Bioinformatics mini-symposium
On the afternoon of 21st January the University of St Andrews Bioinfomatics Unit (http://bioinformatics.st-andrews.ac.uk/) hosted a mini-symposium in the School of Medicine. The event was attended by over 40 people from five different Schools as well as colleagues from the James Hutton Institute, and was organized to highlight bioinformatics research across the University, and developments in the Bioinfomatics Unit. Dr Ye from the School of Computer Science opened up the symposium with a talk that explored the how machine learning is being developed to track human behaviours. The talk provided a fascinating introduction into developments in computing science and big data usage. Following this keynote introduction, Ramon Fallon, the Unit’s bioinfomatician presented an overview of the STABU resources and activities, and then led a discussion on futures developments including bioinformatics support and training. In the final session of the symposium the breadth of bioinformatics research in St Andrews was illustrated with a series of presentations from early career researchers, which covered diverse topics including eczema, whale migration, fruit fly evolution and aquaculture. Reflecting on success of the meeting, Dr Silvia Paracchini, who organized the symposium, said “The meeting was a great success, bringing together people from across the university who have a shared interest in bioinformatics. I hope this will be the first of a continuing series that promotes collaboration and strengthens bioinformatics at St Andrews”.