Life sciences include all those scientific disciplines that study living organisms – microbes, plants, animals and humans – in all possible ways. Since the discovery of the role of DNA in the middle of the last century, our biological knowledge has seen a dramatic increase, absorbing over 60% of the world’s scientific research funds. Similarly, jobs in the broader field of biological sciences are growing rapidly, from basic research to professional fields such as pharmaceuticals, medicine, the food industry, sustainable agriculture and the management of natural ecosystems.

Biology, which is the core science of the field, is divided into numerous disciplines such as genetics, zoology, genomics, ecology, immunology and neurobiology. The combination of biology with other sciences has created additional interdisciplinary disciplines such as biotechnology, bioinformatics and systems biology. The charm of biology is that it opens a window of knowledge from which we can not only delve into the detailed knowledge of every living organism, every cell and every single function, but also look at the interconnectedness of all life forms on the planet.

LIFE SCIENCES: THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE OF BIOLOGY aims to introduce students to this very charm of the life sciences. And it will do so through many interactive educational experiences and through talks by renowned scientists from the whole range of life science disciplines