NorthernBUG 17
- Date: 18 September 2026
- Location: University of Liverpool
- Hosts: Eva Caamano Gutierrez, Matthew Gemmell, Emily Johnson, & Jamie Soul
General
The organising committee for northernBUG17 is, in alphabetical order: Eva Caamano Gutierrez, Matthew Gemmell, Emily Johnson, Jamie Soul. Emails should be directed to Jamie at jamie.soul@liverpool.ac.uk
Location
The meeting will take place on the 18th September 2026 at the Life Sciences Building of The University of Liverpool.
- Campus map
- Life Sciences Building is building 215
- Entry signified by the down pointing red arrow in F9
- Travel, car parking, and other visiting UoL information
Entrance door to life sciences building:
Satellite picture with arrow pointing to entrance:
Google maps
Rooms
The meeting will use multiple rooms within the Life sciences building:
- Main entrance foyer (lower floor): Registration (10:00-10:30)
- Lecture theatre 2 (ground floor): Talks (10:30-12:00, 13:00-14:35, & 15:00-17:00)
- Seminar room 2 (2nd floor): Lunch, breaks, and posters (10:00-10:30, 12:00-13:00 & 14:35-15:00)
Plenty of signage will be present in the building to guide meeting attendees.
Sponsor
This meeting is sponsored by BioFAIR
What to expect
NorthernBUG meetings are open to anyone interested in bioinformatics or its application in life science research. Meetings are free, and the host institution covers costs. Lunch is provided!
Agenda
| Time | Speaker | Title | Information |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10:00-10:30 | Registration opens and Tea/coffee | Registration all day | |
| 10:30-11:30 | Computational Biology Facility (University of Liverpool) | LLMs in bioinformatics | |
| 11:30-11:55 | Panel led discussion | LLMs in bioinformatics | |
| 11:55-12:00 | BioinfoCoreLeaders-UK | ||
| 12:00-13:00 | Lunch break with posters | ||
| 13:00-13:05 | Matthew Gemmell | Welcome and session introduction | |
| 13:05-13:30 | BioFAIR | Update on BioFAIR | |
| 13:30-13:50 | Chinedu Anene (Leeds Beckett University) | Enhancer RNAs beyond transcription: defining their molecular nature and regulatory functions | Senior Lecturer in Bioinformatics |
| 13:50-14:10 | Vic Aldcroft (University of Liverpool) | Adapting to change: integrating climate projections and genomic tools to future-proof fisheries management | PhD Student |
| 14:10-14:30 | Rebecca Price (University of Liverpool) | Modelling amyloid fibril polymorphs with AlphaFold3 | Research Fellow |
| 14:30-14:35 | Poster flash talks (1 min each) | ||
| 14:35-15:00 | Coffee + poster session break | ||
| 15:00-15:25 | Mudassar Iqbal (University of Manchester) | Computational methods for learning tissue biology from spatial transcriptomics and histology | Computational Biologist / Senior Lecturer |
| 15:25-15:45 | Lucy Barnard (University of Sheffield) | Challenges and lessons learned from developing an epigenetic clock from raw whole genome methylation data | PhD Student |
| 15:45-16:05 | Ellen Boswell (University of Liverpool) | Exploring a Large Language Model-based pipeline to mine post-translational modification data | PhD Student |
| 16:05-16:25 | Emily Johnson (University of Liverpool) | Using AlphaFold to uncover vaccine targets against global infectious disease | Data Scientist |
| 16:25-16:45 | Matthew Gemmell (University of Liverpool) | Useful new Community diversity analysis plots | Bioinformatician |
| 16:45-17:00 | Prizes, closing discussion + networking | ||
| 17:00- | Pub | Augustus John |
Social networking after the meeting will take place at The Augustus John conveniently located on the main University of Liverpool campus.
Registration
Registration is now closed.
Location:
Life Science Building, Crown St, Liverpool