BOL: Related items

RA Bioinformatics at Institution: Centre for Human Genetics, Bangalore

Wed, 17 Jun 2015 19:14:37 -0500

Institution: Centre for Human Genetics,
Bangalore
Discipline: Molecular Genetics of Human Disease Biology

Minimum qualification: MSc in any branch of life sciences

Applications are invited for the position of a Research Assistant in the Centre for Human Genetics, Bangalore.

The project involves identification of mutations in MPS (mucopolysaccharidosis) patients, and study of their predicted effects to understand how the mutations lead to disease.

Techniques used will be genomic DNA isolation, PCR, DNA sequencing and sequence analysis. Computational tools would also be used to analyse and interpret data.

Candidates may be assigned work in the ongoing project or in new ones.

The candidate who is selected and joins would acquire hands-on experience in research and the capability to conduct insightful research.

Candidates applying for the position should have an MSc in any branch of life sciences. Those with research experience in cell and molecular biology, and high NET/ GATE score would be preferred.

The successful applicant is expected to stay for at least one and a half years.

Please apply with CV to Sudha Srinivasan (sudha@ibab.ac.in), stating where you saw this ad.

Import R Data

Abhimanyu Singh — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 08:30:46 -0500

It is often necessary to import sample textbook data into R before you start working on your homework.

Excel File

Quite frequently, the sample data is in Excel format, and needs to be imported into R prior to use. For this, we can use the function read.xls from the gdata package. It reads from an Excel spreadsheet and returns a data frame. The following shows how to load an Excel spreadsheet named "mydata.xls". This method requires Perl runtime to be present in the system.

> library(gdata)                   # load gdata package
> help(read.xls)                   # documentation
> mydata = read.xls("mydata.xls")  # read from first sheet

Alternatively, we can use the function loadWorkbook from the XLConnect package to read the entire workbook, and then load the worksheets with readWorksheet. The XLConnect package requires Java to be pre-installed.

> library(XLConnect) # load XLConnect package
> wk = loadWorkbook("mydata.xls")
> df = readWorksheet(wk, sheet="Sheet1")

Minitab File

If the data file is in Minitab Portable Worksheet format, it can be opened with the function read.mtp from the foreign package. It returns a list of components in the Minitab worksheet.

> library(foreign)                 # load the foreign package
> help(read.mtp)                   # documentation
> mydata = read.mtp("mydata.mtp")  # read from .mtp file

SPSS File

For the data files in SPSS format, it can be opened with the function read.spss also from the foreign package. There is a "to.data.frame" option for choosing whether a data frame is to be returned. By default, it returns a list of components instead.

> library(foreign) # load the foreign package
> help(read.spss) # documentation
> mydata = read.spss("myfile", to.data.frame=TRUE)

Table File

A data table can resides in a text file. The cells inside the table are separated by blank characters. Here is an example of a table with 4 rows and 3 columns.

100   a1   b1
200   a2   b2
300   a3   b3
400   a4   b4

Now copy and paste the table above in a file named "mydata.txt" with a text editor. Then load the data into the workspace with the function read.table.

> mydata = read.table("mydata.txt")  # read text file
> mydata                             # print data frame
   V1 V2 V3
1 100 a1 b1
2 200 a2 b2
3 300 a3 b3
4 400 a4 b4

For further detail of the function read.table, please consult the R documentation.

> help(read.table)

CSV File

The sample data can also be in comma separated values (CSV) format. Each cell inside such data file is separated by a special character, which usually is a comma, although other characters can be used as well.

The first row of the data file should contain the column names instead of the actual data. Here is a sample of the expected format.

Col1,Col2,Col3
100,a1,b1
200,a2,b2
300,a3,b3

After we copy and paste the data above in a file named "mydata.csv" with a text editor, we can read the data with the function read.csv.

> mydata = read.csv("mydata.csv")  # read csv file
> mydata
  Col1 Col2 Col3
1  100   a1   b1
2  200   a2   b2
3  300   a3   b3

In various European locales, as the comma character serves as the decimal point, the function read.csv2 should be used instead. For further detail of the read.csv and read.csv2 functions, please consult the R documentation.

> help(read.csv)

Working Directory

Finally, the code samples above assume the data files are located in the R working directory, which can be found with the function getwd.

> getwd() # get current working directory

You can select a different working directory with the function setwd(), and thus avoid entering the full path of the data files.

> setwd("") # set working directory

Note that the forward slash should be used as the path separator even on Windows platform.

> setwd("C:/MyDoc")

MinION_GC: An R script to do some QC on MinION data

Radha Agarkar — Sun, 03 Dec 2017 15:19:18 -0600

Other tools focus on getting data out of the fastq or fast5 files, which is slow and computationally intensive. The benefit of this approach is that it works on a single, small, .txt summary file. So it's a lot quicker than most other things out there: it takes about a minute to analyse a 4GB flowcell on my laptop.

https://github.com/roblanf/minion_qc

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/roblanf/minion_qc

R 3.5.0 has been Released!

Jit — Thu, 26 Apr 2018 11:31:58 -0500

The latest version of R is a major release! It comes with a ton of new features, including performance and speed improvements
All R packages will now be byte-compiled, hence boosting packages installed from GitHub
You may need to re-install all previously installed R packages; old scripts however will continue to work normally

More at https://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/r-release/NEWS.html

Bioinformatics PhD / PostDoc / Job Rejection

Jit — Thu, 02 Jul 2015 08:52:46 -0500

While your PhD or PostDoc application, it is more common that you got rejected by many professors. Don't disappoint reply it calmly.

In grad school, I shared a house with three Bioinformatics PhD students. One, when he applied to a particular professor, received a letter that said, essentially, "If you are applying because you want to enrich yourself, great. If you are applying because you want a job, you should know that you won't get one." I am trying to tell you this is because if you, with a good background in Bioinformatics, are passing up opportunities, you must be a strong candidate in many areas. Enrich yourself.

So, my suggestion is take a deep breath, forgot about all. Don’t take it personally. It's been usual processes while hunting for a good lab and professor. Take is positive, I am not sure why they reject, but don't worry perhaps the lab don't deserve you. Always remember there are billions of reasons not to hire someone for projects, especially in a research sector.

My suggestion, please do not whine about how you were a great research candidate for the post, and you just can't understand why they were so stupid as to have rejected you! This feeling will not win you any points in research, community. Especially, when in todays socially connected era everyone is linked. Remember, a nice E-mail saying, "I really wished to working with you on this project and I hope we cross paths again," is all you need to send to the professor. Send a thank you note to the professor. Thank them for the time they spend to judge you. In the future, If you and the professor (of your dream) are attending a bioinformatics conference, invite him/her to lunch (please remember to pay the bill). In today evolving scientific ere, always remember to build your solid network in order to get a job of interest. Join all possible networking sites like LinkedIn, ResearchGate, Acamedia, FB for the same reason. You as a researcher always build a bridge with student/researcher/colleague/professor who have the research potential to lead in research and hire you. Just because you didn't get this project, doesn't mean there isn't another that will open up in couple of month.

Mostly, jobs that are hard to get are hard to get. Only you can decide if the continued sacrifices are worth the expected payout. If it is, keep on plowing. Build relationships. Attend conferences.

Image ref @ JaSonYa

Making 2D Hilbert Curve

Jit — Mon, 17 Sep 2018 05:43:35 -0500

Hilbert curve is a type of space-filling curves that folds one dimensional axis into a two dimensional space, but still keeps the locality. It has advantages to visualize data with long axis in following two aspects:

greatly improve resolution of the visualization fron n to √nn;
easy to visualize clusters because generally data points in the axis will also be close in the 2D space.

This package aims to provide an easy and flexible way to visualize data through Hilbert curve. The implementation and example figures are based on following sources:

Address of the bookmark: https://bioconductor.org/packages/devel/bioc/vignettes/HilbertCurve/inst/doc/HilbertCurve.html

BISR Jaipur

Tue, 07 Jul 2015 23:12:26 -0500

The Bioinformatics Centre at BISR has created an infrastructure for providing facilities to the users working in the field of Biological Sciences. The users of Rajasthan, Jaipur in particular, are using facilities available at the Bioinformatics Centre extensively. The centre has leased line Internet connection as well latest Bioinformatics software for sequence and structure analysis. The centre provides the following services:

Bioinformatics supports to researchers
Customized training in Bioinformatics for researchers and faculty members
Support in Installing, implementing and maintaining software on computer.
Create awareness for taking preventive measure against data security
Organize workshops on thrust ares of Bioinformatics
Research Training to students of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics

More at http://bioinfo.bisr.res.in/index.php

regioneR: an R package for the management and comparison of genomic regions

Jit — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 08:43:51 -0600

Regioner is an R package for the management and comparison of genomic regions. It offers a set of function for basic manipulation of region sets extending the functionality of GenomicRanges and a powerful and customizable permutation test framework. With it, it's possible to study the association of a set of regions with other sets of regions, functions defined over the genome or essentially any user defined function.

http://gattaca.imppc.org/regioner/

Address of the bookmark: http://gattaca.imppc.org/regioner/

Research Associate, Project Fellow (Biological Sciences) at IGIB

Sun, 12 Jul 2015 07:57:27 -0500

Research Associate, Project Fellow (Biological Sciences)
Institute of Genomics & Integrative Biology (IGIB) - New Delhi, Delhi
Pay Scale: Rs. 22,000/- + 30 % HRA per month
Educational Requirements: PhD in any branch of Biological Sciences with specialization in Bioinformatics with at least one research paper in Science Citation Indexed (SCI) journal
Desired Skills: Knowledge of molecular dynamics simulations
Details will be available at: http://www.igib.res.in/sites/default/files/24July2015.pdf

Project Fellow (Biological Sciences) Pay Scale: Rs. 16,000/- + 30 % HRA per month
Educational Requirements: M.Sc./B.Tech in life sciences/Biological sciences with at least 55 % marks
Experience Requirements: Research experience.
Details will be available at: http://www.igib.res.in/sites/default/files/24July2015.pdf

No of Post: 01
How To Apply: 1. Please fill up the proforma by clicking on the following link HR Online Form. 2. Candidate cannot apply for more than two posts. Last date of receiving application is 12-07-2015. No application would be entertained with “result awaited” status or after due date. List of shortlisted candidates will be put up on CSIR-IGIB website. No TA/DA will be paid to the candidates to attend the interview. The engagement shall be as per guidelines of CSIR/Funding agency. Candidates will have an option to give reply in Hindi. Note: The shortlisted candidates, have to report at 09:00 AM at Mall Road Campus, Delhi – 110007 on the day of interview along with any Photo ID card, (without photo ID card interview will not be conducted). 3 copies of updated signed C. V. (clearly mentioning Date of Birth and Highest Qualification with percentage), Dissertation (if any), PhD thesis (if any) and original certificates/Self attested photocopies for verification.
Detail of Interview: 24 July, 2015 at 10:30 AM
Age Limit: 28 Years

chromoMap-An R package for Interactive Visualization and Annotation of Chromosomes

Neel — Fri, 12 Apr 2019 05:30:41 -0500

Provides interactive, configurable and elegant graphics visualization of the chromosomes or chromosome regions of any living organism allowing users to map chromosome elements (like genes, SNPs etc.) on the chromosome plot. It introduces a special plot viz. the "chromosome heatmap" that, in addition to mapping elements, can visualize the data associated with chromosome elements (like gene expression) in the form of heat colors which can be highly advantageous in the scientific interpretations and research work. The package provide multiple features like visualizing multiple sets, chromosome heat-maps, group annotations, adding hyperlinks, and labelling. The plots can be saved as HTML documents that can be customized and shared easily. In addition, you can include them in R Markdown or in R 'Shiny' applications.

Address of the bookmark: https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/chromoMap/vignettes/chromoMap.html