NorthernBUG 1

General

The first NorthernBUG was attended by 44 people from 12 locations around the region.

Agenda

Time Speaker Location Title
12:30 Lunch    
13:30 John Davey York Introduction
13.36 Mark Blaxter Edinburgh NextGenBUG - the future is coming
13.48 Krzys Poterlowicz Bradford Bioinformatics analysis in skin research
14.00 Helen Griffin Newcastle  
14.12 Dennis Wang Sheffield Bioinformatics for Genomic Medicine
14.24 Ian Adams FERA  
14.36 Sophie Nixon Manchester Unearthing the microbiology of hydraulically fractured shale ecosystems
14.48 Jarek Bryk Huddersfield Bioinformatics at Huddersfield
15:00 Coffee    
15.30 Bede Constantinides Leeds Computational and Molecular Evolutionary Biology Group
15.42 Deena Gendoo Nottingham Trent Translational Bioinformatics Approaches to Assess Preclinical Disease Models and Infer Drug Mechanisms
15.54 Pete Ashton York Bioinformatics Support at York
16.06 Matt Parker Sheffield Clinical Bioinformatics - is it so different from academic/core bioinformatics work?
16.18 Ed Schwalbe Northumbria Translational bioinformatics / Evolution and virulence in pathogenic bacteria / Nu-omics
16:30 Discussion    
17:00 Pub Eagle and Child  

Attendees

Name Location
Ian Adams FERA
Peter Ashton York
Imelda Barber Newcastle
Kim Barnes York
Mark Blaxter Edinburgh
Jarek Bryk Huddersfield
Roy Chaudhuri Sheffield
James Chong York
Nadia Chuzhanova Nottingham Trent
Simon Cockell Newcastle
Bede Constantinides Leeds
Kanchon Dasmahapatra York
John Davey York
Mark Dunning Sheffield
Ville Friman York
Deena Gendoo Nottingham Trent
Yura Grabovska Newcastle
Helen Griffin Newcastle
Helen Hipperson Sheffield
Dave Lunt Hull
Aurelie Manin York
Marisa Martin Cerezo Huddersfield
Peter Mulhair Leeds
Sirintra Nakjang Newcastle
Katherine Newling York
Sophie Nixon Manchester
David Orr Leeds
Matthew Parker Sheffield
Krzysztof Poterlowicz Bradford
Rachel Queen Newcastle
Eve Rannamae York
Vartul Sangal Northumbria
Ed Schwalbe Northumbria
Graham Smith Newcastle
Darren Smith Northumbria
Lizzy Sollars Sheffield
Joost Stassen Sheffield
Ian Sudbery Sheffield
Ali Taylor Leeds
Matthew Teasdale York
Roxana Teodor York
Dennis Wang Sheffield
Chris Watson Leeds
Michael Wilson Leeds

Discussion

Thanks to Katherine Newling for taking notes of the discussion.

In the discussion at the end of the meeting, we discussed the future of NorthernBUG 1 and other ways for delegates to collaborate. Deena Gendoo suggested that we collaborate through shared teaching, maybe via a shared repository of teaching materials. Mark Blaxter (MB) pointed to Elixir as an existing repository and Dennis Wang suggested building from Mark Dunning’s existing repository. Ian Sudbery (IS) suggested a list of people willing to deliver training sessions at other institutions would be useful. MB suggested discussions could take place on the Google Group or a repository to assess what the key course material should be for a particular topic, eg what are the essentials in any RNA-seq course?

IS asked MB if there were themes in NextGenBUG meetings. MB said yes, often organised around invited speakers, and with associated workshops, e.g. for the half day before the meeting, people meet to try out a new tool together.

Simon Cockell (SC) asked about funding. John Davey (JD) said first meeting cost ~£1500 for food, venue and speaker expenses, but that a minimal meeting could be booking a lecture theatre for free and just booking coffee without lunch. MB said finding sponsorship takes time and should be done straight away. Check for local funds; PhD students may be able to apply to grad student funds. Dave Lunt suggested asking the Genetics Society.

JD said the first meeting had many short talks to hear from lots of different institutions, but he preferred a more relaxed meeting with fewer longer talks. Roy Chaudhuri said the first meeting had worked well and we should continue to have short introductory talks.

JD asked about timing and frequency of meetings. There was general agreement that one afternoon every 3-4 months was fine. JD suggested moving the meeting slightly earlier so people could return home by the end of the working day, but SC and others said there was no good timing that fit within the working day for those coming from the edges of the region, and an afternoon meeting was fine. RC suggested that we could also host online meetings using Google hangouts or similar (as for Balti and Bioinformatics in previous years).

Next meetings: Dennis Wang and Mark Dunning will hold Northern BUG 2 in Sheffield on 14 September 2018. Simon Cockell will investigate hosting in Newcastle in December/January, and Deena Gendoo offered to look into hosting at Nottingham Trent in early 2019.

Location

Kings Manor and Principals House, University of York, Exhibition Square, York YO1 7EP