• Bioinformatics - RSS feed of current and advance online publications
• Genome Research - current & advance
• Genome Biology - editors picks, latest, most viewed, most forwarded. (Hit the RSS icon under each tab).
• PLoS Genetics - new articles
• PLoS Computational Biology - new articles
• Nature Genetics - current TOC and AOP
• Nature Reviews Genetics - current TOC and AOP

• Bioinformatics
• BMC Bioinformatics
• Briefings in Bioinformatics
• Genome Biology
• Genome Research: current and AOP
• Microbiome
• Nature Genetics, current & AOP
• Nature Reviews Genetics, current & AOP
• Nucleic Acids Research
• PLOS Computational Biology
• PLOS Genetics

Blogs. Some of these blogs are very relevant to bioinfo jobs. Others are more personal interest.

• The OpenHelix Blog
• Ensembl blog
• Galaxy News
• Blue Collar Bioinformatics
• Homologus
• Golden Helix - our 2 SNPs
• Genomics Law Report
• R-bloggers (aggregates feeds from >350 blogs about R)
• Genomes Unzipped
• Jason Moore's Epistasis Blog
• 23andMe - the Spitoon

• Variance Explained: David Robinson’s blog (Data Scientist at Stack Overflow, works in R and Python).
• Global Biodefense: News on pathogens, outbreaks, and preparedness, with periodic posts on genomics and bioinformatics-related developments and funding opportunities.
• In between lines of code: Lex Nederbragt’s blog on biology, sequencing, bioinformatics, …
• Simply Statistics: A statistics blog by Rafa Irizarry, Roger Peng, and Jeff Leek.
• Bits of DNA: Reviews and commentary on computational biology by Lior Pachter (fair warning: dialogue here can get a bit heated!).
• Blue Collar Bioinformatics: articles related tool validation and the open source bioinformatics community.
• Microbiome Digest – Bik’s Picks: A daily digest of scientific microbiome papers, by Elisabeth Bik, Science Editor at uBiome.
• Living in an Ivory Basement: Titus Brown’s blog on metagenomics, open science, testing, reproducibility, and programming.
• Enseqlopedia: James Hadfield’s blog on all things NGS.
• Epistasis Blog: Jason Moore’s computational biology blog.
• RStudio Blog: announcements about new RStudio functionality, updates about the tidyverse, and more.
• nextgenseek.com: Next-Gen Sequencing Blog covering new developments in NGS data & analysis.
• RNA-Seq Blog: Transcriptome Research & Industry News.
• The Allium: We all need a little humor in our lives. Like The Onion, but for science.

Forums.

• Seqanswers - bioinformatics forum
• Seqanswers - RNA-Seq forum
• BioStar
• BOL

Project Title : “Integrating genome scale metabolic analysis of model plant pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum with RNAseq and fluxomics”

Essential qualification : M.Tech. in CSE/IT (With specialization in Computational Biology/Bioinformatics) or M.Sc. in Bioinformatics/Biosciences/Molecular Biology Biotechnology preferably with NET/GATE/BET. Candidates should have minimum 55 % mark both in 10th and 10+2 Science examinations and mathematics at 10+2 Science. Desirable: Preference will be given to the candidates having experience in computational analysis of genome sequences or similar projects.

No. of Post : 01

Remuneration : Rs. 25,000/- for the 1st two years and Rs. 28,000/- for the 3rd year for SRF and applicable to the candidate having post graduate degree in Basic Science with NET/GATE/BET qualification or post graduate degree in professional course. Rs. 12,000/- for the 1st two years and Rs. 14,000/- for the 3 rd year for SRF,

Age : 28 years

Duration : Three (03) years or till completion of the project or until further order, whichever is earlier.

Hiring Process : Walk - In
Job Role: Research/JRF/SRF

Walk-in-interview will be held on 17th February, 2017, 11.15 a.m. at the office of the Head, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Tezpur University.

Interested candidates may appear before the interview board with original documents from 10th standard onwards and photocopies of mark sheets, certificates, testimonials, caste certificate (if applicable), experience certificate certificates of NET/GATE/BET or similar examination qualifications, any other testimonials and a copy of recent curriculum vitae (CV) on the day of interview.

More at http://www.tezu.ernet.in/ProjectWalkin/Advt-DoRD-CSE-SSS-20-295-112-A.pdf

If you have any questions or comments, post them on one of the trackers on BRIG’s SourceForge page:http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=328245.

Features:

• Images show similarity between a central reference sequence and other sequences as concentric rings.
• BRIG will perform all BLAST comparisons and file parsing automatically via a simple GUI.
• Contig boundaries and read coverage can be displayed for draft genomes; customized graphs and annotations can be displayed.
• Using a user-defined set of genes as input, BRIG can display gene presence, absence, truncation or sequence variation in a set of complete genomes, draft genomes or even raw, unassembled sequence data.
• BRIG also accepts SAM-formatted read-mapping files enabling genomic regions present in unassembled sequence data from multiple samples to be compared simultaneously

Address of the bookmark: http://brig.sourceforge.net/

Scientist and entrepreneur Morten Sommer will talk about how bacteria and microbes form an integral part of the human body and play a significant role in controlling human health and well About TEDx, x = independently organized event: In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

Address of the bookmark: http://www.australianprostatecentre.org/research/software/jcircos

bedtools is developed in the Quinlan laboratory at the University of Utah and benefits from fantastic contributions made by scientists worldwide.

Address of the bookmark: http://bedtools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html

Address of the bookmark: https://www.kegg.jp/blastkoala/

Address of the bookmark: http://kakitone.github.io/finishingTool/

Before you go down that path, consider this critical biological question:
Are you sequencing human cells—or bacterial contamination?

The Silent Saboteur: Mycoplasma in Cell Cultures

Mycoplasma contamination remains one of the most widespread and underdiagnosed issues in tissue culture work. Studies suggest that 15–35% of cell lines in use may be contaminated, often without visible signs. Unlike other microbial infections, Mycoplasma does not produce cloudiness, odor, or a change in pH. Many researchers won’t detect it unless they specifically test for it.

The consequences, however, are profound. Mycoplasma can significantly alter:

• Host gene expression patterns

• Cell proliferation rates

• Epigenetic profiles and chromatin accessibility

• Cytokine signaling and immune responses

In short, it can skew your results, compromise your biological conclusions, and invalidate weeks or months of research.

A Simple Diagnostic Step: Map Against Mycoplasma Genomes

If you encounter poor alignment rates to the human genome, consider mapping your reads to a Mycoplasma reference genome—or better yet, use a combined human + Mycoplasma reference. There have been cases where over half of all reads, initially assumed to be from human cells, were in fact bacterial in origin. This check is fast, easy, and could save your project.

How Contamination Happens—and Persists

Mycoplasma is small (0.1–0.3 μm), lacks a cell wall, and can pass through standard filters undetected. Common sources include:

• Contaminated reagents (e.g., FBS)

• Infected cell lines obtained from other labs

• Poor aseptic technique or shared equipment

Once present, it spreads quickly between cultures and can persist for months, silently affecting results.

Why Treatment Is Difficult

While antibiotics such as Plasmocin or BM-Cyclin are sometimes used, they often offer only partial resolution and may themselves alter cell behavior. In many cases, the best course of action is to discard the contaminated culture and start with a fresh, verified stock.

Practical Recommendations for Researchers

• Routinely test for Mycoplasma using PCR, qPCR, or fluorescence-based assays

• Incorporate contamination screens into your sequencing QC pipeline

• Use combined reference genomes when mapping ambiguous reads

• Practice strict aseptic technique and monitor all incoming cell lines

• Don’t ignore unexplained data anomalies—they might point to contamination

Closing Thought: Contamination Is a Biological Variable

It’s easy to view poor mapping as a technical issue, but sometimes the problem lies deeper—in the biology itself. Mycoplasma contamination doesn’t just interfere with sequencing; it interferes with science. As a research community, we must treat contamination not as an afterthought, but as a key variable to control.

So next time your reads won’t align, don’t just tune the aligner. Ask if your cells are telling the truth—or if they're hiding something.