Democratizing bioinformatics: A TED Talk by Laurence Liang

I recently watched an interesting TED Talk by Laurence Liang, where he explores a future in which anyone (not just elite labs) can take part in disease discovery, treatment, and even cures from anywhere in the world.

Liang envisions a time when individuals will be able to analyze their own genomic or biological data, or even data from their communities, to detect diseases, design personalized treatments, and intervene early. With advances in bioinformatics and open data, he suggests that we’re standing at the edge of a major transformation in medicine, one where innovation isn’t limited to institutions, but powered by people everywhere.

In short, Liang describes how the tools of modern biology could soon be in all our hands, bringing us closer to curing disease, perhaps even from our own living rooms.