Category: The ISB

EBI Training: A guide to molecular interactions

A GUIDE TO MOLECULAR INTERACTIONS

During this webinar, we will give you an introduction to molecular interactions and how to find these through the molecular interaction database IntAct. We will show you examples of how you can search for interaction data, how to create molecular interaction networks using our network viewer based on Cytoscape.js and how to download this data for further analysis.

We will also have a quick look at two other resources, PSICQUIC and IMEx, that integrate molecular interactions from several sources.

Who is this course for?

This webinar is aimed at students or early researchers beginning to use bioinformatics resources in their studies/research who wish to learn more about molecular interactions and IntAct. No prior knowledge of bioinformatics is required, but undergraduate level knowledge of biology would be useful.

Outcomes

By the end of the webinar you will be able to:

Explain what molecular interactions are
Describe what IntAct can be used for
Search for interaction data

26 May 2021

15:30 – 16:30 ( BST )

Online and Free

2021 Biocuration Awards Nominations

The International Society for Biocuration is happy to announce the 2021 Biocuration Awards.

In 2021, the ISB will give two different awards to people who have made a significant impact in the field of biocuration. We welcome your nominations!

Description of the awards:

1) Award for Exceptional Contributions to Biocuration
ISB’s Exceptional Contributions Award recognizes a person who is a leader or a pioneer in the field of biocuration, and whose work has been fundamental to the advancement of biocuration.

2) Biocuration Career Award
The Biocuration Career Award recognizes biocurators in non-leadership positions who have made sustained contributions to the field of biocuration. Those who hold Principal Investigator or Group Leader positions are not eligible for the Biocuration Career Award.

Each award recipient will be invited to present a talk at the 2021 International Biocuration Conference, which will be held virtually this year (the dates and details are to be determined).

Nomination process:
Nominations will be reviewed by the 2021 ISB Awards Committee, comprised of one member of the ISB’s Executive Committee (ISB-EC) and six (6) additional members from the wider research community; these members were nominated by the ISB-EC based on diversity in area of expertise, organization type, role, and geographic location.

Who can nominate and/or be nominated?

·      Any currently active ISB member may nominate anyone in the field of biocuration, whether the potential nominee is a member of ISB or not.

·      Members of the ISB can make no more than 1 nomination per award.

·      Current members of the Executive Committee or the ISB Award Committee are not eligible for the awards.

·      Self-nominations will not be considered.

How to submit a nomination:

Nominations should be sent via email to the awards committee at intsocbio@gmail.com with the subject line “Biocuration Awards Nominations”.

The nomination email should contain all the following fields:

·      Nominator details (name, e-mail and affiliation, member of ISB);

·      Nominee details (name, e-mail and affiliation);

·      Type of award nomination (either Exceptional Contributions to Biocuration or Biocuration Career Award);

·      Short list of scholarly contributions (a maximum of 50 words);

·      Brief description of why you are recommending this person (a maximum of 350 words).

Deadline for submitting nominations:  Friday, February 26, 2021

Please welcome the new 2020-2021 ISB Executive Committee

We welcome Robin Haw as our newest member to the ISB EC. Nicole Vasilevsky and Rama Balakrishnan are returning for their second term.

Our new Chair/Secretary/Treasurer are as follows:

Thanks to Sylvain Poux for your years of service; our outgoing EC member and Treasurer (EC member 2014-2020, Treasurer 2018-2020). Thanks to Sandra Orchard, our outgoing chair (Chair 2018-2020; Sandra will continue on the EC for another year).

Please click here for the composition of the subcommittees. Please note, the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion subcommittee is open to all members, if you would like to join, please reply to this email.

2020 has been quite a year with COVID, quarantines, the Black Lives Matter movement, the US election and more. We feel optimistic about the year to come and we want to serve our community as best we can.

Biocuration 2020 online workshops

As part of the Biocuration 2020 conference we had received excellent workshop proposals from several groups. Since the cancellation of the meeting we have been working with interested workshop organizers to bring this part of the conference online. We are excited to announce that we now have 3 workshops scheduled for the fall:

  • September 24, 9am PT, 12pm ET, 5pm CET – Biocompute Objects: Methods for communicating provenance of data and analysis 
    • Organizers: Charles Hadley King, Raja Mazumder, Jonathon Keeney; George Washington University
    • Register here
    • Recording here
  • October 29, 12pm PT, 3pm ET, 8pm CET – Gene Wiki: how to synchronize and curate primary sources with and in Wikidata 
    • Organizers: Andra Waagmeester, Lynn Schriml and Sabeh Ul-Hasan, Gene Wiki
    • Register here
    • Recording here
  • Dec 04, 8am PT, 11am ET, 4pm UK, 5pm CET – Biolink Model – A community driven data model for life sciences
    • Organizers: Deepak Unni, Chris Mungall, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
    • Register here
    • Recording here

All workshops will be free to all participants.

There is a Slack workspace set up to facilitate communication between organizers and participants. If you are interested in attending any of these workshops please email biocuration2020 @ gmail.com and we will send you an invite to the Slack workspace.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ELECTION 2020

The election of the new International Society for Biocuration Executive Committee (ISB EC) will be held from September 27 – October 04, 2020.

The list of 7 candidates for 2020 can be viewed here.

The Executive Committee is composed of nine (9) members, each with a 3-year term. Being a member of the Executive Committee is a great way to become directly involved with the work of our society, and contribute to the decisions that are taken on behalf of the biocuration community. We would like to encourage all members interested in running for election to get involved in the process.

Serving on the ISB EC minimally involves attending monthly (1 hour)  teleconference meetings, following up on any action items from meetings, and  promoting the ISB’s activity to members and non-members. Examples of activities performed by EC members include reviewing micro-grant submissions, preparing call for participation for hosting Biocuration meetings, preparing materials for the ISB election, monitoring ISB mail and maintaining the website. There are specific positions such as Chair, Secretary and Treasurer that will require a larger time commitment, as they will be in charge of leading the steps of the EC and by extension the membership.

3 positions on the Executive Committee are up for election in 2020/2021. These positions are currently held by Nicole Vasilevsky, Rama Balakrishnan and Sylvain Poux. Nicole and Rama can re-stand for election. (The current ISB EC members are here.)

2020 Electoral Process

A) The Nominating Committee:

A Nominating Committee (NC) has been formed to oversee the electoral process, to review applications, and establish the final list of candidates. We are very grateful for their assistance with the execution of this election. The members of the 2020 Nominating Committee are TBD.

B) Instructions to Candidates: 

  1. If you would like to run for a position on the Executive Committee, you must first register your intent with the NC by emailing intsocbio@simplelists.com
  1. Please fill out this form by 28 August 2020, which includes a ‘statement of intent‘, a brief biographical sketch, and a ‘conflict of interests‘ statement describing any activities, memberships of other associations, editorial positions on journals, etc. (Please email us at intsocbio@simplelists.com if you are unable to access this form.)

C) Timeline:

  • Nominations will be received until 28 August 2020.
  • The NC will review all candidacies and share their selections with the ISB Executive Committee by 14 September 2020.
  • Candidates must be announced to the membership and on website (with letters of intent) by 21 September 2020.
  • Voting will take place online over the course of one week from 27 September – 04 October 2020. (Further details about the voting process will be shared soon). Sue Bello will act as election officer.
  • Only paying members* with registration fees cleared on or before 21 September 2020 will be allowed to vote. If you pay your registration via bank transfer, please allow at least 2-3 working days for the payment to be processed.

*Note – please contact us at intsocbio@simplelists.com if you have issues with registering or renewing your membership. Known issues exist with our membership payment system.

The Nominating Committee is looking forward to receiving your applications!

ISB statement from the Equity, Inclusion and Diversity committee

In response to recent events related to racism and injustice, most recently in the United States, but still present everywhere in the world, and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. The ISB is a society devoted to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion in the scientific enterprise and in society as a whole. We unequivocally sustain and believe that Black Lives Matter.

Like all STEM organisations, we cannot ignore both the legacy of racism, especially in the life sciences, and the reality of discrimination in our institutions and workplaces. In the specific case of our membership, we are aware that discrimination is present in our field, and it is often reflected in a lack of recognition, defined career-tracks, or opportunties for advancement for people invested in biocuration.

What can we do? The ISB EDI committee was created in response to a necessary discussion about sexism, and we were aware from the start of the necessity of tackling other forms of discrimination and intersectionality. We must accelerate our current efforts, and go beyond them.

Current efforts:

New initiatives:

  • We are currently working on inviting champions of equity, diversity, and inclusion from a variety of institutions to present webinars on the subject of EDI; to share with us more on how the subject is addressed at their institutions and to advise ISB members on what we can do to make a difference
  • We will continue to review and revise, where necessary, our Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct to ensure that we represent the values and beliefs of all of our community

We welcome you to get in touch with any questions, concerns or suggestions. All members of our community are welcome to participate in the EDI Committee. Please email us at: intsocbio@gmail.com.

Annual General Meeting June 30, 2020

You are invited to a virtual Annual General Meeting of the International Society for Biocuration on Tuesday, 30 June, 8am PST, 11am EST, 4:00 PM UK, 5pm western Europe.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88975996534

This will take the form of a 30 minute presentation on the Society’s activities followed by a Q&A to the EC.

We look forward to seeing you there.

The ISB Executive Committee

Call in information below:

Topic: ISB AGM
Time: Jun 30, 2020 04:00 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88975996534
Meeting ID: 889 7599 6534

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