Xiaole Shirley Liu (lead instructor)
Joshua Starmer
Martin Hemberg
Ting Wang
Feng Yue

Ming Tang
Yang Liu
Jack Kang
Scarlett Ge
Jiazhen Rong
Phillip Nicol
Maartin De Vries

We thank many colleagues in the community, who helped Dr. Liu in prepare the STAT115/215 BIO/BST282 course over the years. 

Address of the bookmark: https://liulab-dfci.github.io/bioinfo-combio/

Under   a   NEPAD   initiative,   the   Biosciences   Eastern   and   Central   Africa   (BECA)  (www.biosciencesafrica.org) was established at ILRI. BECA consists of a hub, regional nodes, and  other affiliated laboratories and partner institutes. A state of the art joint Bioinformatics Platform  (www.becabioinfo.org), whose overall goal is to provide a coherent and powerful bioinformatics  infrastructure for use by all scientists in East and central Africa. The Platform goal requires both  physical and intellectual developments that together provide researchers with access to diverse  infrastructure in a wide­area network, thereby addressing four important aspects of bioinformatics: 

1) Science: bioinformatics tools for data integration and visualization, standardization of data  formats and data analysis strategies, and distribution of analysis tasks over local­ and widearea networks are in development; 

2)  Bioinformatics Support Facility: provides assistance and custom programming to projects  and those unable to establish a bioinformatics support function intrinsic to their project due  to shortage of qualified personnel or lack of funding; 

3) Hardware Platform: provide a powerful high performance computing platform capable of  handling the largest analysis needs for projects; 

4) Bioinformatics Training for East and central African scientists: While many Web­based  tools are available to the wet­lab researcher, the Web is not well suited for tasks beyond  single­sequence annotation. Researchers need to become productive in a server­based Unix  environment with its wealth of scripting and automation tools. Even at an entry­level, this  can be an intimidating task if proper guidance is not available.

International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE): ICIPE’s research focus is on insect biology, in order to improve the wellbeing of the peoples of the  tropics through insect science. There is a commitment to utilise contemporary science in order to  limit the impact of disease vectors, and agricultural pests. The understanding of the mechanisms  associated with behaviour (e.g. attraction and repellency) is crucial. ICIPE seeks to enhance its  bioinformatics capacity in order to support data from various EST projects designed to gain insights  into the insect ecology and plant pathogen interactions though studies of metabolic pathways  associated with production of all elochemicals. 

Long­term training activities:

Kenyatta University: An introductory course in Bioinformatics is offers to MSc Biotechnology  students. This comprises of 35 hours of lectures and practicals.

University of Nairobi: A centre for Biotechnology and Bioinformatics (CEBIB), which will offer  postgraduate training (diplomas, MSc and PhD) in areas of biotechnology and bioinformatics has  recently been launched. Other universities in Kenya, including Egerton, Maseno and the Jomo Kenyatta University of  Agriculture and Technology offer introductory courses to undergraduates in biomedical sciences. In addition, under the BECA platform MSc and PhD fellowships are being made available for  Bioinformatics students. ILRI is forging links with Universities in South Africa and the United  Kingdom to provide access to courses and training material. 

Research Interest and Activities:

The following are the present areas of research interest: 1. EST clustering 2. Genome sequencing and annotation 3. Functional genomics and proteomics (including key tropical pathogens) 4. Structural bioinformatics 5. Development of Bioinformatics Data Management Systems 6. Gene Mining 7. High Throughput Genotyping 8. Microarray data management and analysis 9. Metagenomics 10. Immunoinformatics 11. Host­pathogen interaction 12. High performance computing and grid development 13. Parasite transfection technologies 14. Cell cycle regulation 15. Population genetics 16. Vector genomics 17. Drug, vaccine and diagnostic target discovery

More at Web site and links:

http://www.ilri.cgiar.org/

http://www.icipe.org/    

http://www.uonbi.ac.ke/cebib

Centre de Biotechnology de Sfax (CBS):
Bioinformatics activity started at CBS in 2001 with the setting­up of a research and service unit of  bioinformatics. This unit currently includes one senior researcher, one engineer and four Phd  students. Activities include sequence annotation (service) and three research programs: ab initio  prediction of short eukaryote genes, statistical modelling by Bayesian networks approach of signal  transduction pathways and statistical analysis of human sequence variation data (haplotype  reconstruction and linkage disequilibrium). Activities of the Bioinformatics unit could be found at  the website: http://www.cbs.rnrt.tn/ and the research activity report is available under request to  Bioinformatics@cbs.rnrt.tn. Although the computing facilities are good, there is still a need for  trained human resources to strengthen bioinformatics capacities at CBS, particularly in structural  bioinformatics.

Web site and links: http://www.cbs.rnrt.tn

Models and software for predicting who is at risk of carrying genetic variants that confer susceptibility to cancer. Application to breast, ovarian, colorectal, pancreatic and skin cancer.

Statistical methods for the analysis of high throughput genomic data: analysis of cancer genome sequencing projects; integration of genomic information across technologies; cross-study validation of genomics results.

Statistical methods for comparative effectiveness research: comprehensive models for lifetime history of chronic disease outcomes; Bayesian meta-analysis; Bayesian causal inference; decision analysis.

Bayesian modeling and computation: multilevel models; decision theoretic approaches to inference; sequential experimental design and their application to adaptive and multistage studies in clinical and epidemiological research.

http://bcb.dfci.harvard.edu/~gp/index.html

http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OlpYP3UAAAAJ&hl=en

More at https://leidosbiomed.csod.com/ats/careersite/jobdetails.aspx?site=4&c=leidosbiomed&id=2040

Understanding DNA-protein interactions, genome engineering
Computational Genomics and Bioinformatics
Secondary metabolite biosynthesis, metabolic engineering

Ongoing Projects:

"Betraying the parasite’s redox system: Studies on spermidine synthase of Leishmania donovani "

"Towards modifying nature's DNA-recognition system"

"Yield enhancement strategies for production of therapeutic compounds by cell and tissue cultures of Tinospora cordifolia (willd.) Miers ex Hook. F. & Thoms"

"Program support for Computational Genomics"

More at http://web.iitd.ac.in/~sundar/

The group is both computational and experimental.

We ask biological questions to large datasets made using novel genomics techniques, with the help of computers. One of the strengths in the group are the many connections to high-profile experimental laboratories which supply data to be analyzed.

Lab webpage @ http://people.binf.ku.dk/albin/Sandelin_group_at_the_Bioinformatic_Centre/The_Sandelin_group.html

Address of the bookmark: https://astrobiomike.github.io/

Salary: Rs. 10,000/- per month.

Age limit: 35 for men and 40 for women & SC/ST.

Qualification: First class in M. Sc (Agriculture)/MCA/M.Sc (IT)/ M. Sc (Computer Application)/M.Sc (Bioinformatics)/M.Sc (Geoinformatics).

Desirable: Two years experience in web design and web programming.

Date & time of interview: 08.10.2013, 10 am

Interested candidates may appear for an interview at this institute along with their application in plain paper containing the following particulars viz. (1) Name (2) Father/Husband/Guardian’s Name (3) date of birth & age as on 01.10.2013 (4) Permanent address (5) Address for communication (6) Email address and Telephone No. with code (7) Qualification (8) National fellowship like ICAR/CSIR/UGC etc. if any (9) Whether SC/ST/OBC (10) Details of experience (Attested copies of degree certificate, proof of age, mark sheets). Original certificates should be produced for verification.

No TA/DA will be admissible to the candidates attending the test. The selected candidate will have to join immediately.

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https://gribblebiolab.org/