July 10, 2013, by Graham Kendall
Post-genomics and Bio-informatics workshop
This post was submitted by Dr Chin Chiew Foan
What type of technology can bring biologists working on rubber trees, tomato, oil palm, bacteria, human, rice, elephant, vanilla orchids, virus, tobacco and Arabidopsis together? The answer is Bio-informatics.
Last week on 4 and 5 July, there was a workshop on Post-genomics and Bio-informatics in UNMC jointly organised by Dr Chin Chiew Foan (School of Biosciences), Dr Ahimsa Campos Arceiz (School of Geography) and Dr Christopher Hill (The Graduate School). The committee brought in 2 bioinformatics experts from UNUK, Prof Sean May and Dr Marcos Castellanos Uribe, who have generously shared their knowledge in the workshop.
There were a total of 35 workshop participants, which were far exceeded the number of 20 that the committee were originally targeted for. Almost half of the participants were from outside UNMC such as Sarawak Biodiversity Center, Rubber Research Institute and University Malaya. The diverse background coupled with active participation of the participants helped to make the workshop a lively event. Overall, the workshop was a huge success with the participants went away feeling exhausted but fulfilling as there was a lot of knowledge learned within a short 2 days span. The committee therefore would be considering running a similar workshop next year.
It was a great workshop – Sean and Marcos are really knowledgeable and engaging; and the participants seemed to be learning and enjoying it. Good job Chiew Foan!