Photo Credit: Jeff Dowling
GBC’s first Executive Head on his career in industry, open data advocacy and the advice he would give his younger self.
Before he officially steps into the role of GBC Executive Head at the end of March, we caught up with Philippe Sanseau where he reflected on a career in industry and his future plans for the Coalition.
Q: You spent more than 30 years at GlaxoSmithKline, including in the roles of Senior Director of Computational Biology and Head of In Silico Target Biology. How did your experience in industry shape your perspective on open data?
Working in biomedical research and drug discovery, I know that access to open data is foundational to what we do. For example the GWAS (Genome Wide Association Study) Catalogue is used extensively to support research at GSK.
Many companies are using open data to identify new drug targets – which provides further evidence that these resources are fundamental to biomedical research and drug discovery.
Q: When’s a moment where you saw the impact of biodata that really stuck with you?
Going back many, many moons – before the Human Genome Project – there was a resource capturing ESTs, Expressed Sequence Tags, which held sequencing data from mRNA.
That database was an eye-opener for me. Seeing that we could freely access all of this data to support our research was very inspiring and opened my eyes to what could be possible.
Q: What drew you to working with GBC?
I started because I am a believer in access to open data and because I want to use my industry experience to support the work of GBC. There are many brilliant academic and research organisations already involved, but there is also the industry perspective – and not only from a pharma perspective.
For example, in addition to biomedical research, open life science data is also extremely important in animal health, food production and even tracking and responding to climate change.
And of course, there is the unstoppable rise of advanced Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning techniques. Having access to open data has opened the door to many many players, be they academic or non-academic, to generate new knowledge. One of the best examples we can point to is the use of data from Uniprot and the Protein Data Bank (PDB) to enable the development of AlphaFold.
I’ve joined GBC because I want to highlight the importance of sustaining a globally reaching, high quality, open data ecosystem.
Q: In your view, what are the essential elements needed to build a sustainable future for biodata resources?
We need to think about long-term funding solutions for these resources. At the moment, most resources are only funded for a certain time – and we need to build more resilience into the system.
To do that, we need funders to come together and to think more broadly than just within their own niche. But it’s not only about funding, we need to consider all of the different people and players involved. For example, it would be great to see industry becoming more involved in addressing the sustainability issue rather than just utilising the data.
Q: What’s one thing everyone working with biodata could do tomorrow to support the future of these resources?
One thing that is part of the sustainability challenge is ensuring that data (and metadata) is captured with agreed standards. When you can apply an agreed standard, it’s much easier to maintain, access and integrate data resources.
And that applies from the very outset, when we begin building databases. If the lab researchers collecting the data are considering how it will be accessed and used, that will be key to supporting sustainability.
Q: You’re joining GBC at an exciting time, with the team expanding significantly and as we welcome a grant from the European Commission. What key milestones do you have in your sights for the Coalition in the next five years?
Broadly, the vision is to secure the future of key life sciences resources and to ensure there is more funding resilience built into the ecosystem. The aim is, with the support of our members and partners, to develop a vibrant community and identify and test various models of sustainability.
The other piece is to recruit more funders to support GBC’s work. A lot of our current funders are from the US and Europe, but to ensure a truly sustainable future we need to diversify across geographies and types of funders. Perhaps in the future we’ll also see other charities and philanthropic organisations become GBC members.
Q: Throughout your career you’ve had a foot in both the public and private worlds – working in pharma and championing open data. For private organisations which might be hesitant about sharing data, what would you say are the benefits?
Private organisations are already using open data and they benefit because of how it accelerates their research. While industry organisations develop their own data, it’s just a fraction of what is available. What is absolutely critical for their success, and I’ve seen it firsthand, is to be ready to integrate internal data with open data.
I believe contributing data to open resources enhances the information you already have. It is deeply within industry interest to collaborate and support the future of open access databases.
Q: What would your message be to any organisation considering becoming a member of the GBC?
Open data is critical to so many aspects of scientific progress, and that includes human health, animal health, food production, climate change and more. By ensuring that data is sustained, high quality, and accessible, we are able to benefit human kind in so many areas and on so many levels.
Q: Looking back, what would you tell your younger self starting out in the field?
Don’t be scared to take risks. I probably didn’t take enough at the beginning. And I would also say, talk to people, network. You don’t know who you’re going to meet. Above all, be curious.