Webinar: Creating a distributable software with basic Python skills

STREAMING EVENT: given the current public health situation (Coronavirus outbreak), we changed this session to a streaming-only event. We will stream Kris talk via our YouTube channel. There you'll be able to participate via chat.

YOUTUBE CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR3LMPeZR_VcaIAj_YnR_sw

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ABSTRACT: PyData Madison v3.0.0 (released March 19, 2020) will feature a software package I created called VIBRANT (Virus Identification By iteRative ANnoTation). We'll start by jumping into the shoes of a microbiologist to quickly discuss why viruses that infect bacteria are a powerful component of nature and how DNA sequencing provides an (unparsed) method of finding them. I'll then show you the nuts and bolts of VIBRANT, how a little machine learning goes a long way to parse out viruses, and finally how to put it all together into a distributable software. This talk will feature living proof that Python experience != success (always). What you should take away from this talk is an appreciation that sometimes innovative ideas > skill, and how a software can be assembled at the beginner level. Installing VIBRANT is not a prerequisite of this talk, but the source code can be found on GitHub: https://github.com/AnantharamanLab/VIBRANT

SPEAKER BIO: Kris is a 3rd year PhD student in the Bacteriology Department at UW-Madison and in his 3rd year of knowing what Python is. He graduated from Central Michigan University where he worked in the research lab of Dr. Michael Conway studying the transmission of Dengue virus through its mosquito vector and the role of the innate immune system in viral pathogenicity. For his current thesis project, Kris studies how viruses that infect bacteria can drive processes in the world around us, such as how the oceans cycle nutrients or how our gut microbiome may cause diseases. To do this, Kris leverages DNA sequencing data and bioinformatics tools to find out what may be hidden in the microscopic world.