21/05/2013

UPF held an international course on Translational Bioinformatics

The INBIOMEDvision Translational and Integrative Bioinformatics postgraduate course followed the series of multidisciplinary and innovative training activities organised by the project. This 1-week course was held on the 22-26^th of April at the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (Spain) facilities at the lively University zone located uptown of Barcelona. The course was targeted to post graduate students with interest in the different integrative and translational research approaches in the field of Bioinformatics. The main topics of the 5 day-agenda were: i) Clinical application of genomic information; ii) Electronic Health Records in integrative research; iii) Automatic extraction and integration of information from scientific publications and other sources; iv) Ontologies and standards for biomedical data integration; and v) Systems biology and network analysis for translational medicine.

A group of 30 students from 10 different countries were selected to take part in the course based on personal motivation and previous study and research background with a special focus on translational and integrative studies. A number of mobility and registration fee grants were given to best applicants. The participants of the course learned about the current challenges and opportunities in translational bioinformatics and had a chance to meet experts in this emerging field. 16 internationally renowned scientists from various disciplines were invited as lecturers.

The course was jointly organised with the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), the Bioinformatics Barcelona (BIB), Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), the Spanish Technological Platform for Innovative Medicines (PTEMI), and the Spanish Institute of Bioinformatics (INB). The organising and selection commitee was chaired by Dr. Laura I. Furlong (GRIB, IMIM-UPF), and other members were Prof. Ferran Sanz and Dr. Núria López-Bigas (GRIB, IMIM-UPF).