Last week saw the biggest bioinformatics event of the year, with the
joint Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology/European Conference on
Computational Biology attracting nearly 2000 delegates to Vienna. Bioinformatics
is a field where open access is now very much the norm rather than the
exception, and enthusiasm for
openness was clearly on show amongst the attendees, who vied to get
hold of the much prized "I’m Open" BMC Bioinformatics T-shirts.
Some trends which seemed clear at the conference included an increasing focus on the medical applications of bioinformatics, and a general sense that bioinformaticians need to do more to make tools both relevant to and usable by a typical researcher. Systems biology was also a big growth area, with strong awareness of BMC Systems Biology, even though the journal published its first articles only in January this year.
Photos from the conference:
BioMed Central’s marketing team prepare to hit the conference centre
Handing out shirts.
Matt Hodgkinson, Senior Editor, responsible for BMC Bioinformatics.
Two more BMC Bioinformatics fans.
Dinner with members of the BMC Bioinformatics, BMC Genomics and BMC Systems Biology editorial boards. The average Erdös number around the table was impressively low!
The team head for home, mission accomplished.
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