The predominant model of biomedical technology development relies extensively on free market forces to harness capital, infrastructure, and professional talent for drug, diagnostics, and vaccine research and development (R&D). Despite major successes, this model has left researchers and health-care practitioners largely without adequate tools to address many important scientific and humanitarian challenges. The infections of poverty including tuberculosis, schistosomiasis, and Chagas disease have suffered particular neglect. Advances are urgently needed in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of these and other neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), which disproportionately afflict the most marginalized, who subsist on $2 or less per day. Because commercial markets for NTD-specific health products are very limited, R&D must be as efficient and as low cost as possible. To overcome these constraints, it may be possible to adapt open-source approaches that are successful in software development. The session presents views, critical assessments, and prototypical models of open-source science. These span nonprofit, governmental, and academic sectors; apply new communication forms and practices; and leverage a global knowledge network to facilitate development of biomedical technologies for NTDs. Speakers will highlight a wide spectrum of collaborative tools and information-sharing practices intended to accelerate scientific discovery and technology development for the benefit of society.