To do anything, viruses must find a host, and not just any host will do. It must be a specific host the virus has adapted to commandeer. For bacteriophage viruses, these hosts are microbes like bacteria, not humans. With metagenomic sequencing, researchers have found more of these viruses than ever before, in all kinds of ecosystems. However, matching these viral genetic sequences to their hosts is crucial to understanding what these viruses can do. Building on existing virus-host prediction approaches, researchers have created a new program called iPHoP (pronounced “eye-pop”, freely available online).
New Computational Biosciences Group Formed
Researchers from Biosciences and the Computational Research Division (CRD) have formed a new integrated Computational Biosciences Group to develop tools for addressing a range of scientific problems that cross organizational lines. Members of the group include (pictured, from left): Héctor García Martin of the Biological Systems and Engineering and the Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Divisions (BSE/EGSB), acting group lead Kris Bouchard (BSE), Chris Mungall (EGSB), Andrew Tritt of the Computational Research Division(CRD), Oliver Rübel (CRD), and Ben Brown (EGSB). Additional members not pictured are: Aydın Buluç (CRD), Silvia Crivelli (CRD), Hans Johansen (CRD), Talita Perciano (CRD), and Peter Zwart of the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division (MBIB).
Read more on the Computing Sciences website.
Building Standards for Neurophysiology Data
Researchers from Berkeley Lab and the Allen Institute for Brain Science will receive $2 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop a next-generation data format and software ecosystem for the Neurodata Without Borders: Neurophysiology (NWB:N) project. With funding from the Kavli Foundation, Berkeley Lab scientists Oliver Ruebel and Andrew Tritt in the Computational Research Division and Kristofer Bouchard in the Biological Systems and Engineering Division led the development of the beta version of NWB:N 2.0, and will continue to advance the development of NWB:N as part of the NIH BRAIN Initiative. Berkeley Lab’s leadership in the NWB:N development would have not been possible without the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project BRAINformat: A Data Standardization Framework for Neuroscience Data. Berkeley Lab also hosted a user engagement hackathon earlier this year, bringing together users to help them adopt NWB:N.
Read more from Computing Sciences.
Beta of Neurodata Without Borders Software Now Available
Neuroscientists can now explore a beta version of the new Neurodata Without Borders: Neurophysiology (NWB:N 2.0) software and offer input to its developers. The 2.0 software was developed by Berkeley Lab Computational Research Division’s (CRD’s) Oliver Ruebel and Andrew Tritt, in collaboration with Kristofer Bouchard (Biological Systems & Engineering Division, pictured), Loren Frank and Eddie Chang (UCSF), and the broader Neurodata Without Borders community. Read more on CRD’s website.
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