BOL: Related items

10 Books to Kickstart (and Level Up) Your Bioinformatics Journey

Neel — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 03:50:11 -0500

If you’re starting out in bioinformatics or looking to sharpen your computational biology skills, having the right learning resources makes all the difference.
Here’s my curated list of 10 must-read books — from beginner-friendly introductions to advanced computational genomics.

1️⃣ Data Analysis for the Life Sciences
A fantastic starting point to learn statistics, R programming, and exploratory data analysis in the context of biology. The best part? It’s available free online from HarvardX.

2️⃣ Practical Computing for Biologists
The very first book I picked up when I started learning computational biology. It’s beginner-friendly and focuses on essential computing skills every biologist needs.

3️⃣ A Primer for Computational Biology
An open-access, hands-on introduction to computational biology concepts and coding techniques. Perfect if you want to learn through real examples.

4️⃣ Computational Genomics with R
For those who already know R and want to dive deeper into genome-scale data analysis, from sequence alignment to gene expression.

5️⃣ The Biologist’s Guide to Computing
Bridges the gap between biological problems and computational thinking, making it easier for life scientists to approach programming and data analysis.

6️⃣ Bioinformatics Data Skills
A must-read to sharpen your bioinformatics toolkit — from command-line skills to reproducible research workflows. Ideal once you’ve covered the basics.

7️⃣ Bioinformatics Workbook
A practical tutorial series to help scientists design bioinformatics projects, analyze data, and understand best practices.

8️⃣ Modern Statistics for Modern Biology
An essential guide to modern statistical methods applied to biology, blending theory with hands-on examples in R.

9️⃣ Algorithms on Strings, Trees, and Sequences by Dan Gusfield
A classic reference for anyone wanting to understand the algorithms behind sequence alignment, genome assembly, and biological data structures.

ISCB-Asia 2013 Translational Bioinformatics Conference

Thu, 08 Aug 2013 06:31:32 -0500

ISCB-Asia 2013
Translational Bioinformatics Conference
Seoul, Korea
October 2 - 4, 2013

For more information visit: http://www.snubi.org/TBC2013/

Computational, but a Biologist !

LEGE — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:44:46 -0500

There was a time when doing biology
meant working only with your hands—
and that alone was seen
as “real science.”

People using computers were often seen
as helpers, not leaders—
useful, but not essential.

Sometimes, the criticism was direct.
Sometimes subtle.
But the message was the same—
this work doesn’t really count.

Then biology changed.
The questions became bigger,
and experiments alone
were no longer enough.

Organizing knowledge by hand worked once.
Now it needs computers—
to handle scale, speed, and complexity.

Some patterns are simply invisible
if you look at one sample.
You need many—
and the right tools to understand them.

So we started building maps—
of genomes, cells, and systems.
Not perfect,
but extremely useful.

Ideas also had to become clearer.
It’s no longer enough to say something sounds right—
you have to measure it.

The divide between “types” of biologists
never really made sense.
We are solving the same problems—
just in different ways.

Progress didn’t wait for agreement.
It moved forward with data,
with code,
and with careful analysis.

What matters now is simple:
• Biology depends on computation
• Coding is an important skill
• Statistics helps us think clearly
• And the people building these tools
are shaping the future of science

Liberles Research Group

Wed, 12 Aug 2026 03:39:53 -0500

The Liberles Research Group works in the areas of computational comparative genomics, and molecular evolution. The central theme in the research group is the detection and characterization of the lineage-specific divergence of protein-encoding genes. Much of the work in the group is done in a phylogenetic context. Ultimately, we want to ask the question, “What makes each species unique at the genomic level?” and “what are the processes driving the functional divergence of genomes?”.

More at https://sites.temple.edu/liberles/

InterpretOmics

Jitendra Narayan — Sun, 11 Aug 2013 10:24:33 -0500

InterpretOmics, a big data analytics startup that focuses on life sciences, has received angel funding of around Rs 10 crore from a group of investors including Singapore's information technology and shipping company, Amarante.

http://www.interpretomics.co/

Bioinformatician needs ten heads !!!

Jitendra Narayan — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 10:30:45 -0500

Bioinformatics demands more and ... lots more knowledge. In this case Ravan, a mythological character from the Ramayan, can only be a real bioinformatician. :) :P

The Breitbart lab

Tue, 17 Sep 2013 18:19:49 -0500

Breitbart’s lab has created a new branch of biology called metagenomics in which one can sample and sequence genetic material collected from the environment.

Breitbart lab is located in the College of Marine Science at the University of South Florida. She is chosen as top "10 Brilliant" scientist by Popular Science magazine.
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-09/mya-breitbart

Lab Link:
https://sites.google.com/site/breitbartgenomicslab/
http://www.marine.usf.edu/faculty/mya-breitbart.shtml

Bioinformatics -- Understanding of living systems through information science

Wed, 14 Aug 2013 11:50:17 -0500

Recently, the progress of the Human Genome Project, aiming to decode all human DNA sequences, has highlighted a research field called bioinformatics. In this new field, computers and techniques from information science are not just used as tools to advance life science research; they're expected to have a major impact on how we think about the life sciences. Q. The main feature of bioinformatics is, it utilizes computers to analyze life. One is example is the genome. In all organisms, DNA contains genetic information, and this is called the genome. But the amount of information involved is huge, so recently, it's been read using next-generation sequencers, and analyzed by computers. In bioinformatics research, what we do is utilize those genome information to investigate the principles of life. As an organism evolves, its genome sequence changes through sudden mutations. Additionally, at the genome level, mutations called rearrangements, such as inversions, transpositions, and duplications, occur. The genome comparison system developed by the Sakakibara Lab calculates homologous sequences called anchors, which are conserved between species. If the genome is considered as a long text, then anchors can be thought of as words. Q. We're coming to understand the genomes of various organisms - not just humans, but monkeys, chimpanzees, bacteria, and so on. The first method used to analyze a genome is comparing it with the genomes of other organisms, to see where it's the same and where it's different. In that way, the content of the genome is decoded bit by bit, using computers. By contrast, in our method, we've developed software called Murasaki, which we also use to analyze large genomes, by comparing them with those of other organisms. The Sakakibara Lab uses a next-generation sequencer at Keio University, along with a cluster machine with hundreds of CPUs. In this way, the Lab is analyzing genome mutations that cause cancer, and the genome of the natto production strain Bacillus subtilis. Until now, genome analysis could only be done in national-scale projects. But now, next-generation sequencer development has made genome analysis possible in an ordinary lab. In a world-first achievement, the Sakakibara Lab has decoded the natto bacillus genome, through analysis using Keio's next-generation sequencer. Q. In the future, biology and the life sciences may become almost entirely information science and computer science. And in healthcare, that may enable us, for example, to predict whether individuals are susceptible to cancer, or to certain lifestyle-related diseases, by understanding their personal genome data. So, I think it's amply possible that we can make use of such information effectively, to help people live longer and be free from disease, by thinking about their lifestyle habits. Bioinformatics is only two decades old. In this field, many areas are still unknown. Professor Sakakibara, having been involved since the beginning, will continue tackling new, challenging research projects.

Rehmsmeier group

Sat, 09 Nov 2013 20:07:07 -0600

"Our research focuses on understanding development, gene regulation, and epigenetics on a genome-wide scale, in the context of evolution. This involves the design and application of algorithms, statistics, and experimental approaches."

http://www.bccs.uni.no/units/cbu/research/rehmsmeier/

Bioinformatics Infrastructure Facility

Sun, 15 Sep 2013 09:22:25 -0500

The Bioinformatics Infrastructure Facility has started working in the year 2007 at Presidency College, Kolkata. It is one of the premier institutes of India and boasts of a rich heritage and great alumni. The Infrastructure Facility has a dedicated team headed by Sayak Ganguli and ably supported by Priayanka Dhar. The coordinator of the facility is Abhijit Datta of the Post Graduate Department of Botany. The lab mainly focusses on the analysis of the RNA Induced Silencing Complex. Recent highlights include the presentation of a paper at the RNAi World Congress.

More @ http://bioinfo-presiuniv.edu.in/index.php