Posted by s.hettrick on 7 January 2016 - 10:17am Two TGAC bioinformaticians were awarded Fellowships from the Software Sustainability Institute to advance research software. 17 candidates from a pool of 113 hopefuls were chosen as part of the Software Sustainability Institute Fellowship programme 2016. The selected Fellows come from wide-ranging backgrounds and will use their multidisciplinary skills to improve research software through their own data research projects.

Dr Manuel Corpas, Team Leader at TGAC, focuses on biological data visualisation generated by Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies (RNA, DNA and epigenomics).

NGS technologies require many computational resources to process the data ready for analysis. Dr Corpas works with new visualisation tools for NGS data to process previous experimental data, including BioJS, a JavaScript library for visualisation of biological components. BioJS makes it easy for developers and users to reutilise its existing functionality, share developments and accredit their work.

Dr Corpas has coordinated the development of BioJS into a leading open source library for biological web visual analytics and led the technical coordination of initiatives of global impact, such as ELIXIR-UK (part of the ELIXIR pan-European bioinformatics infrastructure) and GOBLET, the Global Organisation for Bioinformatics Learning, Education and Training.

Dr Corpas, said: "This is in great measure a recognition of the work my team does and an independent assurance that this work matters to communities well beyond our bioinformatics area of influence."

Our ability to quickly interpret heterogeneous data sources critically depends on data presentation and visual analytics. This is currently an exciting yet underdeveloped field of research where the Corpas Lab is uniquely positioned for high impact contributions. Visual Analytics in his lab is inspired by the development of tools that characterise genomes.

Dr Robert Davey, Group Leader at TGAC, leads the Data Infrastructure and Algorithms group which focuses on research into understanding how best to manage, represent and analyse data for open science, as well as exploring new hardware, algorithms and methodologies to develop tools to push the boundaries of data-driven informatics in the life sciences.

TGAC hosts one of the largest computational resources dedicated to life science in Europe, the group applies software engineering and bioinformatics expertise to exploit this extensive national capability. We promote best practice and training in bioinformatics through tailored events at TGAC, and through broad programmes such as Software Carpentry boot camps, hackathons, and the Mozilla Festival.

Dr Davey, said: "As a true believer in the benefits of open source research software, being selected as one of the 2016 SSI Fellows is a fantastic opportunity to promote the move away from closed science through software, training, and community engagement. It’s a very exciting time to be part of the growing movement towards openness in science!"

The Davey Group develops infrastructure platforms for data and software dissemination and publication (Wheat Information System, Collaborative Open Plant Omics - COPO), data analysis platforms (iPlant UK, Galaxy), assembly algorithms for viral and microbial metagenomics, and large-scale data visualisation solutions. We are also working with exciting industrial collaborators to investigate new disruptive technologies such as the Oxford Nanopore MinION sequencer, the Edico Genome DRAGEN co-processor, and the Optalysys optical computer.