NBioinfo: Establishing a Bioinformatics Core in a University-based General Hospital in South Brazil
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5753/jidm.2024.2684Keywords:
Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Genomics, Machine Learning, Research Group, Systems BiologyAbstract
Bioinformatics is an indispensable discipline for current research in life and medical sciences. The increasing volume and complexity of biological data and the growing tendency for open data and data reuse projects have made computer-based analytical tools central to these research fields. However, it is an intrinsic interdisciplinary field with a multitude of skill sets required for using bioinformatics tools or undertaking research toward developing new methods. There is still a lack of skilled human resources to meet the numerous and growing application possibilities, which represents a bottleneck in many research projects. This paper reports our efforts to create the Núcleo de Bioinformática (NBioinfo, or Bioinformatics Core) at the Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA), a major public university hospital in Brazil. NBioinfo aims to serve as a hub for research and interaction in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at HCPA, institutionally developing these areas of knowledge and promoting scientific advances triggered by bioinformatics. We briefly present our research group's history and goals, and describe our activities toward providing HCPA with competencies in these fields. We also describe the scientific and methodological challenges recently faced by our group and the advances promoted by scientific collaborations and research projects developed at NBioinfo.
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