Plenary Lecture
Big Data Analytics and Internet of Medical Things Make Precision Medicine a Reality
Professor Plamenka Borovska
Informatics Department
Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Informatics
Technical University of Sofia
Bulgaria
Email: pborovska@tu-sofia.bg
Abstract: In Digital Era, modern society faces the challenges of advanced knowledge that technology helps us create. Advanced information and communication technologies facilitate the efficiency of scientific research in all areas – life sciences, technology, and humanities. The computational paradigm in scientific research involves computer-based models and simulations (in silico experimentation) that offer greater potential and facilities to investigate then theoretical analysis does. Globally, this resulted in the accumulation of huge amounts of in silico experimentation data that can be subjected to analysis in order to extract value. The fourth scientific research paradigm – Data Intensive Science Discovery - revolutionized fundamental and applied science research. Innovative modern technologies, such as Big data analytics, Internet of Things, cloud computing, give researchers powerful opportunities for Knowledge Data Discovery and intelligent decision making. Precision medicine has been one of the hottest topics nowadays and involves disease treatment that takes into account individual genetic profile, environmental specifics, and lifestyle of the individual. Knowledge Data Discovery (KDD) solutions are crucial for the detection of complex DNA anomalies implicated in genetic diseases and cancer. The capacity of DNA databases is exponentially growing for the last decade. Precision medicine starts with genomics and relies on the omics platforms for the analysis and interpretation of multi-scale data. The major sources of genomic data acquisition within the Big genomic data ecosystem are the new DNA sequencing technologies, “omics” data generation, in silico technologies, genome databases, cancer genome databases, and the related technologies Internet of medical Things (IomT) and cloud technologies. Wireless Body Area Networks (IomT) provide continuous health monitoring of patients for applications, such as remote monitoring, biofeedback and assisted living. Leader IT companies such as Amazon’s Genomics in the Cloud, Google Genomics, IBM Watson Health, and SAP Health offer healthcare innovation portfolio on their big data platforms and cloud services for infrastructure, software tools and data sets for genomic analyses with the aim of facilitating personalized medicine.
Brief Biography of the Speaker: Plamenka Boroska received her BSc, MSc and PhD degrees in Computer Science at Technical University of Sofia, Bulgaria. Presently, she is professor at the Department of Informatics, Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Informatics, at Technical University of Sofia. Her area of research comprises Big Data analytics, knowledge data discovery, Internet of medical Things, bioinformatics, high performance and cloud computing, optimization algorithms. She is the author of more than 100 research papers and has participated in or has been a project leader of numerous European and national scientific research project such as 7th Framework Programme PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), FETCH - Future Education and Training in Computing, European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme, ERASMUS. The current scientific research projects at national level are “Intelligent Method for Adaptive In-silico Knowledge Discovery and Decision Making Based on Analysis of Big Data Streams for Scientific Research” and “Conceptual Modeling and Simulation of Internet of Things Ecosystems”. She is an expert at the Research Executive Agency (Research and Innovation action), European Commision, Brussels, in the area of Future Emerging Technologies (FET Proactive – Boosting emerging technologies). She is a Member of the advisory board of Swiss Innovation Valley Lab. At national level she has been awarded honorary sign of the Academic Community of Computer Systems and Information Technologies for significant contribution to IT Development on a National Scale, honorary sign for outstanding contribution to scientific research activity the Technical University of Sofia, and gold medal and a diploma for significant contribution to the promotion and affirmation of Computer Systems Department at Technical University of Sofia.