Inaugural Monash BDI Computational Biology mini-symposia a success
Inaugural Monash BDI Computational Biology mini-symposia a success
by Dr Belinda Goldie
More than 50 mathematicians, biomedical researchers, bioinformaticians, systems biologists and data visualisation experts gathered in the foyer of the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute to attend the inaugural Computational Biology mini-symposia last week.
Led by Dr Traude Beilharz, the Computational Biology Initiative at the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI) - snappily referred to as CBI@BDI - is now underway with more than 30 group leaders from across all BDI Programs involved.
The large volumes of data generated by 'omics research, as well as the increased complexity in our understanding of biological systems, makes computational biology an essential capability in biomedical research.
Three areas of focus have been identified: Bioinformatics, Modelling of Complex Biological Systems and Imaging Analytics.
The speaker line-up highlighted the exciting potential for collaboration outside the BDI, as well as showcasing the innovative strategies being employed by BDI researchers to solve challenging research problems.
Featured speaker Professor Dianne Cook, now with the Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics, is an expert on exploring large datasets and extracting meaningful information through data visualisation. An original developer of the central R package “ggPlot”, Professor Cook is now interested in working with BDI researchers to help make sense of Big Data projects by developing novel visualisation methodologies.
Other potential internal collaborators include Dr Mirana Ramialison and Dr David Albrecht. As the computational group leader from the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI), Dr Ramialison has spearheaded the development of innovative gene ontology analysis tools such as MonaGO. Dr Albrecht, Associate Dean of Education, is seeking to establish joint projects between Computer Science and the BDI, with students of their school available for 3rd year data modelling software development projects, while advanced honours students can conduct research projects to develop new, publishable tools, as well as build custom analysis solutions.
Inspiring the next generation of Bioinformaticians, Dr Linda McIver from John Monash Science School spoke about her work teaching gifted and highly motivated Year 10 and 11 students, introducing them to the challenging world of Bioinformatics. Researchers from the BDI are encouraged to consider contributing short projects to this program, in particular for Year 11 students, who can take on projects individually or in small groups. Work will begin in August, running for about three months, and can include basic data cleaning and analysis, visualisation, or the development of Apps to make your research life easier.
Finally, a series of ‘Lightning Talks’ from speakers within the BDI, including Monash Bioinformatics Platform Scientific Director, Associate Professor David Powell, showcased the diversity of computation research already underway inside the Institute, from crystallography and virus evolution, transcriptomics and pathways analysis, to complex sequencing strategies and novel visualisation approaches.
If you’re interested in any of these collaboration opportunities, please email Dr Traude Beilharz (traude.beilharz@monash.edu) and she will put you in contact with the right teams.
For BDI students looking for support and/or assistance with computational aspects of their projects, Andrew Pattison from Beilharz lab is setting up a bioinformatic support group to address these needs.
Email andrew.pattison@monash.edu if you’re interested in joining.