The ongoing 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak is considered to be the largest and longest outbreak ever recorded of Ebola, killing at least 932 people and infecting more than 1,700 till date since March in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria and Liberia.

Hence, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on 8 August, 2014 declared the killer Ebola epidemic ravaging parts of West Africa an international health emergency.

Causes

EVD is caused by infection with a virus of the family Filoviridae, genus Ebolavirus. While there are five identified sub-species of Ebolavirus, four viruses cause disease in humans. They are Bundibugyo virus (BDBV), Ebola virus (EBOV), Sudan virus (SUDV), Taï Forest virus (TAFV).

The fifth virus, Reston virus (RESTV), is not considered to be disease-causing in humans.

According to WHO, EVD first appeared in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks, in Nzara, Sudan, and in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo. The latter was in a village situated near the Ebola River from which the disease takes its name.

How does it spread?

It is still unclear how Ebola spreads. However, it is believed that the first pateint becomes infected through contact with an infected animal's body fluids.

Human-to-human transmission can occur through direct contact with blood, organs or other body fluids of infected people or exposure to objects such as needles and syringes that have been contaminated with infected secretions.

Ebola can also be transmitted from men who have recovered from the disease through semen as it is infectious for up to 7 weeks.

Infected dead bodies can spread Ebola as they are still infectious. So mourners who have direct contact with the body of deceased person can also get the disease.

Who is most at risk?

Health-care workers who do not wear appropriate protective clothing and family members who are in close contact with infected people or deceased patients.

Signs and symptoms:

Symptoms may occur between 2 and 21 days after contracting the infection. Common signs of Ebola include:

Fever

Headache

Muscle, abdominal and joint pain

Sore throat

Weakness

Diarrhea

Vomit or cough up blood

Chest pain

Difficulty in breathing and swallowing

Rash

Hiccups

Bleeding inside and outside the body

Prevention

Currently there is no vaccine available for humans. But the infection can be controlled through the use of recommended protective measures such as:

Avoid contacting infected blood or secretions, including from those who are dead .

Using standard precautions for all patients in the healthcare setting.

Sterilizing equipment, and wearing protective clothing including masks, gloves, gowns and goggles.

Washing your hands with soaps or detergents.

Disinfecting your surroundings.

Isolate people who have Ebola symptoms.

Culling of infected animals, with close supervision of burial or incineration of carcasses.

Yet, not travelling to the areas or countries where the virus is found is the best way to avoid Ebola.

Research Scientists within the Bioinformatics Program are involved in research related to cutting edge genomics and analysis of omics data. The research will utilize concepts, theories and best practices obtained from bioinformatics discipline and applied to biological and other biomedical data for analysis. The role may also involve designing databases, algorithm and/or computation methods for analyzing genomics and other omics data. The scientist will be working closely with the Translational Medicine Program within a state-of-the art research setting.

Please check the details of the opening and apply here: http://careers.sidra.org/sidra/Vacan...acancyID=60181

• Store alignments and variant calls for one genome or a million.
• Process genomic data in batch by running principal component analysis or Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, in minutes or hours, by using parallel computing frameworks like MapReduce.
• Explore data by slicing alignments and variants by genomic range across one or multiple samples -- for your own algorithms or for visualization; or interactively process entire cohorts to find transition/transversion ratios, allelic frequency, genome-wide association and more using BigQuery.
• Share genomic data with your research group, collaborators, the broader community, or the public. You decide.

Google Genomics is implementing the API defined by the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health for visualization, analysis and more. Compliant software can access Google Genomics, local servers, or any other implementation.

Address of the bookmark: https://cloud.google.com/genomics/

We work in a highly interdisciplinary environment at the interface of Computer Science and Biology. Since its inception, our lab has eagerly engaged in collaborative research partnerships with biological and experimental collaborators, facilitated by our affiliation with the Broad Institute and the Computational and Systems Biology initiative (CSBi) at MIT, our participation in the Epigenome Roadmap, ENCODE, and modENCODE consortia, and by several other ongoing collaborations at MIT, Harvard, and the Harvard Medical School affiliated hospitals.

http://compbio.mit.edu/

http://www.thestreet.com/story/13151062/1/affymetrix-acquires-assets-of-eureka-genomics-corporation-to-provide-high-throughput-and-economical-crop-and-animal-genotyping.html

Main research topics:
- Comparative and Population Genomics of Plant Symbionts
- Parasite Genome Evolution
- Experimental Evolution of Microbial Symbionts and Parasites
- Phylogenomics of Early Branching Fungi

More at http://corradilab.weebly.com/

Current research interests include next-generation DNA sequencing, structural variation, genome rearrangements in cancer and evolution, and network analysis of somatic mutations in cancer. Earlier research included topics in comparative genomics, multiple sequence alignment, and motif finding.

More athttp://compbio.cs.brown.edu/

NO: 340/ESTB/ADMN/NIBMG/2015-16
Doctoral Research In Biomedical Genomics, Including Statistical Genomics conduct National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG)
Information For Students Interested To Pursue Doctoral Research In Biomedical Genomics, Including Statistical Genomics, At The National Institute Of Biomedical Genomics (Nibmg), Kalyan
Eligibility conditions for specific areas of research are :
Statistical Genomics : An applicant who wishes to pursue research in Statistical Genomics should hold a Master's degree (First class or equivalent) in a relevant discipline (Statistics, Mathematics, Bioinformatics, or a related discipline)
Biomedical Genomics : An applicant who wishes to pursue research in any area of biomedical genomics, other than statistical genomics, should hold a Master's degree (First class or equivalent) in a relevant discipline (Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Molecular Biology, Genetics, Zoology, Physiology, or a related discipline)
Fellowship : An applicant should have passed the NET conducted by CSIR/UGC/ICMR/DBT within the past ONE year AND should have been awarded a valid Junior Research Fellowship from CSIR, UGC, ICMR, DBT (Category-I only), DST (INSPIRE), NBHM. Preference will be given to candidates with demonstrable research training in the form of summer training or short-term courses in established research laboratories in preparation for a research career in biomedical sciences
How to apply
Online application will be accepted until 5 PM of December 31, 2015. A formal interview of the short-listed candidates will be held on January 12, 2016

More at http://www.nibmg.ac.in/?q=Career%20Opportunities

Address of the bookmark: https://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/5373/LintonFinalReport.pdf

Address of the bookmark: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v491/n7424/abs/nature11622.html