Dr Simon Sadedin on Scala and the JVM in the world of Bioinformatics
Details
This month Melbourne Scala will be hosted at Zendesk in the CBD.
Speaker: Dr Simon Sadedin, Clinical Bioinformatics Group lead, Victorian Clinical Genetics Services
"Astounding improvements in our ability to read and decode the sequence of DNA in recent years have led to generation of huge amounts of data, leading to a boom in related fields of data science such as bioinformatics. Underpinning this revolution is a blossoming ecosystem of software that is heavily driven by JVM technologies, with Scala playing a key role. In this session I will explain the basic biology underpinning the worlds of genomics and bioinformatics. I will then show what the generated data looks like, and describe how scala has become one of the most popular tools for analysing it, along with some of the challenges faced in doing so. I will discuss how we have deployed these tools in our work at the Victorian Clinical Genetics Services (VCGS), including implementation of our ultra rapid diagnostic test conducted in partnership with the Royal Childrens Hospital. Finally, I will mention some of opportunities that exist for software engineers who are interested in entering the space, and how people who are interested can potentially get involved."
Arrive from 5:45 for pizza, drinks and conversation, talks start around 6:30pm. As always, newcomers most welcome.
Hope to see you there,
-Luke