CBRC and Beijing Institute of Genomics hold joint workshop

L-R: Jingfa Xiao (Professor, Big Data Center, BIG), Jiayan Wu (Manager, S&T Department, BIG), Songnian Hu (Director, CAS Key Laboratory, BIG), Stefan Arold (Associate Professor, CBRC), Yiming Bao (Director, Big Data Center, BIG), Yongbiao Xue (Director, BIG), Vladimir Bajic (Director, CBRC), Takashi Gojobori (Associate Director, CBRC), Zhang Zhang (Executive Director, Big Data Center, BIG), Katsuhiko Mineta (Senior Research Scientist, CBRC), Wenming Zhao (Deputy Chief, Big Data Center, BIG)

-By Rose Gregorio

The Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC) hosted a delegation of directors, managers and professors from the Beijing Institute of Genomics (BIG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) on March 25-28, 2018. The purpose of their visit was to hold a joint workshop entitled "Big Data in Biodiversity and Health", as well as to explore possible research collaborations.

The first day of the workshop was on March 26. It started with an introduction to King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), CBRC and BIG, BIG Data Center, and the Open Biodiversity and Health Big Data (BHBD) Alliance. This was followed by a trip to the KAUST Core Labs and CBRC labs. Invited guests were then taken to Jeddah to see the city's historic center, Al Balad.

On the second day of the workshop, researchers from CBRC/KAUST and BIG/CAS presented their research. Topics ranged from Big Data Integration and Curation for Rice by Professor Zhang Zhang to Computational Methods for Drug Toxicity Prediction by a Ph.D. student Arwa Bin Raies. The full agenda can be found here.

On the third and final day, CBRC and BIG discussed their aims for collaboration in three main areas: research, scientific outreach and academic exchange programs. Two specific topics were singled out that will be fully defined in the coming weeks: Fish-related research and Precision Medicine-related research. The outcomes of the workshop were judged as extremely useful with both institutions eager to begin a long and fruitful research partnership. 

View more photos here.