[BC]2 is organized live in Basel with all the necessary safeguards in place, to allow each of us to enjoy great science together and develop relationships during social activities. Remote access to the conference (access to all presentations and poster sessions) will be made possible for participants living in countries, which are affected by COVID-19 travel restrictions.
The different programme committees have put together a diverse programme featuring inspiring keynote lectures by international experts, scientific presentations from selected abstracts, tutorials and workshops to foster hands-on capabilities and interactive poster sessions together with networking activities to refresh the mind and connect with peers in a friendly atmosphere!
Beyond the official programme, SIB and [BC]2's sponsors will hold presentations at their booth, don't miss the chance to discover them and check the programme.
Get to know our invited speakers,
browse our exciting tutorial & workshop programme,
discuss the Learning Ecosystem of Health in the ELIXIR Innovation and SME Forum,
or continue reading to learn more about the different sessions!
Session description: Machine learning techniques are revolutionising the analysis of large amounts of biological data from medical imaging, discovering new biomarkers to predicting protein structures or the uncovering of evolutionary processes. This session aims at not only presenting and discussing current techniques and applications of AI, machine learning and related techniques, but is also open to new computational methods with the potential of changing future bioinformatics workstreams. 
Session description: Clinical implementation of the promises of precision medicine in oncology requires in depth molecular characterization of tumors and robust data analysis tools. To face this challenge, new experimental and computational technologies are being developed to characterize the genomic, transcriptomic, cellular and spatial heterogeneity of tumors. This session aims at covering the latest technological and computational developments in this fast-evolving field.
Session description: Comparative genomic analyses between species, but also within a population of the same species, can illuminate how species evolve, interact with each other and adapt to environmental cues and changes. This session is open to research projects from a wide range of topics: from the development of software and methods to analyse population structures and dynamics, to the phylogenetic inference or the characterization of species’ evolutionary features. To highlight the diversity of life on our planet, research findings from model organisms as well as non-model organisms and populations are welcome.
Session description: Disease-causing agents such as bacteria and viruses are constantly evolving to adapt to and escape the host’s immune system. Though recent years have substantially increased our understanding on how pathogens evolve, may be treated and how our body’s immune system functions, many questions remain open. This session aims to not only highlight the recent advances in fields related to Immunology and Infectious disease, but also welcomes research on the molecular mechanisms of Pathogen Evolution and Phylogenetics. 
Session description: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified tens of thousands of common genetic variants, associated with complex traits in “healthy” and “sick” individuals. These genetic variants can differ between human sex, populations or ancestries, and connecting genetic variants with specific phenotypic information is not straightforward. This session thus aims to integrate, on one hand, the latest (multi-omics) solutions helping us to understand the genetic architecture of human populations, with scientific findings on the impact of genetic variants on human body and health on the other hand.
Session description: From transcriptomics, to proteomics and multi-omics: understanding the spatiotemporal expression profiles of genes across tissues and single cells is key to understanding how cells process information, differentiate, interact and contribute to an organism's well-being or disease. This session welcomes all research helping us to better understand this complex interplay; be it on the biological process itself or the development of new methods and software to analyse and combine the variety of data types.