Professor Michal Linial, Director of the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies (IIAS) & Department of Biological Chemistry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem will present a lecture with the title:
Big Data meets Human Health
Date Thursday, 19 May 2016
Venue STIAS, Wallenberg Centre Auditorium
Time 15h45
Abstract
Breakthroughs in technology in the last decade have changed our life at an unprecedented rate – Big Data refers to the volume and diversity of information that is accumulated in many domains of life. The global spread of the Internet and other systems for communication, combined with platforms such as Facebook, Google, You-Tube, Amazon and such, raise challenges for modern societies. While the field of Data Sciences (i.e. in storage, compression and retrieval of data) is evolving, concerns regarding ownership of data, and the threat of misusing it, remain unsolved. However, big data carries tremendous opportunities. I will discuss this in view of the biomedical field and human health.
The volume and dimensionality of biomedical data are growing very fast. Sequencing of thousands of genomes and the exponential growth in molecular information, makes this information a leading example of a data intensive science. Changes are present across a broad range of applications from human health, through agriculture and environmental sciences. There is also a wealth of opportunity for an impact on clinical practice. However, there is a need to build a collaborative setting that merges basic research with clinical expertise. I will introduce ELIXIR as a Pan-European project for the development of information infrastructure in the life sciences and will illustrate how bioinformatics becomes a critical approach for big data in the medical arena.
Michal Linial is the currrent Director of the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies (IIAS). She previously served as the director of the Sudarsky Center for Computational Biology at the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, specializing in biochemistry and bioinformatics. Her research focuses on cellular strategies for coping with changing conditions such as stress, differentiation and pathogens. Under this framework she studies toxins, viruses, diabetes and neuronal communications. For more than 15 years she has advanced the field of computational biology at the Hebrew University and around the world. She founded the educational program for computational biology at the Hebrew University and served in recent years as Vice President of the International Society of Computational Biology.
Limited seating is available, and those planning to attend should RSVP by noon Monday 16 May 2016: Christoff Pauw [email protected] or Nel-Mari Loock [email protected] , 021 808 2652
Refreshments will be served after the lecture.