For the first time ever, BOSC will include two panels on important and timely topics.

Policies and Strategies for Resilient Open Science

As we gather in Washington, D.C. for BOSC 2026, we stand at the literal and figurative crossroads of the policies that dictate the pulse of our field. For years, the open science community has operated under a steady wind of progress, but the past year has shifted the weather. We have moved from an era of “open by default” to an environment where the infrastructure of open science—funding, federal data repositories, and international collaborations—is increasingly under scrutiny. This panel moves beyond theoretical support for open science to focus on the strategies of resilience and active advocacy required to navigate a landscape that is being rapidly redefined.

Eric Green (Illumina)

From the Human Genome Project to the Realization of Genomic Medicine: A Scientific, Medical, and Societal Journey

Abstract

The coming decade offers great promise for human genomics and genomic medicine. Since the completion of the Human Genome Project over two decades ago, genomics has become progressively entrenched within the bedrock of the biomedical research enterprise. Capitalizing on the momentum of the project’s successful completion, the field of genomics has increasingly expanded and matured, such that genomics is now central and catalytic in basic and translational research, and studies now regularly demonstrate the vital role that genomic information can play in clinical care. Looking ahead, the anticipated advances in technologies, biological insights, and clinical applications (among others) will lead to more widespread dissemination of genomics throughout biomedical research, a growing adoption of genomics into medical and public health practices, and an increasing relevance of genomics in everyday life. At the same time, many challenges remain and require ongoing attention, such as understanding the biological complexities of the human genome, untangling the complex roles that genomic variants play in health and disease, and ensuring that genomics gets broadly and equitably integrated in medicine around the world.

Since 2000, BOSC has covered all aspects of open source bioinformatics and open science. BOSC 2026, the 27th annual Bioinformatics Open Source Conference, will take place July 14-15 in Washington, DC, as part of ISMB 2026. We are excited to announce our two keynote speakers, Eric Green and Maryam Zaringhalam, and two panels on important and timely topics: Policies and Strategies for Resilient Open Science and Open Source in the Age of AI. We will again join forces with Bio-Ontologies and Knowledge Representation (BOKR) for half a day.

Data Sustainability

In the rapidly evolving landscape of bioinformatics, research data is the bedrock of discovery, innovation, and progress. But how secure is this foundation for the future? This panel will examine the critical challenge of Data Sustainability: the proactive and principled approach to ensuring that valuable research data, along with the necessary infrastructure, funding, expertise, and governance, remains findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable (FAIR), and ethically managed throughout its entire life cycle and for future generations. It is about transforming data from a transient output into a durable asset that continues to yield scientific insights and maximize return on investment over decades.

BOSC 2025 keynote speakers

KEYNOTE: Chris Mungall
Open Knowledge Bases in the Age of Generative AI

KEYNOTE: Christine Orengo
Working together to develop, promote and protect our data resources: Lessons learnt developing CATH and TED

Panel: Data Sustainability

BOSC 2025 Schedule at a Glance

(Keep scrolling to see the full schedule of talks and posters!)

Schedule of Talks

Schedule of Posters

Please see the ISMB/ECCB poster page for more information, including poster abstracts. BOSC posters will be up for both days of BOSC. Each presenter is assigned to present their poster during Session A or B on Monday, July 21, or Tuesday, July 22, respectively.

Chris Mungall (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

Open Knowledge Bases in the Age of Generative AI

(Keynote talk for joint BOSC/BOKR session)

Talk video

ABSTRACT: The scientific and clinical community relies on the active development of a wide range of interlinked knowledge bases in order to plan experiments, interpret omics data, and to help with the diagnosis and treatment of disease. These knowledge bases make use of expert curation and the use of community ontologies in order to provide accurate and structured information that can be used algorithmically. The advent of generative AI and agentic methods presents fantastic opportunities for accelerating curation, increasing the breadth and depth of coverage. Open knowledge bases also present opportunities to generative AI, in the form of a trusted backbone of knowledge that can mitigate the hallucinations that plague large language models. However, the pace of development of AI, combined with misunderstandings about both strengths and weaknesses, poses significant dangers. In this talk, I will present our recent work on the use of agentic AI to assist with manual knowledge base tasks, particularly those involving complex ontology development and maintenance tasks. I will present a realistic picture of challenges we face, but also strategies to mitigate them, and a path towards a future where agents, curators, and others can work together to leverage and integrate open source tools and data along with the combined knowledge of the scientific community.

ISMB CollaborationFest 2025 will be a collaborative work event at which participants work together to contribute code, documentation, training materials, and challenging analysis problems and use cases. If you are interested in learning and contributing in an intensely collaborative environment, then CollaborationFest is for you. Bring your own project ideas or come ready to collaborate with others on their projects!

BOSC has organized CollaborationFests (aka CoFests) every year before or after ISMB since 2010 (see, for example, the 2024 CoFest page.). This year, we are excited to hold CollaborationFest as part of ISMB/ECCB, opening it to all registered ISMB/ECCB participants. The organizers are affiliated with four different COSIs: BOSC, Bio-Ontologies and Knowledge Representation (BOKR), Function COSI, and 3DSIG.

Since 2000, BOSC has covered all aspects of open source bioinformatics and open science.

BOSC 2025, the 26th annual Bioinformatics Open Source Conference, took place July 21-22, 2025 in Liverpool, UK (as part of ISMB/ECCB 2025). Read our BOSC 2025 report on F1000Research!

BOSC 2025 included two days of keynote talks, talks from submitted abstracts, a panel discussion, and posters. The full lineup of talks and posters is available on our schedule page. The talk videos are linked from our schedule page as well as on our YouTube channel.