Open science, open data

The development of medicines requires an understanding of the biology of diseases. The understanding of a disease requires an understanding of data at many levels - from DNA and proteins to cells, tissues and organs, to the whole population. Nowadays it is routine to sequence the genomes of organisms and do big experiments to try and work out what all the genes and molecules are doing and which bits can go “wrong”, causing disease . However, the result is a huge amount of data. The potential of such “big data” for improving health is enormous but scientists face a wide range of challenges in accessing, using and bringing all this data together. The Open Science initiative is about making scientific research, data and dissemination accessible to everyone - both other professionals and the general public. Learn about the key challenges faced in making sense of big data in biology and how this is important in furthering scientific discovery and medical research and how it can benefit the economy and society. A range of games and information to suit all ages will be available.