| Christophe Dessimoz, Executive Director |
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| Last Monday, the Swiss Science Council paid a visit to the SIB Hub as part of their evaluation of SIB’s base funding by the federal government. We were proud to present our vision and strategic objectives for the coming period, summarised in the SIB 2024-2028 roadmap. Our fourth objective for the next period is to remain at the leading edge of technological developments. In this context, the opportunities presented by Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT are highly relevant. Many SIB groups have already started experimenting with them (example here). If you are interested in the topic, we warmly welcome you to our upcoming symposium in Bern on 23 November, as detailed below. Additionally keep an eye out for focus groups and other initiatives in the future. Below you can also find other exciting events scheduled for the rest of this year and in 2024, as well as the highlights from the [BC]2 conference, guidelines for open science licensing and social activities to enjoy. |
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| Unveiling our strategic objectives for a better future | On our 25th anniversary, we have now published an inspiring and sustainable roadmap for the next 5 years with the aim of presenting our institute today, putting its vision and activities into perspective, and detailing its development priorities. Discover the five strategic objectives and enablers that will help us get there, including our funding model and our support functions. | |
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| Presenting the laureates of the 2023 SIB Bioinformatics Awards | The 2023 laureates of the SIB Bioinformatics Awards were announced at the [BC]2 conference. Learn more about this year's winners of the three categories: PhD Paper, Early Career and Innovative Resource and watch their plenary talks. Topics range from image-based transcriptomics and visualisation of complex genomic data to biomedicine and EDI engagement. | |
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| | The Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN) – Factsheet 2023 | Discover key contributions of the Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN) initiative to make health data FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) for secondary use in this 2023 factsheet. SPHN is led by the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences and SIB and is strengthening Switzerland’s position in personalized health research. | |
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| Are you about to disseminate your new software or database under an open license? | The Legal and Technology Transfer team has developed the Open science checklist and the Open research licensing guideline which provide guidance and information on how to disseminate SIB materials (research data, software) as early and widely as possible, and achieve open science goals. Make sure to go through the checklist to ask yourself key questions which will guide your license choice. | |
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| | A recently published book on open data sources for drug discovery | SIB's Antoine Daina and Vincent Zoete have co-edited a book titled “Open access databases and datasets for drug discovery” that is now published by Wiley. Other SIB Members such as those from the group of Torsten Schwede are also among the authors. This book provides a comprehensive review of open data sources for drug design, and the first chapter, authored by Antoine and Vincent, is available for free. | |
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| Grant calls | - Enabling a network of EOSC federated and trustworthy repositories and enhancing the framework of generic and discipline specific services for data and other research digital objects (EC; deadline: 12.03.24)
- Pandemic preparedness and response: Host-pathogen interactions of infectious diseases with epidemic potential (EC; deadline: 11.04.24)
- Information event on Horizon Europe Health opportunities (Euresearch; date: 07.11.23; online)
- Widening Calls (in Horizon Europe) fund research and networking event, for cooperations with Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia (Euresearch; date: 08.11.23; online)
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| Gathering scientists to advance big data and biology | Over 500 participants attended this year’s [BC]2 conference which had the theme “Big data in biology: promises and challenges.” Discover the highlights of what was an exceptional event celebrating 20 years since the first conference took place, with enlightening keynote speeches and thematic sessions. | |
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| | Inaugural lecture by Olivier Michielin - 22 November, Geneva | In October 2022, Group Leader Olivier Michielin was nominated Professor in the University of Geneva’s Faculty of Medicine. He will give his inaugural lecture “Precision Oncology: Bringing data science to the bedside” (In French) in which he will also touch upon some of the national and regional initiatives to bring the field forward. | |
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| Register for the next LS2 Annual Meeting - 14-15 February, Lausanne | This year’s meeting has the theme “Exploring the Wonders of Life” and it will be held at the University of Lausanne. Preceded by a Young Scientist’s Satellite meeting, the event will feature 9 symposia including an SIB-organized one chaired by Katja Bärenfaller with a talk by David Niklas Wissel titled "Machine learning for curator-centric ontology-aware cell-type single-cell annotation". Register and submit your abstract by 8 November 2023. | |
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| | Join the 1st Lemanic Life Science Hackathon - 8-9 February, Lausanne | Are you a life scientist with published omics or imaging data which you would like to be mined by data scientists to generate disruptive science? To raise awareness on the potential of AI in research in the life and clinical sciences and foster interdisciplinary collaboration, a 2-day hackathon is being organized by Idiap, EPFL and CHUV together with SIB, SDSC and HUG. Submitting your ideas for a project (half-page description) to SIB’s Raphaëlle Luisier by 15 November. | |
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| Join the next blend of the Swiss EOSC Coffee break - 15 November, 12 PM | SIB is an observer member of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) which aims to develop a 'Web of FAIR Data and services' for the advancement of science in Europe. In this second meeting, find out more on how EOSC aims to unlock the full potential of research data to accelerate discoveries and innovation as well as how Switzerland is involved. | |
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| | de.NBI Hackathon 11-15 December 2023, Bielefeld, Germany | | |
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| Cell lines in the 21st century challenges and opportunities or reproducible research - 11 January, Lausanne | Did you know that inaccurate labelling and mishandling of cell lines are contributing significantly to the ongoing reproducibility crisis in research? Through presentations by renowned international experts, including SIB's co-founder Amos Bairoch on "Cellosaurus: the cell line encyclopedia", you'll gain insights into various initiatives, online resources, databases, and innovative techniques developed to ensure the proper handling of cell lines. | |
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| | Deep learning at SIB in the spotlight: A mini-symposium on its applications - 6 November, online | As part of the SIB course on “Deep Learning for Life Sciences - fundamentals and applications”, a set of Group Leaders and members will be talking about the applications of deep learning in life sciences. Presentations will be given by Raphaelle Luisier, Daniele Silvestro, Joana Pereira, and Markus A Lill as can can be found in the schedule here. Join the course and the seminars free of charge at the time via the link below. | |
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| Symposium on Large Language Models & Transformers - 23 November, 4-6 PM, Bern | Join an SIB symposium dedicated to these AI models and how they can be applied in research. Presentations will include an introduction to LLMs by Fabio Rinaldi, followed by several SIB Group Leaders and Members sharing their experiences, from biocuration to knowledge representation and health care. Register by 31 October and contact the biodata resources team if you would like to also share your experiences. The symposium will be followed by an aperitif. | |
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| | Open Innovation in Life Sciences Conference - 26 & 27 October, Zurich & online | This hybrid conference is organized by early career researchers. In the first day, various talks will explore career development in the context of open science. This will be followed by a day in which topics pertaining to open science and innovation will be discussed, fostering interactions between academia, industry and society. Registration remains open until the event ends. | |
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Resources for life scientists |
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in silico talk #27: A flexible pipeline to map ancient DNA | Samuel Neuenschwander, from the group of Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas, presents MAPACHE, a workflow which enables mapping of ancient DNA to assemble genomes efficiently and reproducibly. This work was published earlier this year in the journal Bioinformatics. If you are interested in working with ancient DNA or other samples of DNA that require mapping, then this in silico talk is for you. Make sure to subscribe to receive the next talk direct to your inbox. | |
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Bioinformatics afterworks |
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| Join SIB’s running/walking team for the 2023 “Course de l’Escalade”, Geneva, 2-3 December | It’s that time again. Like previous years, there will be an SIB team in Geneva’s most popular sporting event: the “Course de l’Escalade.” Distances range from 2.3 to 7.3 km, and as a special treat, this year's edition includes the 5th edition of the Course du Duc, a 20 km race. SIB will support all registrations and provide branded T-shirts. Register by 13 November to join this great opportunity to have fun with colleagues you haven’t seen in a while and contact Ivo Pedruzzi if you have any questions. | |
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| What do we have in common with tomatoes and bananas? | Watch a fun and enlightening video (In French) made by SIB Members in collaboration with Heidi.news, in which Samuel Moix explains our connections with plants and other animals. Don't hesitate to share with others who would be interested. | |
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| Join the LS2 Ski Weeekend - 23-25 February, Leysin | Life Science Switzerland (more info) invites all to join for their first ever ski weekend. Beginners are welcome and feel free to also invite your partners and friends. Register before the deadline of 1 December. | |
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| "Life, love, death and proteins" - a comic book based on Protein Spotlight | The perfect sciency gift for the year-end: discover fascinating stories of the tremendously varied world of proteins - these molecules essential to life - in a unique comic book ‘La vie, l’amour, la mort & les protéines’ (In French), by SIB's Vivienne Baillie Gerritsen, creator of the ProteinSpotlight.org stories, and illustrator Aloys Lolo. | |
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| Protein Spotlight: Self-reliant | In times of perplexity, every now and then it is better to deal with things yourself. It can be a time-saver, and sometimes, too, an energy-saver. If faced, say, by an oncoming downpour, it is wiser to run for shelter rather than wait for someone to bring you an umbrella... | |
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| | The SIB Members Update is sent monthly to our 900 Members. Your contributions and comments are most welcome, please send them to SIB Communications. | | | |
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