About the session
The announcement of the human genome sequence in 2000 sparked an explosion of scientific discovery in biology and life sciences, which in turn has created the need for powerful new computing solutions. The new knowledge that is coming out of life sciences projects today will change the world as much or more than the Internet, and will transform the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries and profoundly improve the practice of medicine. Information technology is a key enabler to this revolution, to handle the enormous volumes of data and to create powerful new analytical tools for mining valuable information from these vast databases. Life sciences applications - now and in the future - are driving the roadmap for high performance computing as well as for collaborative, grid-based scientific computing environments. The convergence of computing and biology promises to transform the process of drug discovery and development and speed the ability to create effective and safe new medicines and introduce them to the market. Finally, the application of new technologies in biology and computing are already making their way into medicine, in an area we call 'information-based medicine'. In short, the convergence of computing and biology is paving the way for new scientific discovery, value creation in pharmaceuticals and healthcare, and enormous benefits to humankind in medicine.
