A TEAM of bioinformatics software scientists at the University of Limerick (UL) were awarded substantial funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to help further their cutting-edge work.
Dr Maria Doyle and Professor Aedín Culhane of UL’s School of Medicine and the Limerick Digital Cancer Research Centre were given more than €730,000 from the initiative – founded by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Dr Priscilla Chan – to support their ‘Bioconductor’ project, an open-source software meant to help analyse genomic data in an effort to greater understand a number of diseases on a molecular level.
With the ability to process large amounts of biological data, the software aims to help scientists solve complex problems and discover more effective treatments. By keeping the software open-source, the project’s creators say, Bioconductor can ensure equitable access to data and data analysis for medical research worldwide.
“Virtually all biomedical research now relies on computational tools and infrastructure. By providing specialised training and empowering researchers, we can address local health challenges, build sustainable development, and enhance capacity for globally inclusive and accessible biomedical discovery,” explained Professor Culhane.
“Our goal is to share knowledge and skills to empower researchers worldwide to tackle big health challenges.”
Professor Culhane, who was also awarded funding to run a global Train the Trainer programme to support emerging leaders for the project and improve online resources, said that the project “is all about bringing smart people together, sharing knowledge, and making it easier to develop software that can advance biomedical and health research”.
