Bioinformatics
Definition |
Bioinformatics at UAMS | Bioinformatics
at UALR
MCBIOS |
UAMS Access Grid Conference Center |
UALR Access Grid Conference Center
Bioinformatics Cluster Web Site |
Bioinformatics Research Group
UALR Biosciences & Bioinformatics Seminar Series
NEWS
MCBIOS Conference
The 5th annual MCBIOS conference will be held in Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma,
February 23-24, 2008 at Cox Convention Center, located in the Bricktown
area, the historic center of Oklahoma City.
The Arkansas INBRE
Bioinformatics Core
The goals of the Bioinformatics Core are
to:
Support a graduate program
and various Outreach programs in bioinformatics to address the regional shortage
of trained bioinformaticists and computational biologists
The Arkansas INBRE is committed to providing
support for the Joint Graduate Program in Bioinformatics. This initiative,
begun during the BRIN phase, is designed to address the shortage of trained
bioinformaticists/computational biologists in our region. Having a graduate
program in bioinformatics based at UALR and partnering with UAMS is critical
to attracting research faculty to these institutions. The program’s website
is:
http://bioinformatics.ualr.edu/grad
The second area of concentration is Outreach
via a summer fellowship program for students and workshops for information
science students sand faculty. Workshops ranging from 1 to 6 days in length
and will cover a wide range of topics important to the AR INBRE Project
Leaders and their students. These workshop experiences encourage and
facilitate the subsequent development of bioinformatics courses at UGIs and/or
the incorporation of bioinformatics aspects into existing courses.
The student fellowship program is designed to
place computer science students in active biological, medical, and health
science laboratories at one of the three lead institutions as a summer
research experience. Undergraduate students will be placed in research
laboratories at the lead institutions to be involved in biomedical research
projects interfacing with computational science. The primary intent is to
give these students a taste of what happens in biomedical research
laboratories and an opportunity to learn a new “language.” This experience is
expected to encourage these students to consider future training as
bioinformaticists and help them communicate more effectively with biomedical
researchers.
Provide
hardware and software support for INBRE initiatives
As INBRE investigators, both at lead
institutions and UGIs, generate large amounts of protein-relevant and gene
expression data, an important function of the Bioinformatics Core is now
focused on storing, clustering, and classifying this information, and in
designing tools to link heterogeneous search and analysis software into a
smooth “software pipeline” accessible to all investigators. Our goal is to
expand the existing facilities at UALR/UAMS to support distributed data
management and analysis. The Bioinformatics Core is working with UALR and
UAMS Computing Services and networking staff to tailor and enhance current
high-speed interconnectivity and support services to share distributed
databases and to organize a regional grid computing effort. This will allow
seamless, authorized access to distributed data and services initially between
UALR and UAMS, then to UAF, and eventually to the seven UGIs. The
Bioinformatics Core will connect the partner UGIs to a regional grid-computing
platform with established management services and security protocols, and
train users to access and use these resources. As the grid grows, researchers
will have available an expanding set of computational resources, with access
to computing facilities much larger than those available at their home
institution.
In addition to providing access to centralized
databases for data management and various application tools for retrieving and
analyzing data, the Bioinformatics Core supports web-based access to a variety
of bioinformatics software and services. We have establish a toolbox of
open-source informatics applications and services based on a common set of
operating principles and standards that support the UGIs’ diverse cancer and
neuroscience research activities. As a major node in the planned regional
computing grid, this facility allows easy access to software packages and
computing resources not typically available to researchers within individual
labs, especially at the Arkansas UGIs. The web-services/grid-computing
platform will also foster collaboration between researchers through the use of
shared facilities and common access points. It is our intent to provide a
well-developed and user-friendly web site to help UGI users identify software
packages for their specific needs, and to access, download, and/or install
them. Cluster web site is:
http://BIC.uams.edu
Conduct outreach to the UGIs to facilitate
educational and research activities
A major goal of the Arkansas INBRE Bioinformatics Core is to
build and sustain the intellectual infrastructure for bioinformatics within
the state. This depends in part on an active group of investigators
collaborating on bioinformatics research activities, as well as bioinformatics
mentoring to address the bioinformatics needs of UGI researchers. During the
BRIN phase, a Bioinformatics focus group was established with the main mission
of promoting greater networking among Arkansas INBRE investigators with
similar research interests.
Many of the investigators
that comprise the Arkansas Bioinformatics Network meet on a regular basis as
part of ongoing working group meetings at UAMS or UALR. These meetings center
on proteomics, genomics, and bioinformatics. The Microarray Working Group,
organized by Dr. Charlotte Peterson (Director of the UAMS Microarray
Facility), meets monthly. Topics are a mix of data presentations and
discussions of microarray analysis approaches and software requirements.
Likewise, the Proteomics/Bioinformatics Users Group, organized by Dr. Kevin
Raney (Director of the UAMS Proteomics Core Facility), meets monthly, and
offers a mixture of data presentations and discussions of proteomics and
bioinformatics approaches. Outside speakers for these working groups are
supported by the Breast Cancer Research Program (headed by Dr. Thomas
Kieber-Emmons, a co-Director of the Bioinformatics Core). All UGI faculty are
invited to participate in these working groups. Furthermore, members of the
Outreach Team will attend these group meetings and keep the UGI PLs up to date
on technical and conceptual developments relevant to the PLs’ research
projects.
Outreach Team
The
Bioinformatics Outreach Team is headed by Dr. Kieber-Emmons and consisting of
Drs. Jennings, Xu, and Milanova.
Dr. Thomas Kieber-Emmons
UAMS College of Medicine
4301 W. Markham Street, #824
Little Rock, AR 42205
Phone: (501) 526-5930
Steven F. Jennings
UALR Donaghey College of
Information Science and Systems Engineering
Applied Science Department
ETAS 575
2801 S. University Ave.
Little Rock, AR 72204
Phone: (501) 569-8216
Fax: (501) 569-8020
Mariofanna Milanova
UALR Donaghey College of
Information Science and Systems Engineering
Computer Science Department
Dickinson Hall, Room 515
2801 S. University Ave. Little
Rock, AR 72204-1099
Phone: (501) 569-8150
Fax: (501) 569-8144
Dr. Xiaowei Xu
UALR Donaghey College of
Information Science and Systems Engineering
Information Science Department
2801 S. University Ave.
Little Rock, AR 72204-1099
Phone: (501) 683-7266
Fax: (501) 683-7049
Bioinformatics at UAMS |
Bioinformatics at UALR |
Bioinformatics
at UAF
MidSouth Computational Biology & Bioinformatics Society
UAMS Access Grid Conference Center |
UALR Access Grid Conference Center - Calendar
Bioinformatics Research Group | Bioinformatics Definition
Bioinformatics Cluster Web Site