LS2 Intersection Bioinformatics
Together with the SIB Swiss Institute of BioinformaticsFounded in June 2019
What is bioinformatics?
Bioinformatics develops and applies computational methods to solve biological questions. Bioinformatics is a transversal discipline in that nearly all areas of Life Science have a bioinformatic component. In each of these domains of application, Bioinformatics accelerate progress through quantitative, integrative, and scalable methods. Conversely, Bioinformatics benefits from the "reality check" and new problems that arise in each domain.
What is SIB?
The SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics is an internationally recognized non-profit organization, dedicated to biological and biomedical data science. Its data scientists are passionate about creating knowledge and solving complex questions in many fields, from biodiversity and evolution to medicine. They provide essential databases and software platforms as well as bioinformatics expertise and services to academic, clinical, and industry groups. SIB federates the Swiss bioinformatics community of some 800 scientists, encouraging collaboration and knowledge sharing. The institute contributes to keeping Switzerland at the forefront of innovation by fostering progress in biological research and enhancing health.
Why this intersection?
This newly created intersection thus materializes the fact that bioinformatics and life sciences feed from each other. Through activities that will be determined by its board, this intersection aims to 1) create additional bridges between the two disciplines, 2) foster collaborations between SIB Members and LS2 Members, and 3) accelerate the development of methods and tools supporting the latest experimental developments.
The Bioinformatics Intersection welcomes any LS2 member willing to discover more about bioinformatics and participate in common activities.
Executive Committee
Katja Bärenfaller - President
SIB Group Leader, Head Molecular Allergology Group.
Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research, SIAF
Carlos-Andrés Peña-Reyes - Vice-President
SIB Group Leader, Computational Intelligence for Computational Biology.
HEIG-VD
Marie Dangles
Executive Team - Director, External & Internal Relations, SIB.
Paulina Pacak
ETH Zürich
Zsolt Balzás
University of Zurich
With:
Alan James Bridge (Director, Swiss-Prot, SIB | Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics)
Talk: "Biocuration Matters: Harnessing AI to Model Biological Systems at PubMed Scale"
Abstract: Knowledge of how proteins functionally interact can inform studies of the dynamics of living systems – the subject of this BioMatters meeting – but much of this knowledge remains locked in peer-reviewed publications and is not accessible to researchers nor machines. Expert curation of open knowledgebases such as UniProt makes this knowledge FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable), but human curation is costly and difficult to scale to cover the entire body of peer-reviewed literature. In this presentation we will look at efforts to model biological systems in forms that are FAIR using resources such as UniProt, the Gene Ontology, and Rhea, how human-in-the-loop AI-assisted curation can help us build those models more efficiently, and how we can integrate biological models, knowledge, and high throughput ‘omics datasets using semantic web technologies to create new biological knowledge and insights.
Exciting news for life science students!
The LS2 Bioinformatics Intersection and Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT) are offering exclusive registration fellowships for students (BSc, MSc, or PhD) to attend Basel Computational Biology Conference [BC]2 on 8 - 10 September 2025.
- Not yet a member of the Bioinformatics intersection? Join us HERE.
- These fellowships are applicable to on-site participation only.
- Find out if you are eligible and submit your application directly on the conference website.
Don't miss out! The deadline to apply is 29 May 2025.
Existing LS2 members can log in at www.ls2.ch, click on "Change the LS2 Sections you are in" and change to/add the new intersection "Bioinformatics".
New members can apply for the LS2 membership here and select "Intersection Bioinformatics" in the online application form.
*When joining the Bioinformatics intersection, members agree that their personal data entered in the membership application form on the LS2 website will be shared between LS2 and SIB for purposes of newsletter, targeted announcements of events, and membership statistics. On that basis, LS2 shall send to SIB on a monthly basis the up-to-date list of Bioinformatics intersection members. This statement will be laid out in our LS2 Terms & Conditions.
Over 160 high-quality databases and software tools are provided by SIB Groups to the global life science community. Find out more here.
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Benefit from the SIB courses to hone your bioinformatics skills. Discover the latest advances in computational biology to explore biological data, from single-cell molecular insights to vaccine development and real-time pathogen tracking.
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