This session will be led by Arthur Lander MD, PhD who will discuss Big Data and the future of discovery in biology and medicine:  A tale of three elephants

Today’s biological and biomedical researchers face an avalanche of new data.  Whereas previously it might have taken months or years for any one group to document dozens or hundreds of observations, scientists today rely on machines and computers that collect millions of data points in an afternoon. The resulting “big data” revolution has offered hope that the greatest mysteries in biomedical science can now be resolved through machine learning and artificial intelligence, bypassing the need for traditional, hypothesis-driven research.  But is it really this simple? Dr. Lander will discuss some of the “elephants in the room” of big data science and show how the evolved nature of complex biological systems makes them particularly resistant to “unsupervised” analyses. Join Dr. Lander as he leads a discussion on how theory, hypotheses, and big data need to work together to fulfill the promise of the big data revolution.