Congress Announcement

Sage Bionetworks is organizing a Congress in San Francisco April 23-24, 2010 to establish the foundation for a new public domain resource, the Sage Commons. Participation invitations have been extended to numerous experts and critical stakeholders and the congress is already oversubscribed.

The Sage Commons is a novel information platform being built by an international partnership of researchers and stakeholders to define the molecular basis of disease and guide the development of effective human therapeutics and diagnostics.

The Sage Commons will be used to integrate diverse molecular mega-data sets, to build predictive bionetworks and to offer advanced tools proven to provide unique new insights into human disease biology. Users will also be contributors that advance the knowledge base and tools through their cumulative participation.

The public access mission of the Sage Commons requires the development of a new strategic and legal framework to protect the rights of contributors while providing widespread access to integrative genomics resources.

The Sage Commons Congress will be a working meeting of diverse stakeholders (e.g. researchers, funders, industry, policy experts, media) led by international volunteer project teams who have been focusing on issues such as data standards, rewards and governance. More information on the Sage Commons concept and background can be found on the Sage Bionetworks and Science Commons websites.