ISCBacademy: Gemma Turon on open source AI/ML for (antimicrobial) drug discovery

Gemma Turon, PhD (CEO and co-founder at Ersilia Open Source Initiative) will present on March 5 BOSC and the OBF will host an ISCBacademy webinar on March 5, 2024, at 8am PST (16:00 UTC). Gemma Turon (see bio below) will speak about “Ersilia, open source AI/ML for (antimicrobial) drug discovery”. Abstract The Ersilia Open-Source Initiative is a non-profit organisation whose mission is to equip laboratories, clinics and universities in lower and middle income countries (LMICs) with artificial intelligence (AI) tools for infectious disease research. [Read More]

Community comment period open for potential BOSC 2024 keynotes

We asked our community to nominate potential BOSC keynote speakers, and we were pleased with the great suggestions! In the next phase of our process, we’re giving you a chance to let us know if there is anything that makes any of the nominated individuals NOT appropriate as BOSC keynote speakers. Our invited speaker process and rubric gives examples of some possible reasons for exclusion. If you have concerns about any of the people on our list, please let us know (with as much specificity as you feel comfortable providing) via this anonymous form no later than Thursday 2024-01-25. [Read More]

Nominate a keynote speaker for BOSC!

We are seeking a diverse list of potential BOSC keynote speakers. We invite you, our community, to nominate people you think would be appropriate (and at least somewhat likely to accept the invitation – for example, it is extremely unlikely that we would get a ‘yes’ from a recent Nobel Laureate). Please submit your nominations here (as many as you like; you can fill out the form more than once to submit additional suggestions) by the end of the day on Wednesday 2024-01-17. [Read More]

BOSC CollaborationFest 2023 Report

CollaborationFest, CoFest for short, is a collaborative work event that has been held each of the past 13 years as a satellite event of BOSC. At these free events, held right before or after BOSC, participants gather in small groups to exchange ideas and work together on projects including but not limited to hacking. Participants were encouraged to submit their project ideas in advance to facilitate collaboration. CoFest 2023 took place during the two days just before BOSC, which was part of ISMB/ECCB 2023 in Lyon and online. [Read More]

ISCBacademy webinar Oct 3

Sierra Moxon to speak about “LinkML: an open data modeling framework, grounded with ontologies” [If you missed the webinar, the video is here and the slides are here.] ISCBacademy is a series of free webinars sponsored by the International Society for Computational Biology. They are open to all, including those who are not ISCB members. ISCB members can access the webinars via the ISCB Nucleus platform: https://iscb.junolive.co/. Non-members need to register for Nucleus: https://iscb. [Read More]

BOSC 2023 Report

The 24th annual Bioinformatics Open Source Conference, BOSC 2023, took place as part of ISMB/ECCB 2023 in Lyon, France, and online. ISMB/ECCB attracted a near-record number of attendees, with over 2100 in person and about 900 more online. Most of the BOSC organizing committee (missing: Jessica Maia and Chris Fields)A full room at BOSC 2023 The opening session of BOSC kicked off with a welcome from chair Nomi Harris. An overview of BOSC’s parent organization, the Open Bioinformatics Foundation, was presented by OBF Board member Bastian Greshake Tzovaras. [Read More]

<strong>Spotlight on diversity: Jenea Adams</strong>

Diversity, inclusion and accessibility (also known as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, DEI) are a major part of BOSC’s mission and core values, and we pursue these goals in multiple ways. BOSC 2022, for example, included a panel on Building and Sustaining Inclusive Open Science Communities, with panelists who not only were experts on the topic but also themselves belong to various groups that are typically underrepresented in our community. And with generous support from our sponsors, each year we provide free registration to 10-20 BOSC participants as part of the OBF Event Fellowship program), which aims to increase diverse participation at events related to open source bioinformatics and open science. [Read More]

Hannah Wei webinar video now available

On March 14, 2023, we held a webinar (hosted by ISCBacademy) about “Re-Thinking the Patient’s Role in a Learning Health System: Lessons from the Patient-Led Research Collaborative” presented by Hannah Wei, co-founder and technologist at the Patient-Led Research Collaborative. See the webinar announcement for a full description. BOSC organizing committee member Monica Munoz-Torres introduced Ms. Wei and fielded a lively Q&A session. The webinar recording is available on YouTube at https://youtu. [Read More]

BOSC Early Poster Acceptance

ISMB/BOSC is around the corner! We can hardly wait for the abstracts to start pouring in! We realize that some people can’t get conference travel approval from their institution until they get confirmation that their abstract has been accepted for a presentation. To help you, this year we have decided to offer Early Poster Acceptance: if you submit your abstract by March 31, we will let you know by April 6 whether it has been accepted or not for (at least) a poster. [Read More]

ISCBacademy webinar on Patient-Led Research

Date and Time: Tuesday, March 14, 11am EDT/ 15:00 (not 16:00!) UTC Location: Online webinar hosted by ISCB and free to the public. (Video now available at https://youtu.be/M2vAotWKd_Q) Speaker: Hannah Wei, co-founder and technologist at the Patient-Led Research Collaborative Topic: Re-Thinking the Patient’s Role in a Learning Health System: Lessons from the Patient-Led Research Collaborative The ISCB, which runs the annual ISMB conference, is offering a series of ISCBacademy webinars hosted by the Communities of Special Interest (COSIs), which include BOSC/OBF. [Read More]