Ewan Birney1
1European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SD, United Kingdom
birney [at] ebi.ac.uk
Abstract
Molecular biology is now a leading example of a data intensive science, with both pragmatic and theoretical challenges being raised by data volumes and dimensionality of the data. These changes are present in both “large scale” consortia science and small scale science, and across now a broad range of applications – from human health, through to agriculture and ecosystems. All of molecular life science is feeling this effect. The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) – Europe’s only intergovernmental research organisation in the life sciences is at the forefront of these developments performing both excellent research and providing world leading services to enable science across Europe.
This shift in modality is creating a wealth of new opportunities and has some accompanying challenges. In particular there is a continued need for a robust information infrastructure for molecular biology. This ranges from the physical aspects of dealing with data volume through to the more statistically challenging aspects of interpreting it. A particular problem is finding causal relationships in the high level of correlative data. Genetic data are particular useful in resolving these issues. I will present how EMBL pursues this science and give examples from my own research that spans human genetics research through to partnering for clinical application.
