Briefings in Bioinformatics

Broader incorporation of bioinformatics in education: opportunities and challenges.

Publication Date: 2010 Aug 26 PMID: 20798182
Authors: Cummings, M. P. - Temple, G. G.
Journal: Brief Bioinform

The major opportunities for broader incorporation of bioinformatics in education can be placed into three general categories: general applicability of bioinformatics in life science and related curricula; inherent fit of bioinformatics for promoting student learning in most biology programs; and the general experience and associated comfort students have with computers and technology. Conversely, the major challenges for broader incorporation of bioinformatics in education can be placed into three general categories: required infrastructure and logistics; instructor knowledge of bioinformatics and continuing education; and the breadth of bioinformatics, and the diversity of students and educational objectives. Broader incorporation of bioinformatics at all education levels requires overcoming the challenges to using transformative computer-requiring learning activities, assisting faculty in collecting assessment data on mastery of student learning outcomes, as well as creating more faculty development opportunities that span diverse skill levels, with an emphasis placed on providing resource materials that are kept up-to-date as the field and tools change.

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OpenHelix: bioinformatics education outside of a different box.

Publication Date: 2010 Aug 26 PMID: 20798181
Authors: Williams, J. M. - Mangan, M. E. - Perreault-Micale, C. - Lathe, S. - Sirohi, N. - Lathe, W. C.
Journal: Brief Bioinform

The amount of biological data is increasing rapidly, and will continue to increase as new rapid technologies are developed. Professionals in every area of bioscience will have data management needs that require publicly available bioinformatics resources. Not all scientists desire a formal bioinformatics education but would benefit from more informal educational sources of learning. Effective bioinformatics education formats will address a broad range of scientific needs, will be aimed at a variety of user skill levels, and will be delivered in a number of different formats to address different learning styles. Informal sources of bioinformatics education that are effective are available, and will be explored in this review.

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De novo assembly of short sequence reads.

Publication Date: 2010 Aug 19 PMID: 20724458
Authors: Paszkiewicz, K. - Studholme, D. J.
Journal: Brief Bioinform

A new generation of sequencing technologies is revolutionizing molecular biology. Illumina's Solexa and Applied Biosystems' SOLiD generate gigabases of nucleotide sequence per week. However, a perceived limitation of these ultra-high-throughput technologies is their short read-lengths. De novo assembly of sequence reads generated by classical Sanger capillary sequencing is a mature field of research. Unfortunately, the existing sequence assembly programs were not effective for short sequence reads generated by Illumina and SOLiD platforms. Early studies suggested that, in principle, sequence reads as short as 20-30 nucleotides could be used to generate useful assemblies of both prokaryotic and eukaryotic genome sequences, albeit containing many gaps. The early feasibility studies and proofs of principle inspired several bioinformatics research groups to implement new algorithms as freely available software tools specifically aimed at assembling reads of 30-50 nucleotides in length. This has led to the generation of several draft genome sequences based exclusively on short sequence Illumina sequence reads, recently culminating in the assembly of the 2.25-Gb genome of the giant panda from Illumina sequence reads with an average length of just 52 nucleotides. As well as reviewing recent developments in the field, we discuss some practical aspects such as data filtering and submission of assembly data to public repositories.

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Perspectives on presentation and pedagogy in aid of bioinformatics education.

Publication Date: 2010 Aug 19 PMID: 20724457
Authors: Buttigieg, P. L.
Journal: Brief Bioinform

Using live presentation to communicate the interdisciplinary and abstract content of bioinformatics to its educationally diverse studentship is a sizeable challenge. This review collects a number of perspectives on multimedia presentation, visual communication and pedagogy. The aim is to encourage educators to reflect on the great potential of live presentation in facilitating bioinformatics education.

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Bioinformatics education in India.

Publication Date: 2010 Aug 12 PMID: 20705754
Authors: Kulkarni-Kale, U. - Sawant, S. - Chavan, V.
Journal: Brief Bioinform

An account of bioinformatics education in India is presented along with future prospects. Establishment of BTIS network by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India in the 1980s had been a systematic effort in the development of bioinformatics infrastructure in India to provide services to scientific community. Advances in the field of bioinformatics underpinned the need for well-trained professionals with skills in information technology and biotechnology. As a result, programmes for capacity building in terms of human resource development were initiated. Educational programmes gradually evolved from the organisation of short-term workshops to the institution of formal diploma/degree programmes. A case study of the Master's degree course offered at the Bioinformatics Centre, University of Pune is discussed. Currently, many universities and institutes are offering bioinformatics courses at different levels with variations in the course contents and degree of detailing. BioInformatics National Certification (BINC) examination initiated in 2005 by DBT provides a common yardstick to assess the knowledge and skill sets of students passing out of various institutions. The potential for broadening the scope of bioinformatics to transform it into a data intensive discovery discipline is discussed. This necessitates introduction of amendments in the existing curricula to accommodate the upcoming developments.

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Evolution of gene regulation--on the road towards computational inferences.

Publication Date: 2010 Aug 11 PMID: 20702596
Authors: Fuellen, G.
Journal: Brief Bioinform

If fragments of DNA are transcribed (expressed), they deserve to be called (parts of) a gene. Whether transcription takes place depends on the 'gene regulatory network'. This network is defined as the complex interplay of the sequence, biochemical modifications and structure of the chromosomal DNA with the regulatory proteins/RNA (transcription factors, co-factors, regulating RNA and the transcriptional apparatus itself). Gene regulatory networks play a role in various stages of development as well as in the maintenance of the organism; in this review we will concentrate on the former. Their evolutionary reconstruction is daunting (to say the least), and bioinformatics tools are in their infancy. However, gain of understanding offers a reward beyond itself, since evolutionary considerations can enable discoveries in the first place, e.g. the computational identification of conserved transcription factor binding sites. We discuss the evolution of gene regulation in the context of the 'Genetic Theory of Morphological Evolution' as described by Carroll, identifying those parts of the theory that are relevant for bioinformatics, and their implications. We discuss the important question of how bioinformatics analysis results on the evolution of gene regulation may be validated. Finally, we briefly exemplify use of the UCSC genome browser, exploiting its pre-computed alignments to describe the evolution of gene regulation.

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A model for Bioinformatics training: the marine biological laboratory.

Publication Date: 2010 Aug 12 PMID: 20660497
Authors: Yamashita, G. - Miller, H. - Goddard, A. - Norton, C.
Journal: Brief Bioinform

Many areas of science such as biology, medicine and oceanography are becoming increasingly data-rich and most programs that train scientists do not address informatics techniques or technologies that are necessary for managing and analysing large amounts of data. Educational resources for scientists in informatics are scarce, yet scientists need the skills and knowledge to work with informaticians and manage graduate students and post-docs in informatics projects. The Marine Biological Laboratory houses a world-renowned library and is involved in a number of informatics projects in the sciences. The MBL has been home to the National Library of Medicine's BioMedical Informatics Course for nearly two decades and is committed to educating scientists and other scholars in informatics. In an innovative, immersive learning experience, G.Y., a biologist and post-doc at Arizona State University, visited the Science Informatics Group at the MBL to learn first hand how informatics is done and how informatics teams work. Hands-on work with developers, systems administrators, librarians and other scientists provided an invaluable education in informatics and is a model for future science informatics training.

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Challenges of sequencing human genomes.

Publication Date: 2010 Aug 6 PMID: 20519329
Authors: Koboldt, D. C. - Ding, L. - Mardis, E. R. - Wilson, R. K.
Journal: Brief Bioinform

Massively parallel sequencing technologies continue to alter the study of human genetics. As the cost of sequencing declines, next-generation sequencing (NGS) instruments and datasets will become increasingly accessible to the wider research community. Investigators are understandably eager to harness the power of these new technologies. Sequencing human genomes on these platforms, however, presents numerous production and bioinformatics challenges. Production issues like sample contamination, library chimaeras and variable run quality have become increasingly problematic in the transition from technology development lab to production floor. Analysis of NGS data, too, remains challenging, particularly given the short-read lengths (35-250 bp) and sheer volume of data. The development of streamlined, highly automated pipelines for data analysis is critical for transition from technology adoption to accelerated research and publication. This review aims to describe the state of current NGS technologies, as well as the strategies that enable NGS users to characterize the full spectrum of DNA sequence variation in humans.

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