ISMB/ECCB 2025 Conference Experience

Kluivert Boakye Duah

Attending ISMB/ECCB 2025 in Liverpool was a standout experience in my PhD journey. As one of the largest gatherings of bioinformatics and computational biology researchers worldwide, the conference offered a unique opportunity to immerse myself in cutting-edge science, connect with experts across diverse disciplines, and share my own work with an international community. From the moment the programme began, it was clear why ISMB/ECCB is considered a flagship event in our field.

ISMB/ECCB is one of the world’s leading conferences in bioinformatics and computational biology, bringing together researchers from computer science, statistics, mathematics, molecular biology, and related fields. The five-day programme featured an exceptional range of talks and poster sessions organised through the Communities of Special Interest (COSIs), spanning topics such as translational medicine, network biology, structural bioinformatics, systems biology, and machine learning in the life sciences.

The scale and energy of the conference was remarkable. I had the opportunity to hear from internationally renowned researchers, including Dr. Amos Bairoch (developer of Swiss-Prot), Dr. James Zou, and Nobel Laureate David Baker. Their presentations highlighted cutting-edge advances in areas such as protein design, functional genomics, and responsible AI in biomedicine. These sessions broadened my perspective far beyond my primary research area of health data standardisation, particularly in rapidly evolving fields like proteomics and AI-driven agents.

A particularly valuable aspect of the conference was engaging with the Bioinformatics in the UK special interest group, where we explored topics including federated learning, secure data analysis frameworks, and collaborative research infrastructure. The discussions were both stimulating and highly relevant to current challenges in data-intensive biomedical research.

I was also delighted to present my poster, “Towards Federated Sharing of Lymphoid Blood Cancers Data on the Island of Ireland: Landscape Analysis and Mapping to the OMOP Common Data Model.” My work focuses on transforming lymphoid blood cancer datasets into the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) Common Data Model using the eHDPrep R package for data quality assurance and semantic enrichment, supported by OHDSI tools. Presenting this research to an international audience provided invaluable feedback and new insights into federated approaches to health data.

Overall, attending ISMB/ECCB 2025 was an inspiring and energising experience that enriched both my technical knowledge and my understanding of the broader computational biology community. I left the conference with new ideas, renewed motivation, and a deeper appreciation for the collaborative spirit driving innovation in our field.


*Presenting my research poster at the ISMB Conference*