In case you missed the announcement in the ISCB April newsletter, this week is your final chance to take part in the 13th Annual ISCB Wikipedia Competition!
The purpose of this annual writing competition is to enhance the public's understanding of bioinformatics and computational biology. By encouraging students and postdocs to contribute high-quality content, ISCB hopes to increase the accessibility of bioinformatics information on Wikipedia. Participants can either improve existing articles or create new ones linked to ISCB's core competencies.
This year, ISCB is offering generous prizes across two tracks:
Global Track Prizes:
1st Prize: $500 + 1-year ISCB membership
2nd Prize: $250 + 1-year ISCB membership
3rd Prize: $150 + 1-year ISCB membership
Non-English Track Prizes:
Same prize amounts for non-English Wikipedia contributions
Don't miss this opportunity to get recognized and rewarded for enriching the world's knowledge!
Call for Abstracts
With studies indicating that 9–11% of individuals identify as LGBTQI+, it's vital to address the challenges they face, especially in STEM fields. Discrimination and lack of representation can hinder professional growth and force individuals to conceal their identities. Our symposium aims to create a supportive platform, showcasing LGBTQI+ role models and fostering inclusion.
Abstracts are welcome from all who are members of the LGBTQI+ community who would like their research featured in the Symposium.
Get ready to immerse yourself in the forefront of computational biology and bioinformatics at the European Conference on Computational Biology (ECCB) 2024! This year, ECCB is making its mark in the Nordic countries, landing in Turku, Finland, from September 16–20, 2024, under the captivating theme "Data and algorithms for health and science." ECCB will feature groundbreaking research presentations, lively discussions, poster sessions, workshops, tutorials, and networking opportunities—all set against the historical backdrop of Turku, the oldest city in Finland.
The call for highlight talks and posters is open until Tuesday, April 23. Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to showcase your research and insights to a diverse audience of peers! Submit your abstract today!
The deadline for abstract submission for ISMB 2024 is Friday, April 19!
If you’ve been waiting to submit your abstract to be part of this dynamic conference, now is the time! Don't miss your chance to join renowned researchers in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from July 12–16 for an amazing five days of science, networking, and collaborating!
Abstract submission closes at 11:59 p.m. (any time zone) Friday.
ISCBacademy: Participate in webinars covering the latest advancements and trends in computational biology from researchers all over the world.
Training Center: Elevate your expertise, sharpen your skills, and expand your knowledge with tutorials in the training center.
🤝 Network and Collaboration Hub: Connect with like-minded professionals and exchange ideas to drive innovation forward.
Community Forum: Engage in discussions, share insights, and seek advice from computational biologists worldwide.
ISCB Career Center: Explore exciting career opportunities and take the next step toward fulfilling your professional aspirations. Whether you're seeking new challenges or looking to recruit top talent, this is where you’ll want to be.
Don't miss out on the countless opportunities awaiting you! Log in to ISCB Nucleus to get started. Stay curious, stay connected, and stay ahead of the curve with ISCB Nucleus!
Upcoming ISCBacademy Webinar April 25, 12 PM EDT
Hosted by the Evolution & Comparative Genomics COSi
Reconstructing the horizontal movement of genes using Bayesian phylogenetic network inference
How Do I Join? The ISCBacademy webinar series is part of ISCB Nucleus. If you're an ISCB member, you've already been added to the Nucleus platform. All you need to do is request a magic link to login! If you're not an ISCB member, you can join the Nucleus platform by following these instructions.
Reconstructing the horizontal movement of genes using Bayesian phylogenetic network inference
by Nicola F. Müller
The horizontal movement of genes is a crucial driver in the evolution of viral and bacterial pathogens. It enables pathogens to, for example, make large jumps in fitness space, adapt to new host species, or gain novel genes, such as acquiring plasmids carrying determinants for antibiotic resistance. Phylogenetic methods are often used to reconstruct evolutionary events but mostly assume that a phylogenetic tree can describe the shared evolutionary history of pathogens. This assumption—that phylogenetic trees accurately represent that history—is challenged when genes move horizontally, necessitating the use of phylogenetic networks instead.
In this talk, I will first present recent work on inferring phylogenetic networks using a Markov chain Monte Carlo approach. This approach models the horizontal movement of genes using coalescent models, allowing us to quantify reassortment, recombination, or plasmid transfer rates. I will then showcase multiple applications of phylogenetic network inference. First, I will demonstrate how we can use the coalescent with reassortment to infer reassortment rates across different influenza viruses. Next, I will discuss how phylogenetic network inference allows us to infer the complex evolutionary history of human coronaviruses, including MERS and SARS-like viruses such as SARS-CoV-1 and 2. Lastly, I will present work on reconstructing the gain and loss of small plasmids and the recent dissemination of a multidrug-resistance plasmid between Shigella sonnei and Shigella flexneri lineages. This includes multiple independent events and steady growth in prevalence since 2010 and quantifies the rates at which different plasmids move between bacterial lineages.
RECOMB 2024 is the 28th edition of a series of algorithmic computational biology conferences bridging the areas of computational, mathematical, statistical and biological sciences. The conference features keynote talks by preeminent scientists in life sciences, presentations of ground breaking research in computational biology, selected over the course of a highly-rigorous peer-review process, and poster sessions on the latest research progress.
