QFAB Bioinformatics
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| Abbreviation | QFAB Bioinformatics |
|---|---|
| Formation | 2007 |
| Type | academic not-for-profit foundation |
| Headquarters | Institute for Molecular Bioscience University of Queensland Brisbane |
Region | Australia |
Director | Dr Dominique Gorse |
| Website | qfab |
QFAB Bioinformatics is a not-for-profit organisation with expertise in bioinformatics, biostatistics, Health informatics and specialised computing. QFAB provides access to:
- On-demand analysis and management of genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and clinical datasets
- Expert training and coaching in bioinformatics, biostatistics and biodata
- Analysis platforms facilitating the use of sophisticated analysis tools
Beyond its mission of supporting Queensland’s leading universities, QFAB also operates nationally and is a key contributor to the EMBL Australia Bioinformatics Resource [1] and the emerging Australian BioCommons.
Organisational structure
QFAB Bioinformatics is a unit of the Queensland Cyber Infrastructure Foundation (QCIF), a consortium of the six leading universities in Queensland:
- Central Queensland University
- Griffith University
- James Cook University
- Queensland University of Technology
- The University of Queensland
- University of Southern Queensland
The University of the Sunshine Coast is an affiliate member.
History
QFAB was established in 2007[2] , with funding from the Queensland Government's National and International Research Alliances Program[3], as a joint venture between The University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, Griffith University, CSIRO’s Australian eHealth Research Centre and the Queensland Government’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
Professor Mark Ragan from the Institute of Molecular Bioscience (IMB) and Dr Anthony Maeder from the Australian eHealth Research Centre led QFAB’s establishment and appointed Mr Jeremy Barker as CEO (2007–2014) to address three critical issues then facing bioinformatics in Queensland as identified by user surveys:[4]
- integrated data and high-performance computing in a secure environment
- affordable network bandwidth
- access to expert personnel
In 2015, Dr Dominique Gorse became CEO of QFAB and led the strategic alliance with QCIF, the Queensland Cyber Infrastructure Foundation, which resulted in the merger of the two organisations in April 2016. QCIF operates significant high-performance computing, cloud computing and data storage resources, is part of the national eResearch infrastructure, and offers a wide range of managed services across a broad spectrum of research domains. The key drivers behind the merger of QFAB with QCIF were:
- to increase the total value by combining the complementary capabilities of the two organisations
- the fit with QCIF’s strategy to deliver expert bioinformatics consultancy to researchers from member universities
- the efficiencies that could be gained by merging overlapping organisations with similar stakeholders
In April 2016, Dr Dominique Gorse became Director of QFAB Bioinformatics as the consulting unit of QCIF.
Platforms
QFAB and QCIF, together with the University of Melbourne’s Melbourne Bioinformatics, and the University of Queensland’s Research Computing Centre jointly built and operate Galaxy Australia which is a major feature of the Genomics Virtual Laboratory. [5]. It is the Australian national bring-your-own-data analysis platform for processing and visualisation of genomics data. Users simply upload their data, Galaxy Australia presents the tools in an easy to use GUI, where all the computational configuration is handled by the service. Data is stored in individual histories, that can be seamlessly shared with others. Galaxy Australia is part of the global usegalaxy.* group, that has enabled access to standardised reference genomes and also allows Australia to contribute to the core Galaxy code base development. Galaxy Australia is steadily adding new tools and functionality that reflects the dynamic nature of the research community supported.
Memberships
- Life Science Queensland
- EMBL Australia Bioinformatics Resource
- Global Organisation for Bioinformatics Learning, Education & Training (GOBLET)
- Pistoia Alliance
References
- ^ Schneider, Maria Victoria; Griffin, Philippa C; Tyagi, Sonika; Flannery, Madison; Dayalan, Saravanan; Gladman, Simon; Watson-Haigh, Nathan; Bayer, Philipp E; Charleston, Michael; Cooke, Ira; Cook, Rob; Edwards, Richard J; Edwards, David; Gorse, Dominique; McConville, Malcolm; Powell, David; Wilkins, Marc R; Lonie, Andrew (2008). "Establishing a distributed national research infrastructure providing bioinformatics support to life science researchers in Australia". Briefings in Bioinformatics. 20 (2): 384–389. doi:10.1093/bib/bbx071.
- ^
Ragan, M. A.; Littlejohn, T.; Ross, Bruce (2008). "Genome-scale computational biology and bioinformatics in Australia". PLoS computational biology. 4 (8): e1000068. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000068.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link) - ^ "Qld Government grants IMB over $2.5 million in funding". UQ News. 2006. Retrieved 2019-05-30.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ "Queensland Facility for Advanced Bioinformatics (QFAB) (2006–2010)". UQ Researchers. 2006. Retrieved 2019-05-30.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^
Afgan, Enis; Sloggett, Clare; Goonasekera, Nuwan; Makunin, Igor; Benson, Derek; Crowe, Mark; Gladman, Simon; Kowsar, Yousef; Pheasant, Michael; Horst, Ron; Lonie, Andrew (2015). "Genomics Virtual Laboratory: A Practical Bioinformatics Workbench for the Cloud". PLOS ONE. 10 (10): e0140829. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0140829.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)