This project seeks to demonstrate the value of concepts from science, technology and society studies in addressing applied problems facing BC’s genomics researchers and businesses. It builds on BC’s strength in the area of science, technology and society studies, and particularly e-science/ cyberinfrastructure studies, and the strengths of BC’s genomics researchers and entrepreneurs by using BC’s genomics research and business sector as the site for applied research aimed at addressing data integration issues which genomics researchers in BC and elsewhere are facing as they work to integrate data from multiple sources in an effort to realize multiple goals in the domains of personal medicine and translational informatics.

Research outlined here will generate knowledge about the challenges genomics scientists face in working with multiple data sets, which in turn will contribute to the development of novel approaches to data integration, which incorporate insights about social constraints as well as technical challenges arising with data integration. This, in turn, will help BC maintain a strategic position in realizing benefits from the data intensive genome sciences. Work outlined here takes an original approach to data integration issues by focussing on insights from science, technology and society studies, particularly those from e-science and cyberinfrastructural studies, to develop insights about the challenges inherent to integration of data (e.g., from health registries, genomics data and data about social determinants of health) from multiple sources.