Bio-IT World Expo Preview: Managing Big Data on Genome’s 10th Anniversary
By Bio-IT World Staff
January 29, 2013 | This April welcomes the return of the Bio-IT World Expo in Boston (April 9-11, 2013). Over the course of three days, researchers from academia and industry will discuss themes of big data, cloud computing, trends in IT infrastructure, omics technologies, high-performance computing, data analytics and precision medicine, from the research realm to the clinical arena.
This year’s keynote speakers are two renowned computer scientists who are innovating approaches to drug discovery and genomic interpretation. The opening keynoter is Andrew Hopkins, a professor of drug development at the University of Dundee in Scotland. Formerly at Pfizer, Andrew’s career has focused on developing new approaches to rational drug design. Andrew will talk about precision medicine, the decade of the druggable genome and innovative modeling approaches to drug design.
The other keynote will be delivered by Atul Butte from Stanford University. Atul is a physician-scientist and entrepreneur, having helped launch several exciting informatics companies including Personalis and Numedii. Butte’s passions for bioinformatics and data visualization are driving exciting advances in a broad range of areas, from drug repurposing to clinical genomic interpretation.
The plenary roundtable is an all-star life sciences CIO group, featuring half-a-dozen chief information officers from organizations such as Johnson & Johnson, the Broad Institute, AstraZeneca, the Mayo Clinic, and Novartis to candidly discuss the hope (and hype) surrounding big data. The panel will feature the Bio-IT World debut of the CIO of the National Institutes of Health, Andrea Norris.
April 2013 marks two major anniversaries – the 60th anniversary of Watson & Crick’s discovery of the double helix and the 10th anniversary of the official completion of the Human Genome Project. Consequently, this year’s conference hosts two relevant sessions. Managing Big Data: The Genome Center Perspective will gather the IT managers from four of the world’s largest genome centers, including the Broad and Sanger Institutes, to discuss current trends and problems in data storage, management and security.
We’re also hosting a session entitled Building the IT Architecture of the New York Genome Center, in which NYGC scientists and executives will tell the story of the launch, design and implementation of this institute, with particular emphasis on the decisions underlying its IT infrastructure and high-performance computing strategy. Speakers include NYGC executive director Nancy Kelley and acting director of scientific computing, Chris Dwan.
In another must-attend attraction, Dwan’s colleague, BioTeam co-founder Chris Dagdigian, delivers his annual “trends in the trenches” review of what’s hot (and what’s not) in the world of Bio-IT. Other highlights include the presentation of the 2013 Benjamin Franklin Award for bioinformatics and Bio-IT World’s 2013 Best Practices Awards.
For further details on the agenda and registration, please visit the event’s web site: www.bio-itworldexpo.com.