The countdown has begun: Big Data in Biomedicine is only three weeks away.
To warm up your big data muscles, check out this great presentation by David Haussler, PhD, from last year's conference. Haussler, a distinguished professor of biomolecular engineering at the University of California-Santa Cruz, contributed to the first sequencing of the human genome in 2000. Here, he discusses a major hurdle that is hindering progress in genomics:
What we've got emerging is a series of genome silos. And the reason for this is if you ask a medical research facility to share their DNA with you, they will say, 'Well, our policy is that to protect patients' confidentiality and privacy, we keep the DNA information in our institute and never let it leave.'
That is creating an enormous problem.
One effort to fix that is underway at UCSC. Haussler's team is working to build an "Internet highway" to freely share both genetic and phenotypic information such as clinical records, with privacy protections in place. This type of exchange is "absolutely vital to patients in the long run," Haussler says.
You'll learn more on this topic and similar efforts at the conference, scheduled for May 25 and 26 at Stanford. It's a fun event and a great chance to learn more about our work in precision health; registration information is available on the conference site.
Previously: Time to register for Big Data in Biomedicine 2016, Nobel Laureate Michael Levitt explains why "biology is information rich" at Big Data in Biomedicine and A look back at Stanford's Big Data in Biomedicine
