What's in a test? Or better yet what's in 55 SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 molecular diagnostic tests? Plenty. 55 FDA EUAs indicate that nine different test formats are used, ranging from RT-PCR, to digital PCR, to isothermal amplification, to LAMP with a CRISPR enzyme.
The numbers of SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 diagnostic tests are exploding. These tests detect either viral RNA or antibodies to virus particles. But, which is best? That, of course, depends on what question is being asked. Read more
This year, I'm a little late with my post on the Nucleic Acids Research (NAR) database issue . While I was procrastinating, a pandemic broke out. So, unsurprisingly, this year's database topic is viruses. The NAR archive lists more than 32 databases related to viruses. Of these, 22 are still operational and five of the databases have information about SARS-CoV-2.
Google image results from a search with "bioinformatics"
This October (9-11, 2019), I attended the 3rd NIBLSE conference entitled: "Integration of Bioinformatics into Life Science Education: Roadmap for the Future." It was held at " Hot Shops " in Omaha Nebraska, a space for artists to work, sell, and meet.
You might ask what is NIBLSE and why are they making a roadmap for the future?
NIBLSE - Network for Integrating Bioinformatics into Life Sciences Education, is five-year NSF funded Research ... Read more
Immuno-biotechnology an important field of biotechnology. With the advent of advanced DNA sequencing, and other technologies, immuno-biotechnology has significantly increased the use of computing technologies to decipher the meaning of large datasets and predict interactions between immune receptors (antibodies / T-Cell receptors / MHC) and their targets. Progress toward developing an immuno-bioinformatics course with Shoreline Community College is summarized in the attached presentation.
Immuno-biotechnology is one of the fastest growing areas in the field of biotechnology. Digital World Biology’s Biotech-Careers.org database of nearly 7000 biotechnology employers has nearly 700 organizations that are involved with immunology in some way. With the advent of advanced DNA sequencing, and other technologies, immuno-biotechnology has significantly increased the use of computing technologies to decipher the meaning of large datasets and predict interactions between immune receptors (antibodies / T-Cell receptors / MHC) and their targets.
In early April 2019, the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB, Settle WA) hosted its 18th annual symposium. This year's theme focused on translational biology, which is the practice of commercializing research discovery. Over the two-day symposium, the audience was informed about the latest in the research and development of new products for fighting cancer with immunotherapy and combating research to improve global health.
Meeting Highlights - Immunotherapy
One of ISB's strong values is communicating science to public. This meeting was no exception; much of it ... Read more
It would be unfair to teach an advanced bioinformatics class without getting into the weeds of command line interfaces (CLIs), heading, tailing, greping, and wc-ing files, piping programs together, and running a bioinformatics program and working with its output. Hence, in the final component of the immuno-bioinformatics class that we [Digital World Biology] are developing for Shoreline Community College will use cloud computing in the CyVerse environment to run IgBLAST. Read more
I always look forward to sharing the Nucleic Acids Research (NAR) database issue . This year's blog topic is immunology. The NAR archive lists 31 immunologic databases, but only seven or so are active, and others are not listed in the NAR archive. Read the blog learn more.
Bioinformatics is full of unexpected adventures. Some are related to data discoveries, but many more are related to navigating the maize of software needed to implement a solution. Read more
