A student-led initiative hosted by the University of Minho, Bioinformatics Open Days 2020 was a meeting ground for experts in Bioinformatics to come together and meet with students and other experts. BioData.pt participated extensively in the event, sharing its knowledge and expertise between students and other bioinformaticians. BioData contributed extensively to this event, with our contributions detailed below.
On January 19th, Ricardo Leite held the workshop "Single-cell RNA-Seq analysis using a Seurat based graphical interface", which gave participants an introduction to Single-cell analysis, using the BioData-developed tool D-cellerate to run the Seurat analysis pipeline.
During the poster session, Henrique Costa presented the poster titled "BioData.pt User Support: Services and Software", giving a general overview of BioData's User Support projects, showing BOD participants what tools BioData can offer to improve their work, and the new BioData.pt Crash Courses program, one-day courses that give participants a general introduction to a subject.
On January 21st, the final day of the BOD, BioData.pt CEO Ana Portugal Melo participated in the morning session "Business in Bioinformatics", speaking to participants about BioData, its mission and vision and what services it can provide to users, such as BioData-developed tools like Biome-Shiny and the Python Video Annotator, along with capacity building programs like "Ready for BioData Management?" and the GTPB training program.
Ana continued by speaking about BioData's data standardization tools, namely the Breeding API (BrAPI), and the MIAPPE plant phenotyping experiment data standard, and how they can create value for both industry and academia. She ended her talk by specifying the types of services a Bioinformatics business can provide, such as customizing existing software or providing or giving access to software and value-creating data, and what kind of clients Bioinformatics companies can expect to interact with.
During the afternoon talks, João Cardoso presented "Ready for BioData Management?", the BioData.pt capacity building program that seeks to empower researchers and institutions in managing their data more efficiently, explaining the concept of Data Management Plans and their importance for researchers, as well as the components of a DMP and the benefits of having one. He followed by speaking about the program itself, namely its objectives, and the events and lectures created to achieve these objectives.
