大数据时代下,科学大数据已经成为科技创新和社会经济发展的新动力。我国是生物数据生产大国,生命大数据是人口健康和国家安全的重要战略资源。面对我国生物数据因存储零散、缺乏系统监管而大量丢失和流失,以及严重依赖国际生物组学大数据中心的局面,亟需从国家层面建设我国自己的生命大数据保存和管理体系。本文以美国NCBI为例介绍了国际生物大数据中心的发展历程及现状,阐明我国建立国家级生物大数据中心的重要性、迫切性、当前历史机遇和发展前景。中国科学院北京基因组研究所生命与健康大数据中心为此做了大量努力,并在数据存储、汇交和转化应用上取得了阶段性成果,以期推进我国生物大数据中心的建设,提高生命科学研究的国际竞争力和影响力。

In the era of big data, scientific big data have become the new driving force for both science and technology innovation and social and economic development. China is a powerhouse in generating vast quantities of biological data, which are an essential strategic resource for population health and national security. The current situation of data loss due to the isolated data storage and the lack of systematic data monitoring and management, and the heavy dependency on international biological data centers urgently calls for China’s own life big data storage and management system at the national level. Taking NCBI as an example, this article introduces the development history and present situation of the international biological big data centers. In addition, the importance, urgency, current historical opportunity and prospect of establishing a national biological big data center in China are also expounded in detail. In order to promote the development of the national center and improve China’s international competitiveness and influence in life science research, the BIG Data Center at Beijing Institute of Genomics (BIG), Chinese Academy of Sciences, has taken many efforts on big data deposition, integration and translation and achieved initial progress.