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Bioinformatics and Research Support

The Bioinformatics and Research Support Core Facility provides bioinformatics, software development and statistics expertise to facilitate cutting-edge plant biological research.

Overview

The Bioinformatics and Research Support team in the computing services department consists of both scientists and programmers representing a broad range of disciplines and skill sets who provide support services to all three operating divisions. Group members are experienced in bioinformatics, computer programming, data analysis, biostatistics, scientific writing, and the dissemination of information and products aimed at increasing the efficiency of the research and consultation programs. Team members not only use the most advanced and sophisticated software but also develop cutting-edge software and custom scripts that facilitate data sharing and analysis. Through these services and group-led educational workshops, the team seeks to expand the scientific and analytical capabilities of the Noble Research Institute research staff.

Examples of current work include next-generation sequence analysis, comparative genomics, transcriptomics, gene network prediction, genetic mapping, biomarker discovery, image analysis and other types of scientific data analysis.

Services

  • Data analysis
    • BLAST services
      • Abokia-BLAST (super scalable parallel implementation of NCBI BLAST)
      • SequenceServer (a modern GUI for custom BLAST databases)
    • Data visualization and web-based visualization tools
    • Gene expression analysis
    • Genome and transcriptome annotation
    • Genotyping By Sequencing (GBS)
    • Image and quantification analyses
    • Next-generation sequence assembly and mapping
    • Pathway/Gene ontology analysis
    • Targeted next-generation data analysis of TNT1 and FNB mutated plants
    • Statistical analysis and experimental design
  • Research computing, software and database development
    • Alfalfa Breeder's Toolbox (a compendium of resources for alfalfa genomic, genetic and phenotypic information)
    • Galaxy (an intuitive, web-based platform for data intensive bioinformatics analysis)
    • High performance computing resources: Taurus, ScaleMP and Virtual Machine Servers
    • Scientific software development
  • Training
    • Hands-on bioinformatics tools training
    • Hands-on R programming language training for beginners
    • Statistical concepts