EMBnet.journal

Data deluge demands a training tsunami

Eija Korpelainen

CSC - IT Center for Science, Espoo, Finland

Korpelainen E (2015) EMBnet.journal 21(Suppl A), e833. http://dx.doi.org/10.14806/ej.21.A.833

Modern sequencing technologies open unprecedented possibilities for life science research. As new sequencing applications or “seqs” become available and the cost is going down, sequencing has become the measurement technology of choice for more and more researchers. However, in order to exploit sequencing to its full extent, substantial data analysis skills are required. This is a bottleneck for several reasons: each “seq” requires its own analysis methods, methods are changing rapidly as the field hasn’t matured yet, and the sheer volume of the data poses technical challenges. The situation is aggravated by the fact that life science researchers typically have a bio/medical background and very little experience in programming and statistics. Taken together, the need for training in up-to-date data analysis skills is massive, but luckily international efforts are already underway to improve the situation. The truly global effort in this regard is GOBLET1, the Global Organisation for Bioinformatics Learning, Education & Training. This talk discusses several aspect of training, such as who should be trained, what should be taught and how, who should provide the training, and who will train the trainers.