Open Science Comes to MozFest

My inspiration for building the first Mozilla Science Lab Study Group

My name is Amy Lee (@minisciencegirl) and I am a microbiologist at the University of British Columbia. Currently, my post-doctoral project focuses on using genome sequencing to understand how bacteria adapt to and cause infectious diseases in humans. This project involves integrating terabytes worth of DNA sequence data, messy clinical chart data from infected patients and numerous experimental data characterizing how these bacteria behave under various conditions. As a microbiologist trained at the lab bench, I was really overwhelmed with how to handle this explosion of data without a coding background.

During MozFest’s Conversations with Medium this Saturday, I will talk about the inspiration behind building the first Mozilla Science Lab Study Group with Bill Mills, and the importance of building a community where people can learn to code and share skills. I will talk about how community groups like the Mozilla Science Lab and VanBUG build a critical foundation for open science by giving people the tools and the opportunity to communicate and collaborate, ultimately pushing scientific research forward.

Please feel free to post questions and comments. We would love to hear your thoughts!

If you are interested in building your own study group, I will also be running a session on the Science Floor, Saturday afternoon. Hope to see you there!