Global network of computational biology communities: ISCB's Regional Student Groups breaking barriers

Sayane Shome; R Gonzalo Parra; Nazeefa Fatima; Alexander Miguel Monzon; Bart Cuypers; Yumna Moosa; Nilson Da Rocha Coimbra; Juliana Assis; Carla Giner-Delgado; Handan Melike Dönertaş; Yesid Cuesta-Astroz; Geetha Saarunya; Imane Allali; Shruti Gupta; Ambuj Srivastava; Manisha Kalsan; Catalina Valdivia; Gabriel J Olguin-Orellana; Sofia Papadimitriou; Daniele Parisi; Nikolaj Pagh Kristensen; Leonor Rib; Marouen Ben Guebila; Eugen Bauer; Gaia Zaffaroni; Amel Bekkar; Efejiro Ashano; Lisanna Paladin; Marco Necci; Nicolás N Moreyra; Martin Rydén; Jordan Villalobos-Solís; Nikolaos Papadopoulos; Candice Rafael; Tülay Karakulak; Yasin Kaya; Yvonne Gladbach; Sandeep Kumar Dhanda; Nikolina Šoštarić; Aishwarya Alex; Dan DeBlasio; Farzana Rahman

doi:10.12688/f1000research.20408.1

Global network of computational biology communities: ISCB's Regional Student Groups breaking barriers

F1000Res. 2019 Sep 2:8:ISCB Comm J-1574. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.20408.1. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Sayane Shome¹, R Gonzalo Parra², Nazeefa Fatima³, Alexander Miguel Monzon⁴, Bart Cuypers^{5

6}, Yumna Moosa⁷, Nilson Da Rocha Coimbra⁸, Juliana Assis⁸, Carla Giner-Delgado⁹, Handan Melike Dönertaş¹⁰, Yesid Cuesta-Astroz^{11

12}, Geetha Saarunya¹³, Imane Allali^{14

15}, Shruti Gupta¹⁶, Ambuj Srivastava¹⁷, Manisha Kalsan¹⁶, Catalina Valdivia¹⁸, Gabriel J Olguin-Orellana¹⁹, Sofia Papadimitriou²⁰, Daniele Parisi²¹, Nikolaj Pagh Kristensen²², Leonor Rib²³, Marouen Ben Guebila²⁴, Eugen Bauer²⁴, Gaia Zaffaroni²⁴, Amel Bekkar²⁵, Efejiro Ashano²⁶, Lisanna Paladin⁴, Marco Necci⁴, Nicolás N Moreyra²⁷, Martin Rydén²⁸, Jordan Villalobos-Solís²⁹, Nikolaos Papadopoulos³⁰, Candice Rafael³¹, Tülay Karakulak³², Yasin Kaya³³, Yvonne Gladbach³⁴, Sandeep Kumar Dhanda³⁵, Nikolina Šoštarić³⁶, Aishwarya Alex³⁷, Dan DeBlasio³⁸, Farzana Rahman^{39

40}

Affiliations

¹ Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Program, Iowa State University, Iowa, USA.
² Genome Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg, Germany.
³ Science for Science for Life Laboratory, Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology, Uppsala University, Upsala, Sweden.
⁴ Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
⁵ Department of Biomedical Sciences, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium.
⁶ Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
⁷ KZN Research and Innovation Sequencing Platform, University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban, South Africa.
⁸ Graduate Program in Bioinformatics, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
⁹ Institut de Biotecnologia i de Biomedicina, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain.
¹⁰ European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK.
¹¹ School of Microbiology, Universidad de Antioquía, Medellín, Colombia.
¹² Colombian Tropical Medicine Institute (ICMT), Universidad CES, Medellín, Colombia.
¹³ Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, South Caroli a, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Mohammed V University in Rabat, Rabat, Morocco.
¹⁵ Division of Computational Biology, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
¹⁶ School of Computational and Integrative Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
¹⁷ Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India.
¹⁸ Ecosystem's Health Laboratory, Universidad Andres, Bello Santiago, Chile.
¹⁹ Center for Bioinformatics, Simulations and Modelling, Universidad de Talca, Talca, Chile.
²⁰ Interuniversity Institute of Bioinformatics in Brussels, Université libre de Bruxelles-Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
²¹ ESAT-STADIUS KU Leuven, Heverlee, Heverlee, Belgium.
²² DTU Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark.
²³ The Bioinformatics Center, Biology and Biotech Research and Innovation Center, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
²⁴ Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.
²⁵ Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB), University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
²⁶ Molecular Diagnostics, Laboratory Services, APIN Public Health Initiatives, Abuja, Nigeria.
²⁷ Genetics and Evolution of Buenos Aires (IEGEBA), CONICET-UBA, Institute of Ecology, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
²⁸ Biomedical Centre, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
²⁹ Laboratorio de Biotenología de Plantas, Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica (UNA), Heredia, Costa Rica.
³⁰ Quantitative and Computational Biology, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany.
³¹ Research Unit for Bioinformatics, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa.
³² Izmir Biomedicine and Genome Center, Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir, Turkey.
³³ Hacettepe University, Faculty of Science, Department of Biology, Ankara, Turkey.
³⁴ University Medical Center Rostock, University Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
³⁵ La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, California, USA.
³⁶ Centre of Microbial and Plant Genetics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
³⁷ Roche Diagnostics Automation Solutions GmbH, Roche, Waiblingen, Germany.
³⁸ Computational Biology Department, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA.
³⁹ Genomics and Computational Biology Research Group, University of South Wales, Pontypridd, UK.
⁴⁰ School of Human and Life Sciences, Canterbury Christ Church University, Kent, UK.

Abstract

Regional Student Groups (RSGs) of the International Society for Computational Biology Student Council (ISCB-SC) have been instrumental to connect computational biologists globally and to create more awareness about bioinformatics education. This article highlights the initiatives carried out by the RSGs both nationally and internationally to strengthen the present and future of the bioinformatics community. Moreover, we discuss the future directions the organization will take and the challenges to advance further in the ISCB-SC main mission: "Nurture the new generation of computational biologists".

Keywords: Bioinformatics; Computational Biology; Education; ISCB; ISCB Student Council; Regional Student Groups; Student organizations; Symposia; Virtual seminars; Workshops; collaboration; early career bioinformaticians; networking.

Publication types

Editorial
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Computational Biology*
Humans
Interprofessional Relations
Students*

Grants and funding

The events mentioned in the article were partially supported by funds from ISCB-Student Council, a subsidiary of the International Society for Computational Biology.