Symposium discusses next generation of information integration approaches for biomedical research

Miri – 6 March 2013 – The 1st International Symposium on Biomedical Data Infrastructure (BDI 2013) held in Kuala Lumpur on 27 and 28 February 2013 proved a most effective platform for discussing the next generation of information integration approaches that are needed to ensure increasing infrastructure agility required for high-throughput biomedical research.

The conference was a joint effort by Dr. Amandeep S. Sidhu from the Curtin Sarawak Research Institute, the multi-disciplinary research institute at Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia (Curtin Sarawak), and Dr. Sarinder K. Dhillon from University of Malaya.

Main research topics that were discussed during the conference included issues, problems and opportunities in Biomedical Information Retrieval, Semantics in Biomedicine, and Biomedical Data Analysis, with a greater emphasis on specific topics such as approaches and methodologies for Biomedical Data Integration, Gene Expression Data Analysis, Content Based Image Retrieval, Semantic Determination of Cancer Stages, Kinetic Modeling for Systems Biology and Drug Discovery. These areas are current and in line with Malaysian research trends, which are gearing actively towards biomedical research.

Two distinguished scientists presented keynote addresses at BDI 2013. Professor Dr. Meena Kishore Sakharkar from the University of Tsukuba, Japan discussed integrative approaches for improving drug discovery, while Professor Dr. Jean-Pierre A. Kocher from the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota, USA described the role of biomedical informatics in shaping the future of medicine.

All presentations from the BDI 2013 conference are published as book chapters in an edited book Advances in Biomedical Infrastructure 2013by Springer-Verlag, Germany. The submissions were evaluated on their originality, technical soundness, significance, presentation, and interest to the attendees.

BDI 2013 helped in informing researchers, practitioners, and graduate-level students about state-of-the-art developments in biomedical data management. Bioinformatics students acquired basic concepts and theories of biomedical data management and bioinformatics practitioners found valuable insights for building similar biomedical systems in future.

According to Dr. Amandeep, BDI 2013 would not have been possible without the generous support from University of Malaya and Curtin Sarawak, as well as contributions made by various authors, reviewers and local committee members.

BDI 2013 delegates gather for photo call.

Organising chair Dr. Amandeep S. Sidhu.

Organising chair Dr. Amandeep S. Sidhu presenting souvenir to industry speaker Lilyana Abdul Latiff.