The Oslo Bioinformatics Workshop Week (OBiWoW) started in 2022 as an initiative to build and strengthen the bioinformatics community in Oslo. Following the success of the first workshop week, the second OBiWoW took place in December 2023. The workshops are open for anyone within the scientific community interested in bioinformatics, regardless of background or experience.
Bioinformatics is widely used across a range of life science fields, which was also reflected in the workshops at OBiWoW (link to the full OBiWoW 2023 program).
– The goal of OBiWoW is to offer multiple workshops across a broad range of bioinformatic topics, to give practical, hands-on experience that participants can apply to their own work or research. As a result, the different workshops attract people from diverse scientific backgrounds and career levels, says Tatiana Belova, researcher at NCMM and one of the organizers of OBiWoW.
Practical workshops and engaging discussions
The workshops were led by instructors who have hands-on experience with bioinformatics tools and pipelines from their research. As a result, the workshops provide specialized expertise, and lay the grounds for interesting discussions and opportunities for networking among both participants and instructors.
Ieva Rauluseviciute from NCMM was one of the instructors for the workshop “Introduction to gene expression regulation by transcription factors and its computational analysis”.
– It was a really nice experience, because we had many great discussions throughout the workshop and a lot of engagement from the participants. We not only focused on how to perform the bioinformatic analysis, but also how to interpret the results. It gives people a broader understanding on how they can apply a bioinformatic tool or pipeline to their own work, says Rauluseviciute.
– As an instructor, I also found the event very useful. It made me think about how the tools I use daily in my research can be applied to other areas of research as well.
OBiWoW was wrapped up with a panel discussion and networking
The week was finalized with a networking event with a panel discussion on “Fostering Innovation in Bioinformatics”. The incentive for the panel discussion was to give insight into the process of bioinformatic innovation. The panelists came from both industry and academia and had experience with different steps of the innovation process.
The panel discussion was moderated by Vipin Kumar, representing RSG Norway, the regional student group of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) and a part of Nordic Computational Biology.
RSG Norway works to facilitate interactions between students, trainees and early-career researchers working in computational biology and related fields, across universities and industrial organizations.
– For some researchers working with bioinformatics, the idea of innovation might seem daunting or something they might not even have considered at all. The panel discussion was a great way to introduce the idea and show that the bar for initiating innovation is not too high, says Vipin Kumar.
– It’s important to create awareness of these opportunities and show who you can reach out to to brainstorm and further develop your ideas.
Encouraged by positive feedback
OBiWoW is organized by the Student Committee of the Centre for Bioinformatics at UiO, in collaboration with the ISCB Regional Student group in Norway. Several researchers from NCMM, including Tatiana Belova, were involved in organizing the event and participated as instructors.
Belova was also involved in organizing the first OBiWoW in 2022.
– After the first OBiWoW, we got a lot of positive feedback from participants, which encouraged us to organize it this year as well. Once again, we had high attendance and positive feedback. Hopefully, this will become a recurring annual event, says Belova.
Organizers
- Lex Nederbragt
- Mohamed Abdelhalim
- Fabiana Patalano
- Sinan Ugur Umu
- Fatima Heinicke
- Tatiana Belova
- Vipin Kumar
- Roza Berhanu Lemma
- Andrea Raffo
- Bayram Cevdet Akdeniz
- Jeanne Marie Cheneby
- Nazeefa Fatima
Innovation at UiO – knowledge from research in use
The UiO Growth House provides low-threshold innovation services for researchers and students at UiO. The Growth House offers, among other things, guidance and seed funding for those who want to develop their ideas into new products or services.
Read more about the services and reach out to the UiO Growth House to get help.