such understanding; and (iii) Application of the resulting artifacts and systems to advance science (by augmenting individual or collective human efforts, or by fully automating science).

Our workshop will examine the unfolding processes that enhance data and information flow by enlarging collaborative networks - networks that include both a widening group of researchers and the public as well. The ongoing collapse of barriers between patient, researcher, student, funder and entrepreneur increasingly disrupts scientific investigations. We hope to look at how including the public permits the unique acquisition of funds, rapid collection of data, expeditious analysis of information, enhanced prototyping of solutions and novel treatment in clinics.