RSG-Pakistan Virtual Undergraduate Projects (in collaboration with Universities))

Final year about to start? 
Worried about your project? 
Can’t find one that interests you? 

The idea is very simple. Harness the experience of Pakistani scientists studying or working in leading international institutions abroad and use it to train our undergraduate talent at universities in Pakistan. The idea is very open. You can pick your supervisor of choice. You can throw in your own idea, or pick a proposed project. It’s virtual - you can work from anywhere you want (as long as you have your laptop and some DSL of course!). The idea is very cool. You can bombard your supervisor with as many questions you have - about your project, your interests and your career. Plus, you can even put their names and affiliations on your CV! 

Email – rsgpakistan@gmail.com

1st Virtual Symposium on Bioinformatics

By Atiya Mahmood and Samerene Saddique.

BIOINFORMATICS IS the application of computer science and information technology to the field of biology and medicine. Bioinformatics deals with algorithms, databases and information systems, web technologies, artificial intelligence and soft computing, information and computation theory, software engineering, data mining, image processing, modeling and simulation, signal processing, discrete mathematics, control and system theory, circuit theory, and statistics, for generating new knowledge of biology and medicine, and improving & discovering new models of computation.

Bioinformatics is a growing field in Pakistan, although significant improvements have been made in the recent years; however there is still need to develop skills of existing student/ researchers and increase awareness among potential new students. One step in this direction was a recent virtual symposium on Bioinformatics in October this year. It was first such seminar arranged by ISCB-RSG Pakistan in collaboration with National Academy of Young Scientists (NAYS) and weekly Technology Times; the only newspaper on science and technology. The symposium was attended by more than 30 students from 29 different institutions of Pakistan. Six speakers from foreign and local universities spoke on topics related to bioinformatics.

At the symposium, first speaker was Prof. Dr. Shahid Nadeem Chohan. He is a member of ISCB and faculty advisor for Pakistan ISCB-RSG. He is also founder of the Pakistan EMBnet National Node at Comsats Institute of Information Technology (CIIT). Dr. Chohan spoke about the career opportunities of Bioinformatics in Pakistan and how researchers can participate in the development of bioinformatics in the region. He talked both at individual and institutional level and emphasized on need of entrepreneurship in the field.

Next speaker was Muhammad Ilyas, a PhD research scholar at the Centre for Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB), University of the Punjab, Lahore, and has worked as visiting research student at the Korean Bioinformation Center (KOBIC), South Korea, Ilyas is the founder president of the International Society for Computational Biology Regional Students Group of Pakistan (ISCB-RSG-Pakistan). Talking on the “Current status of Bioinformatics in Pakistan”, he briefed comprehensively and gave a complete picture of bioinformatics, in terms of degree awarding institutes, research groups, carrier opportunities, job positions, market situation and establishment of bioinformatics societies like ISCB-RSG, to provide a platform of learning and to combine the efforts of Bioinformaticians.

Third speaker was Ali Faisal; who has done his MS in Machine Learning and Bioinformatics from Edinburgh University (UK), currently he is working as a researcher at the Adaptive Informatics Research Center at Aalto University. Ali Faisal holds a position at Finnish doctoral program in Computational sciences. His lecture was bit technical and explained the Pattern Recognition and Retrieval in Microarray experiments. Faisal elaborated the experiment from the bulk of data based upon topic driven model of data mining. Afterwards he described a complete retrieval framework. Overall the lecture was a good introduction to machine learning and data mining.

The presentation of Faisal Khan on the topic of “Protein-Protein Interaction Networks” was greatly admired by the audience. Faisal Khan is a D.Phil. student at the University of Oxford. He is a member of the Oxford Protein Informatics Group led by Dr. Charlotte Deane, and work at the interface of cell and systems biology studying new mitotic proteins in Drosophila. His presentation thoroughly explained the importance of Protein-Protein interactions (PPI), why we work on them and finally advantages and robustness of research on PPIs.

Atiya Mahmood is currently working as teaching/research associate at Department of Bioinformatics of International Islamic University Islamabad. Her presentation was about MicroRNAs and how their targets can be predicted using different bioinformatics tools. In her presentation she also described the principles of predicting miRNA targets from both bioinformatist and bioinformatician perspective.

The last speaker of the symposium was Samerene Saddique, who has done Masters in Pharmaceutical sciences from London Metropolitan University, London, UK. She has worked as visiting research student at cancer research UK, and has also worked as research officer in CEMB. Samerene shared her knowledge on drug design, discovery and development process. She briefed about drug targets, steps involved in the drug designing processes and contribution of bioinformatics in this process and finally the clinical trials.

The seminar was concluded on a discussion session, in which students queries and ambiguities regarding the presentation topics and the bioinformatics in general were addressed. This symposium was a knowledge sharing exercise from which all the participants and the speakers benefited equally and decided to arrange such events on larger scale in future for the benefit of students, professionals and profession in general.

Regional Student Group Pakistan in Weekly Technology Times

International Society for Computational Biology

BIOINFORMATICS IS the discipline in which Biology and information technology are merged together for solving the problems of molecular biology. Bioinformatics was introduced in Pakistan in 2003, with commencement of undergraduate degree in Bioinformatics in COMSATS Institute of Information and Technology and Muhammad Ali Jinnah University. These two institutes are considered to be pioneers of bioinformatics in Pakistan. Now-a-days approximately 12 institutes working in this field, all these institutes are making their best effort in promoting bioinformatics in Pakistan.

Regional Students Group (RSG-Pakistan): Scientists and researchers are familiar with the fact that a local society can provide a very useful platform for a productive professional interaction, that’s why young Bioinformaticians of Pakistan established a Regional Students Group (RSG-Pakistan) in January 2010, which is a volunteer service initiated by students for the benefit of students. In line with the parent international body (ISCB). The mission of RSG-Pakistan is to develop the next generation of pioneers in the field of computational biology in Pakistan. The aim is to provide an accessible platform for educational and career networking in this field and to act the springboard for entrepreneurial endeavors in the country. This group is already helping the students in their projects. Some virtual conferences and collaborative projects with national and international institutes are also going to be start soon.

Benefits and Services:

· Training opportunities, workshops, university projects and internships for bioinformaticians-in-training.

· Professional networking opportunities to connect with experts in computational biology in academia and in the industry to reap educational and career benefits.

· Forum to network with fellow students in Pakistan for collaboration in research and careers.

· Centralized database of computational biology experts and professionals in Pakistan.

· Free subscription to ISCB’s newsletter.

Leadership: The committee for structuring the RSG-Pakistan has been formed with Muhammad Ilyas (Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology, Lahore, Pakistan) as the President, Dr. Muhammed Murtaza (Department of Oncology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK) as the Secretary and Dr. Shahid Nadeem Chohan (COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan) as faculty advisor. Those are assisted by a group of core members selected from different universities of Pakistan. Selection of the new leadership is on the basis of election.

Future Plans:

· Organizing virtual conferences/ workshops about different fields of bioinformatics.

· Bioinformatics Distance learning Courses.

· Bioinformatics Trainings.

· Virtual Bioinformatics Internships.

· Collaboration with other RSGs.

· Pakistan Bioinformatics Portal.

Membership:

Students can join the group by logging on the website www.iscbsc.org/rsg/rsg-pakistan

http://www.technologytimes.pk/mag/2011/feb11/issue02/rsg_pakistan_for_developing_bioinformatices.php

Virtual Bioinformatics Conference "Bifx12"

Summary

The Bifx'12 follows the success of Bifx11, Bifx10 and Bifx09. This joint conference is organized by the Bioinformatics Organization, and supported by Bioclues.org. The second day of the conference will be dedicated to "Special Track on Bioinformatics in India".

Background

Over the last few years, research in the fields of bioinformatics and computational biology has gained momentum within subcontinents even as widespread tangible research has grown within the subcontinent of India. And the "virtual conference" has taken root in these regions with the organization of several such conferences under the aegis of Bioinformatics.Org. Now, the organizers of Bifx12 hope that this opportunity will continue to foster virtual interactions and collaborations among students, as well as researchers across the world to further the advancement of science.

Bioinformatics Organization (Bioinformatics.Org) has over 30,000 members and currently hosts over 400 projects that are related to bioinformatics and computational biology. The Organization also offers online interactive tutorials on several relevant topics.

The tradition of virtual conferences at Bioinformatics.Org dates back to Bioinformatics to Systems Biology 2007 (BSB07). All the BSB series ignited a spark in the audience across the world through four keynote talks, other virtual presentations and posters. The conference brought together a cumulative 100 attendees both directly and indirectly across the globe.

Special Reference

We did publish an article on Ten Simple Rules for Organizing a Virtual Conference—Anywhere, which we hope will have caught interest to you in attending/organizing this or future virtual conferences.

Confirmed Speakers

Based on alphabetical order of Surnames The following speakers will be a part of the Special Track on Bioinformatics in India and developing countries.

• Jong Bhak, PhD, Korea.
• Dan Bolser, PhD
• Kavi Kishor, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Osmania University, Hyderabad, India
• Trushar Shah, PhD, ICRISAT, India.
• [ Ahmed Moussa,PhD. Faculty Des Sciences De Tetouan ], Gene Selection in Affymetrix Technology
• Pugalenthi Ganesan, PhD, Research Scientist, Saudi Arabia.

Program

(All times Greenwich Meridian time GMT; please check the World Clock)

Registration

Individuals

• Employer is paying (for-profit & government): USD 30.00
• Employer is paying (non-profit & academic): USD 20.00
• You are paying (not being reimbursed): USD 10.00 (also for developing countries)

Hubs

If you are interested in creating a new virtual in a new region, please contact the organizers. A request to form a hub should include the following details:

• Your name(s)
• Institution
• Estimated number of people who will attend

Deadline for hub applications is 30th January 2012, and selected candidates will be notified in the first week of February 2011.

• 20 participants or less: USD 200.00
• More than 20 participants: USD 300.00

Methods

• Online using PayPal (for individual fees only; register with the Bioinformatics.Org educational website)
• Mail-in form (for any payment)

Registration deadline: February 1, 2012

Please direct payment questions to edu@bioinformatics.org.

Virtual hubs

Full article on virtual hubs

Submissions

The virtual conference will consist of a single track with oral and poster presentations. This is a first call for submission of abstracts; authors will indicate whether they are aspiring to have an oral presentation or a poster. The best abstracts from the oral presentation track will be invited for oral presentation, unsuccessful oral presentation abstracts will be invited for poster presentation. We strongly encourage young investigators as well as research faculties to submit an abstract on their current work. The Program Committee will choose selected abstracts for oral as well as poster presentations.

• The deadline for abstract submission: February 1, 2012.
• Submission starts December 19, 2011 through Easy Chair

Publications

One of the objectives of this joint conferences is to provide for aspiring Scientists especially from the developing world,an opportunity to publish in leading journals. In this regard, high quality and select articles will be submitted to International Journal for Computational Biology (IJCB) and Bioinformation

Presenter preparation

Full article on virtual presentations

Additional information for presenters

Please liaise with Jeff edu@bioinformatics.org so that he can assist you pre-record your presentations before the main conference.

He will firstly give you a tour of the Megameeting software to be used for the same, before the actual recording to be done on the Bioinformatics.Org servers.

NB: The recorded presentations will be available after the main conference to anyone in the world who will not have been able to attend the main event and will also act as a backup in case you the presenter experiences any technical problems on the conference day.

Program Committee

Bioinformatics.Org:

• Prashanth Suravajhala
• J.W. Bizzaro
• Dan Bolser

Europe

• Segun Fatumo

Africa:

• Nelson Ndegwa
• Mtakai Ngara
• Kavisha Ramdayal
• Stanley Mbandi-Kimbung

India:

• Pritish Varadwaj
• Tiratha Raj Singh

Pakistan

• [Muhammad Illyas]

Singapore

• Sundararajan VS
• Kanagasabai Rajaraman, PhD, A-Star, Singapore.

See also

• Events at Bioinformatics.Org
• Twitter and Facebook updates

Bioinformatics Course for Medical Students

RSG- Pakistan announces in collaboration with  PMSRS a 3-day online workshop “Bioinformatics Course for Medical Students”. The topics to be addressed during the course include introduction to:
1) biological data retrieving, 
2) sequence analysis, 
3)Drug Discovery, 
4)Phylogenetic studies followed by lectures. 

Dates: Sessions will take place on January 29th, February 4th and February 5th.
Timings: 10:00 am.

Interested candidates can email at malishoaib@iscb.org, with following details:
1. Full Name
2. PMSRS registration number.
3. Present Class/Year
4. Contact No.
5. Email add. 
6. Relevant knowledge or Experience in Computer programming/Bioinformatics/Calculus or Linear algebra.(IF ANY)

Registration Deadline: 20th January, 2012. Limited Seats.