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SIB - Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics

SWISS BIOINFORMATICS

SIB NEWSLETTER - JULY 2020

IN THIS ISSUE

Proteomes, ecology, medicine, systems biology – and a panel discussion on facing the COVID-19 crisis as bioinformaticians… Talks from across the Swiss bioinformatics landscape are brought to you in this edition: most speakers at our scientific conference, the SIB Days, accepted to make their talk public, for your benefit! You will also discover the SIB Remarkable Outputs of 2019, a ‘must-read’ selection of notable works by our scientists to broaden your bioinformatics literacy.

Also in this issue: benchmarking DNA binding motifs, SIB’s latest activity report, and promising projects on cancer immunotherapy or obesity.

Enjoy the read!

ESSENTIAL RESOURCES FOR THE LIFE SCIENCES

Part of SIB’s mission is to provide and maintain databases and software tools,
which are of fundamental importance to the wider life-science community.

SIB resources supporting SARS-CoV-2 research: the list keeps growing

Created early April, the page listing all data services, training and analysis tools developed by SIB Groups and targeting COVID-19 is regularly updated, with most recent additions including a special version of STRING and the ‘Corona OMA browser’.

Access the list
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in silico talks series: #10 – the latest in bioinformatics by SIB Scientists

If you are a molecular biologist or a bioinformatician interested in data integration: this talk is for you. SIB’s Tarcisio Mendes de Farias guides you on how to run semantic queries across federated bioinformatics databases using the BioQuery portal, in order to answer complex biological questions.

Read the full story and watch his talk
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An open resource to find most accurate DNA binding motifs

A benchmarking study of models predicting the location and sequence of transcription factor binding sites has been undertaken by an international team led by researchers at SIB, EPFL and the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Read more
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TAKING THE PULSE OF SIB

Virtual SIB Days 2020: Swiss bioinformatics highlights & recorded sessions

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What are the latest computational advances to better understand diseases or ecosystems? How are bioinformaticians facing the COVID-19 crisis? The first virtual edition of our internal conference (8-10 June) has remained true to its ambition to represent the scientific diversity of Swiss bioinformatics. Discover a wrap-up of highlights from the parallel sessions, the COVID-19 panel discussion, the keynotes - and watch the recorded talks, most of which could be made public.

Read the news and watch the talks

Announcing the SIB Remarkable Outputs

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To provide the global bioinformatics community with the 'must-reads' of the year by our scientists, the SIB Remarkable Outputs were launched. Peer-reviewed publications as well as preprints, software tools, databases, videos, etc. are eligible and their selection follows a rigorous process conducted by a committee of SIB Group Leaders and Researchers.

Discover them

SIB Profile 2020: explore a year of Swiss bioinformatics

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Welcome to our latest activity report! Videos, illustrations, graphics, SIB Members’ news and views on evolution, proteins, systems biology, medicine or genes and genomes – from the importance of sugars in vaccine design to ancient DNA. See how SIB’s leading tools and databases are used to tackle the burning matters we face as a society, from disease outbreaks and cancer to biodiversity and open knowledge.

Browse the Profile

Global Biodata Coalition: a champion for essential biological databases

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A recent study co-led by SIB revealed a general lack of long-term funding for essential biodata resources in Europe. To ensure that such crucial infrastructure remains freely available to researchers, funding needs to be provided and coordinated on the global scale. This issue is being addressed with the creation of a dedicated body: the Global Biodata Coalition (GBC), an international coalition of research funders. Its set-up is co-piloted by SIB.

Read more

RESEARCH AT SIB

Joining forces to develop new approaches to cancer immunotherapy

One of the Sinergia 2020 fellowships of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) has been awarded to a Lausanne consortium led by Alexandre Harari of the Department of Oncology UNIL CHUV, in collaboration with SIB Group Leaders David Gfeller and Vincent Zoete (UNIL) and Christoph Merten (EPFL).

Read more
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Joining EU-supported research consortium to improve obesity treatment

SIB is joining the international, public-private research consortium ‘SOPHIA’ (Stratification of Obese Phenotypes to Optimize Future Obesity Therapy), which aims to improve risk assessment of complications of obesity and predict treatment response for people with obesity. Two SIB Groups will be lending their expertise to the project: Vital-IT, led by Mark Ibberson and the Statistical Genetics Group, led by Zoltán Kutalik at the University of Lausanne.

Read more
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PERFECT YOUR BIOINFORMATICS SKILLS

SIB courses available in streaming

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During the COVID-19 lockdown, several SIB courses were streamed and are now available online in the SIB YouTube channel. Take a stroll along SIB resources such as EPD, CRUNCH, ISMARA, OpenBis, and Bgee, or discover SARS-CoV-2 data hosted in ViralZone and GlyConnect. Don’t miss the release of next semester courses (in-person or streamed), by subscribing to the mailing list. Don’t hesitate to share this information with your colleagues!

Upcoming courses

PROTEIN SPOTLIGHT

A new monthly comic strip!

SIB's science writer Vivienne Baillie Gerritsen (Swiss-Prot Group) has worked with cartoonist Aloys Lolo and web designer David Roessli (Cybermedia Concepts) to create online comic strips in English and French, adapted from a collection of Protein Spotlight stories. Two strips are already available - 'What's a protein?' and 'The life of a whiff' - and one will be released every month...

To the comics
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Integrity

Mistakes and misinterpretation are common incidents. We are usually aware of those we can see, or hear, such as a bird flying into an undetected window or a person who has misunderstood a question. Yet, mistakes are also a recurring phenomenon at a level no living being can readily observe: the molecular level. Take, for instance, mutations that occur in an organism's DNA. Though the evolution of species may sometimes thrive on such flaws...

Read the full story
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