Norwich, United Kingdom
February 13, 2014

For his seminar at TGAC, Jason Williams, will present an overview of the resources (which, are open to international users and collaborations) iPlant makes available, covering a number of practical examples on how iPlant’s platforms and tools can be leveraged in a variety of genomics related analyses (e.g. genome assembly, annotation, RNA-Seq, etc.), as well as additional applications in the genotype-to-phenotype portfolio. Jason will further advocate the need for cyberinfrastructure accessible to all life scientists – anticipating future collaborations with projects such as ELIXR (European life-sciences Infrastructure for biological Information) and TRANSPlant (trans-National Infrastructure for Plant Genomic Science).

Cyberinfrastructure (CI) is data storage, software, high-performance computing, and people – organised into systems that solve problems of size and scope that would not otherwise be solvable. In 2008, the U.S.’s National Science Foundation funded iPlant to create a life science cyberinfrastructure – a virtual organisation dedicated to servicing the “Big Data” needs of the plant science community. iPlant’s renewal in 2013 further expanded its goal of benefiting life science researchers and educators working in all domains of life, enabling them to understand and consequently create increasingly powerful predictions about biological systems. Accomplishing this task involves empowering discovery at multiple levels - from making bioinformatics applications accessible to the “average bench-biologist” to enabling big-data science not otherwise possible.

Jason Williams is the iPlant’s Education, Outreach, and Training Lead – based out of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor NY, he has a background in plant molecular biology. Jason is also an Educator at CSHL’s DNA Learning Center and faculty at Yeshiva University – running a science immersion course at Yeshiva University High School for Girls.

Website: http://www.earlham.ac.uk

Published: February 14, 2014