Closing remarks – EPFL President

Abstract

Over the past two decades, digitalization has transformed the whole of biology, including metabolism, from a traditionally analog discipline into one that heavily relies on computers. With its tradition of excellence in engineering and computer science, EPFL has been a frontrunner in bringing these disciplines closer to the life sciences to support the needs for improved instrumentation, automation and data analysis. Because the complexity and size of data sets has increased by several orders of magnitude, open science initiatives have to be embraced in order to achieve highest quality and impact of research, while computational thinking needs to be the new pillar of education and change the way researchers think about biological problems. EPFL is well positioned to become a leader in these transformations.