Imaging Seminar: Exploring and Explaining: Leveraging data visualization for research, communication and public health

Joint seminar with the BIOP.

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Abstract: 

Data visualization is indispensable for modern biological research, serving three key purposes: exploring large datasets, explaining research results to deliver insights, and communicating findings to the public. Visualization is essential for analyzing vast research datasets, such as those from genomics, high-throughput experiments, and image analysis, which are too large for manual inspection and where statistical summaries often fail to capture underlying patterns. As new methods emerge in biology, there is also a need to expand our visual vocabulary to interpret and present data effectively. Visualizations are also crucial for presenting research findings, as figures in scientific articles and conference posters help readers understand complex data. However, many current visualizations fall short of this goal, and I will present our data and proposed solutions to improve them. Lastly, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of data visualization in understanding the virus's evolution, global spread, epidemiological patterns, precautionary measures, and healthcare capacity. I will present our approach to integrate visualizations when communicating scientific information with an example from patient communication.