Data intensive disciplines, such as life sciences and medicine, are promoting vivid research activities in the area of databases. Modern technologies, such as high-throughput mass-spectrometry and sequencing, micro-arrays, high-resolution imaging, etc., produce enormous and continuously increasing amounts of data. Huge public databases provide access to aggregated and consolidated information on genome and protein sequences, biological pathways, diseases, anatomy atlases, and scientific literature. There has never been more potentially available information to study biomedical systems, ranging from single cells to complete organisms. However, it is a non-trivial task to transform the vast amount of biomedical data into actionable information, triggering scientific progress and supporting patient management. Major biomedical application scenarios for research in the database community include, but are not limited to:
Systems biology
Genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics
Genome-wide association studies
Drug target discovery and personalized medicine
Neuroscience and neuroinformatics
Electronic patient records
Patient monitoring
Surgery planning and support
Other relevant applications