Bio Saga Blog - A Chronicle of Life Sciences & Informatics

The National Center for Biotechnology Information  is asking for the bioinformatics community's input on a  proposed Blast XML specification update planned for release in the summer of 2014. The update, according to the development team, is intended to improve the consistency of the Blast output with XML standards as well as put in place new and useful elements. Blast XML users can submit their feedback at  this link .

Microbial Genomes Curator @ Computercraft Corporation--Maryland (US).  Submitted by Computercraft Corporation; posted on Saturday, March 17, 2012 RESPONSIBILITIES: Computercraft seeks a microbiologist to work with a team of software developers and biologists on microbial genome analysis including pan-genome, protein clusters, phylogenetic tree and more. This is a technically challenging position requiring experience in genome sequencing and annotation. A background in comparative genome analysis such as alignments and tree building is a plus. Our scientists work with genomic experts at the NIH's National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) to create and enhance a suite of databases and tools available to researchers worldwide. Teamwork interaction and excellent organizational skills are essential for this detail-oriented position, as is scientific problem-solving with a results-oriented focus. REQUIREMENTS: * PhD in molecular biology, microbiology, or related field * ...

Computercraft seeks a highly motivated Molecular Biologist to join the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) curation team onsite at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD. GEO is the largest fully public repository for functional genomic data, primarily microarray and next-generation sequence datasets. More information on GEO can be found on the web site http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo . RESPONSIBILITIES: We are currently looking for someone with a background in molecular biology , genomics, or biomedicine that is capable of working with large datasets. This person will be a member of the GEO curation team, helping to review and process incoming data submissions. The successful candidate will work at NIH's National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) in the National Library of Medicine (NLM). The successful candidate will perform the following tasks: - Review and evaluate data submissions for structural integrity and content. - Communicate extensively with rese...

Canada has started a national online archive that will house papers and data coming from government-funded research, and will be funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Modeled on the National Institutes of Health's PubMed Central, the PubMed Central Canada resource was launched to provide Canadians with a free and open national digital repository of peer-reviewed health and life sciences literature, including research funded by CIHR. PMC Canada was developed through a partnership between the National Research Council's Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (NRC-CISTI), which will build the infrastructure and manage the repository, the US National Library of Medicine, and CIHR. The resource supports the Policy on Access to Research Outputs, which requires that CIHR grant recipients make their peer-reviewed publications freely accessible online within six months after they are published. "The global movement to provide barrie...

Was going through a recent blog on indiblogger about the NASSCOM Product Conclave . Where this time is themed and focused on SAAS & related services. In the recent times SAAS or Software as a Service has even captured the attention of Life Science and biomedical community globally. Indian Life Sciences Informatics Company, Molecular Connections' year old SAAS product startup is www.XTractor.in . In July 2008 came of with a commercial version of the product XTractor Premium- expert curated biomedical discovery, analysis and knowledge modeling platform, based on semantic curation and annotation of biomedical facts from PubMed . Has very handy analytics to search and narrow down the most relevant facts, build and discover relationships between biomedical facts check out some of the user CaseStudies . XTractor Premium knowledgebase currently contains 302,269 relationships categorized on 24 categories Gene-Gene , Gene-Drug , Gene-Disease , Gene-Process , Gene-Mutation/Polymorphis...

Entrez gene is the most widely used data resource for Gene based information worldwide. To enable researchers to obtain high quality manually annotated information from XTractor when they search for a Gene on Entrez Gene, we are now providing direct links from Entrez Gene records to corresponding Gene Reports in XTractor. To use this outlinked option- when in Entrez Gene, for any human gene select the “Link Out” option from the Display menu in Entrez Gene and click on the XTractor link. You will be taken directly to the XTractor graphical report for the Gene of interest and also manually annotated facts on the associated Diseases, Drugs and the Biological Processes for the Gene. http://www.xtractor.in/ncbiSearch.do?xid=XT_15377&symbol=BRCA1 XTractor Premium - A Platform for discovery , knowledge sharing, analysis and modelling of published biomedical facts. The only Knowledgebase which provides "manually" annotated facts from PubMed on a weekly basis Innovati...

Here is a hand picked item, one of my favorites among the recent blogs that came across. This articles reflects and talks about many things which i have appreciated in the recent times and have blogged in the past web 2.0 .... Why should a (bioinformatics) scientist learn web development ? Up to now bioinformatics research with genomics datasets, has been happening like that: you download the data from a website of a big-iron institution ( NCBI , TAIR ), set them up locally, BLAST ‘em, MySQL’em, parse them with Perl script, and do all other sorts of un-imaginable things. Even though bioinformaticians might be un-aware of the term, part of the local processing that happens with the data is a mashup. This term translates to the combination of pieces of data from different sources, something akin to what has been happening on the web (see also Web 2.0 or programmable web ). In no way this is close to the myriad of Web 2.0 mashups that exist out there, created using APIs offered openly...

In a paper called "Metagenome Annotation Using a Distributed Grid of Undergraduate Students" I just love this title! It's nerdy and cute, all at the same time. Says Sandra Porter . The paper describes a class where students from Marseilles University investigate the function of unidentified genes from a Global Ocean Sampling experiment. All the sequences are obtained from the environmental sequence division at the NCBI . French researchers describe their strategy for teaching undergraduate-level bioinformatics using cutting-edge genomic data and a Web-based learning tool. The students then annotated real metagenomic sequences from the Global Ocean Sampling experiment. "In return for their much-needed help sorting out oodles of DNA data, the undergrads gain a practical knowledge of the work involved in doing bioinformatics and metagenomics, and, most importantly of all, they get to experience what it's like to do real research," says Karen James at the Be...

The Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms database (dbSNP) serves as a central repository for both single base nucleotide substitutions and short deletion and insertion polymorphisms. Computercraft seeks a biologist with significant knowledge in life sciences to help curate dbSNP records, process submission, and perform data analyst tasks. Candidates should also have the ability to rapidly develop applications to process data into database and to generate reports. The individual will work onsite at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD. Our scientists work with genomic experts at NIH's National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) in the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to create and enhance a suite of databases and tools available to researchers worldwide . Requirements: • PhD or M.S. in molecular biology, bioinformatics, or highly related field • Linux/UNIX experience • Relational database and SQL experience • Programming experience (Perl, Python, or C++) •...

Leading scientists discuss DNA database at April 7-8 Meeting For a quarter century, GenBank has helped advance scientific discovery worldwide. Established by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1982, the database of nucleic acid sequences is one of the key tools that scientists use to conduct biomedical and biologic research. Since its creation, GenBank has grown at an exponential rate, doubling in size every 18 months. In celebration of this vital resource and its contribution to science over the last 25 years, the National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine (NLM), NIH, is holding a two-day conference on GenBank. The conference will take place April 7-8, 2008 at the Natcher Conference Center on the main NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. For details on the meeting, see the conference Web site, at http://www.tech-res.com/GenBank25 . The conference is open to the public and also will be available via live and archived webcast; the April 7 proceedin...