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Community-Driven Biocuration for Microbiome Research: A Workshop on the BugSigDB Semantic

Date: TBA

Organised by: Dr Svetlana Ugarcina Perovic

Overview:

This is a practical inclusive workshop that introduces participants to the principles and practice of biocuration, using BugSigDB a community-driven, open database of published microbiome signatures using ontologies and the NCBI taxonomy (Nature Biotechnology, 2023; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-023-01872-y). This session will provide hands-on experience in the fundamentals of curating scientific findings - particularly microbiome study results, annotating metadata with controlled vocabularies and understanding how curated resources integrate into reproducible analysis pipelines. It also discusses the review process used for quality control.

Drawing from three years and six rounds of participation in Outreachy which fostered community contributions and mentorship within BugSigDB, the workshop emphasizes not only technical skills but also soft skills such as collaborative processes that sustain high-quality curation efforts.

The workshop is designed for researchers, students and professionals interested in microbiome analysis, reproducible science and community-based database development. It will also be useful for those starting new biocuration projects interested in BugSigDB as a template. No prior experience in curation is required, just curiosity and willingness to engage.

Objectives:

By the end of the workshop, participants will:

  1. understand the principles and importance of curation in microbiome research
  2. complete a step-by-step introduction to using BugSigDB for microbiome signature annotation
  3. discover how to contribute to and retrieve curated data for reproducible research
  4. prepare to engage with the BugSigDB community and contribute to the open source project

Learning Outcomes:

  1. understand the role of biocuration in standardizing and reusing microbiome research findings
  2. learn to use BugSigDB to curate microbiome signatures from published studies
  3. apply standardised curation policies and ontologies to ensure interoperability
  4. explore how curated data can be queried, retrieved and integrated into downstream analyses using Bioconductor
  5. identify opportunities and pathways to join and contribute to community-driven biocuration initiatives

Target Audience:

  1. Early-career researchers and students in microbiology, bioinformatics, and computational biology
  2. Biocurators and database developers interested in community-driven approaches to microbiome study curation
  3. Microbiome researchers seeking standardized, reusable datasets for comparative studies or reproducible workflows
  4. Educators and mentors looking to integrate curation as a teaching and training tool

Prerequisites:

No prior experience in curation is required. Literature review skills will be helpful but not essential.

Capacity: 30

Waiting List

*Signing up for the waiting list will provide you with a notification when the selected workshop(s) open for registration. Only workshop applicants who have completed registration will be considered.