“Do you feel finding the right analysis and tools is like going through a maze of installation errors, software versions, tutorials and flawed ChatGPT prompts? Then welcome to the Accessible Bioinformatics Café“.
With this invitation, a small group of bioinformatics enthusiasts at Aarhus University (AU) is welcoming researchers and specialists from other disciplines into the world of data science and helping them apply data science methods in their own research projects.
The initiative is supported by the Danish Data Science Academy, which provides funding for data science courses and events.
One of the driving forces behind the initiative is Samuele Soraggi, an Italian Special Consultant in Data Science and Bioinformatics at Aarhus University. He recognised a growing need to help researchers better understand and utilise the data generated through their research.
“Bioinformatics is essentially data science applied to biological data such as DNA. Some years ago, a Master’s student I was helping going through a steep frustration curve in coding, started wondering: ‘Why don’t we create a place where people can come and get help with bioinformatics the same way I do?’ The challenge is that researchers need to learn a great deal before they can even begin analysing data in a project. That was five years ago. Today, we offer a full programme of tutorials and workshops covering a range of topics,” Samuele explains.
Researchers with coding challenges
The training is open to everyone, including participants from private companies, although most attendees come from the fields of biology and medicine. Engineers also participate, for example through the workshop Computing Infrastructure.
“We help researchers who are struggling with coding challenges when they need to analyse large datasets. Some of our activities take the form of three-hour sessions where a group of normally four or five data scientists provides hands-on support. We also organise workshops on High-Performance Computing and analytical methods. Over time, we have developed three different workshop formats,” says Samuele.
The data science team behind the café meetings, workshops, and support sessions includes Marie Sønderstrup (the MSc student, now PhD student, having the ideas like Samuele about the “helping café”), Per Qvist, Manuel Peral-Vázquez, Dimitrios Pediotidis-Maniatis, Jacob Egemose Høgfeldt, and Samuele himself.
Samuele has previously been a postdoctoral researcher in bioinformatics. Prior to that, he completed his PhD at the University of Copenhagen, where he worked with his supervisors in a larger project coordinated by Eske Willerslev, the internationally renowned Danish evolutionary geneticist known for his pioneering work in molecular anthropology, palaeontology, and ecology.
Data Science is expanding into new domains
Samuele would like to see similar initiatives established at other universities across Denmark.
“It would be fantastic if others replicated what we are doing,” he says.
His initiative reflects a broader trend that has developed over the past decade: data science is increasingly becoming an integral part of other scientific disciplines because nowadays data is being generated across all faculties and departments, even in those who were not using data science in the past.
“The café provides researchers with a foundation in data science. We are also seeing data science being applied more and more in the humanities and many other fields. However, there is still a need to educate people in data science. Yes, today AI agents can help implement data science methods, but the next step is ensuring that people can evaluate whether the outputs and conclusions are correct. That is where I see a continued need for initiatives like ours in Aarhus, where we help others understand data science methods and analyses,” Samuele says.
He adds:
“Generations from high school will grow up using AI agents. That means we will need to develop new types of courses and training to support this new reality.”