BOL: Related items

The Tree That Learned to Read Genomes

BioStar — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 00:51:02 -0500

Imagine trying to reconstruct a family tree when many family photographs are missing, some names are unclear, and different relatives remember the past differently. This is similar to the challenge scientists face when trying to understand how organisms are related. Their family records are genomes, and the family tree is a phylogenetic tree. With modern sequencing technologies, scientists now have access to thousands of genomes, but comparing them can be difficult, especially when genomes are incomplete or poorly annotated.

A recent study by Webster and Chapman introduces Buscogeny (https://github.com/Jwebster89/Buscogeny), an open-source bioinformatics pipeline designed to make this process easier. The tool uses BUSCO (Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs), which identifies conserved genes that are expected to occur as single copies in particular groups of organisms. These genes act like evolutionary landmarks, allowing researchers to compare genomes and investigate their relationships.

Buscogeny brings several steps of phylogenomic analysis into one workflow. It identifies BUSCO genes, extracts and aligns their sequences, removes unreliable regions, combines information from multiple genes, and uses the resulting data to construct a phylogenetic tree. It also provides quality-control information, helping researchers identify genomes that may be too incomplete for reliable analysis.

The authors demonstrate the usefulness of Buscogeny with bacterial and fungal genomes, including Alternaria. This is particularly valuable because fungal genomes can vary greatly in quality and annotation. Ultimately, Buscogeny helps transform massive amounts of genomic data into an understandable evolutionary story. Each DNA sequence becomes a clue, each conserved gene becomes a landmark, and together these clues reveal a picture of how life is connected.

More at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10123-025-00752-6?

Biggest Human Brain Project (HBP) launched!!!

Rahul Agarwal — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 19:50:55 -0500

"In neuroscience, the project will use neuroinformatics and brain simulation to collect and integrate experimental data, identifying and filling gaps in our knowledge, and prioritising future experiments.

In medicine, the HBP will use medical informatics to identify biological signatures of brain disease, allowing diagnosis at an early stage, before the disease has done irreversible damage, and enabling personalized treatment, adapted to the needs of individual patients. Better diagnosis, combined with disease and drug simulation, will accelerate the discovery of new treatments, drastically lowering the cost of drug discovery.

In computing, new techniques of interactive supercomputing, driven by the needs of brain simulation, will impact a vast range of industries. Devices and systems, modelled after the brain, will overcome fundamental limits on the energy-efficiency, reliability and programmability of current technologies, clearing the road for systems with brain-like intelligence."

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferhicks/2013/10/07/the-human-brain-project-begins/

(https://www.facebook.com/humanbrainproj/info)

Home Page:

https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/

Jobs:

https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/participate/jobs

HiBC: Human Intestinal Bacteria Collection

BioStar — Wed, 07 May 2025 05:49:19 -0500

The human gut is home to trillions of microorganisms, forming one of the most complex and dynamic microbial ecosystems known to science. The Human Intestinal Bacteria Collection (HiBC) is a pioneering initiative aimed at cataloging, preserving, and studying the diverse bacterial species that inhabit the human gastrointestinal tract. This curated collection serves as a critical resource for researchers working on microbiome-related health, disease, and therapeutics.

What is HiBC?

The Human Intestinal Bacteria Collection (HiBC) is a comprehensive, high-quality reference repository of bacterial isolates derived from human fecal samples. It focuses on anaerobic and facultative anaerobic bacteria that play pivotal roles in digestion, immune modulation, vitamin synthesis, and pathogen resistance. The collection includes both culturable strains and genomic data from unculturable taxa, bridging the gap between culture-dependent and -independent microbiome studies.

Why is HiBC Important?

Understanding Microbiome-Host Interactions
HiBC enables deeper insight into the functions of specific bacterial taxa in the gut. With well-characterized isolates, researchers can conduct mechanistic studies to explore how certain bacteria influence metabolism, inflammation, or mental health.
Precision Probiotics and Therapeutics
By providing access to native human gut microbes, HiBC supports the development of next-generation probiotics, live biotherapeutic products (LBPs), and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) alternatives.
Standardization and Reproducibility
With standardized cultivation and genomic protocols, HiBC ensures consistency across microbiome research studies, improving reproducibility and comparability of findings.
Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Surveillance
HiBC includes metadata on antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), helping track the spread of AMR in commensal gut bacteria and understanding its implications for human health.

Key Features of HiBC

Culturable Bacteria Repository: A living collection of anaerobic and facultative strains isolated from healthy and diseased individuals worldwide.
Metadata-rich Entries: Each isolate is annotated with host details (age, health status, diet), geographical origin, phenotypic traits, and antibiotic susceptibility profiles.
Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS): High-quality genome assemblies for most strains to support functional and comparative genomics.
Interactive Database Access: User-friendly search and filtering options for strain selection based on taxonomy, function, or clinical relevance.
Cross-linking with Other Databases: Integration with NCBI, GOLD, and Human Microbiome Project (HMP) data for broader context and validation.

Applications of HiBC

Microbiome-based diagnostics and biomarker discovery
Host-microbe interaction studies in gnotobiotic mouse models
Gut microbiome modulation through diet, drugs, or engineered bacteria
Longitudinal studies of gut flora across age, geography, and lifestyle
Environmental and evolutionary microbiology of human-associated bacteria

Accessing HiBC

Researchers and interested parties can explore the HiBC database through its official website: https://www.hibc.rwth-aachen.de/. The platform offers comprehensive information on bacterial isolates, including taxonomy, cultivation conditions, and genomic data, facilitating advanced research in human gut microbiome studies.

Final Thoughts

The HiBC is a cornerstone resource in the rapidly evolving field of microbiome research. As science moves toward personalized medicine and microbial therapeutics, having a reliable and diverse collection of human gut bacteria is not just useful — it's essential. Whether you're a microbiologist, clinician, computational biologist, or biotechnologist, HiBC offers tools to accelerate discovery and innovation in gut microbiome science.

TelomereHunter

Jit — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 04:23:59 -0600

TelomereHunter is a tool for estimating telomere content from human whole-genome sequencing data. It is designed to take BAM files from a tumor and a matching control sample as input. However, it is also possible to run TelomereHunter with one input file. TelomereHunter extracts and sorts telomeric reads from the input sample(s). For the estimation of telomere content, GC biases are taken into account. Finally, the results of TelomereHunter are visualized in several diagrams.

TelomereHunter is available for download at the following address: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/telomerehunter/

Address of the bookmark: http://www.dkfz.de/en/applied-bioinformatics/telomerehunter/telomerehunter.html

Bioinformatics JRF vacancy at ICGEB, New Delhi

Wed, 23 Jul 2014 16:07:15 -0500

Junior Research Fellow for a DBT sponsored project entitled "Computational and experimental characterization of stage specific arginine methylation in P. falciparum proteome".

Candidates should have a 1st class MSc/MTech/BTech degree in Bioinformatics. Please send complete CV, quoting Application for RMETH-JRF-2014, by email to Dr. Dinesh Gupta: dinesh@icgeb.res.in

Closing date for applications: 6 August 2014

More at http://www.icgeb.org/tl_files/Vacancies/JRF.pdf

SRF/ Project Assistant Bioinformatics at NIRRH

Sun, 19 Jun 2016 09:11:13 -0500

SRF/ Project Assistant Bioinformatics recruitment in National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health (NIRRH)

Title of Project : 1. “Analysis Of The Structures Of Known Antimicrobial Peptides Using Machine Learning Algoitms And Molecular Dynamics Simulations”

Senior Research Fellow /1 Post

Qualification: First class M.Sc. in Bioinformatics/ Biological Sciences from recognized university with 2 years research experience and CSIR/UGC/ICMR net qualified OR First class M.Sc. in Bioinformatics/ Biological Sciences from recognized university with 2 years research experience Research experience in bioinformatics and wetlab methods.

Age: Not exceeding 35 Years

Pay Scale : Rs.18,000/- + 30% HRA Rs.14,000/- + 30% HRA

Project Assistant (Level-II) /1 Post

Qualification: First class M.Sc. in Bioinformatics/ Biological Sciences/Computer Sciences Training experience in bioinformatics and wetlab methods .

Age: Not exceeding 28 Years

Pay Scale : Rs.8,000
How to apply
Candidates must bring along with them all the relevant documents in original and one set of attested photocopies of the same and one passport size recent colour photograph.

Walk-in-Interview on 28.06.2016 between 09:00 hrs. to 12:00 hrs.

More at http://www.nirrh.res.in/links/job_oppotunities.htm

BioContainers

Jit — Thu, 20 Feb 2020 05:29:46 -0600

BioContainers is a community-driven project that provides the infrastructure and basic guidelines to create, manage and distribute bioinformatics packages (e.g conda) and containers (e.g docker, singularity). BioContainers is based on the popular frameworks Conda, Docker and Singularity.

Address of the bookmark: https://biocontainers.pro/#/

mrFAST: Micro Read Fast Alignment Search Tool

Neel — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 03:50:06 -0500

mrFAST is a read mapper that is designed to map short reads to reference genome with a special emphasis on the discovery of structural variation and segmental duplications. mrFAST maps short reads with respect to user defined error threshold, including indels up to 4+4 bp. This manual, describes how to choose the parameters and tune mrFAST with respect to the library settings. mrFAST is designed to find 'all' mappings for a given set of reads, however it can return one "best" map location if the relevant parameter is invoked.

More at http://mrfast.sourceforge.net/manual.html

Address of the bookmark: http://mrfast.sourceforge.net/manual.html

MashMap: a fast and approximate software for mapping long reads (PacBio/ONT) or assembly to reference genome(s)

Jit — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 17:23:31 -0600

MashMap is a fast and approximate software for mapping long reads (PacBio/ONT) or assembly to reference genome(s). It maps a query sequence against a reference region if and only if its estimated alignment identity is above a specified threshold. It does not compute the alignments explicitly, but rather estimates a k-mer based Jaccard similarity using a combination of Winnowing and MinHash. This is then converted to an estimate of sequence identity using the Mash distance. An appropriate k-mer sampling rate is automatically determined given minimum local alignment length and identity thresholds. The efficiency of the algorithm improves as both of these thresholds are increased.

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/marbl/MashMap

Curated set of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) reference sequences (targeted loci) with verifiable organism

Rahul Nayak — Sun, 23 Feb 2020 02:17:30 -0600

MCBI have a curated set of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) reference sequences (targeted loci) with verifiable organism sources and current names. This set is critical for correctly identifying and classifying prokaryotic (bacteria and archaea) and fungal samples. To provide easy access to these sequences, we recently added a separate rRNA/ITS databases section on the nucleotide BLAST page for these targeted sequences that makes it convenient to quickly identify source organisms. The new databases are:

*16S ribosomal RNA (Bacteria and Archaea)

*18S ribosomal RNA sequences (SSU) from Fungi type and reference material

*28S ribosomal RNA sequences (LSU) from Fungi type and reference material

*Internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) from Fungi type and reference material

You can also download these from the BLAST db FTP area. See the NCBI Insights post for more detail.

Useful links

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BLAST form with rRNA/ITS databases

BLAST db download

Targeted loci

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact blast-help@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov