Biophysicist Aleksandra Walczak: “From data extracted from living systems, we bring out formulas and algorithms”

Nearly 1,500 scientists from 60 countries have gathered in Geneva for the 25th European Conference on Computational Biology, turning the Swiss city into a meeting point for researchers working at the intersection of biology and data science.

The conference, organized by the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, brings together researchers in a field built around the vast datasets now available for studying living systems. The discipline combines biological research with computational methods to identify patterns and better understand how those systems work.

Among the invited speakers is Aleksandra Walczak, a biophysicist and CNRS research director at the École normale supérieure in Paris. She is also a member of the French Academy of Sciences. Her work includes the coevolution of viruses and the immune system, a subject she examines through an interdisciplinary approach and the use of big data.

In an interview conducted on the sidelines of the conference at Geneva's International Conference Centre, Walczak describes the field in practical terms: “From data extracted from living systems, we bring out formulas and algorithms.” The conference runs through September 4 and is presented as a forum for examining how computational tools can illuminate biological processes.

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From data extracted from living systems, we bring out formulas and algorithms.