This week's highlights
Seasonal update
This is the final Weekly Brief newsletter of 2024. The ELIXIR Hub will be closed on 25 December 2024 - 1 January 2025. Thank you all for helping to make 2024 such an excellent year for ELIXIR. We hope you have a wonderful, restful and healthy holiday.
The Weekly Brief will resume on 13 January 2025, please continue to send updates for inclusion in the newsletter to info@elixir-europe.org
Project to link human genomic data completes ELIXIR-funded project portfolio
A two-year project to link European human genomic data from different sources has been awarded funding by ELIXIR. The project aims to develop solutions to link multi-omic sensitive data deposition databases, biobanks and derived knowledge resources.
Read the news
Recommended reads
ViralPrimer: a web server to monitor viral nucleic acid amplification tests primer efficiency during pandemics, with emphasis on SARS-CoV-2 and Mpox
A BY-COVID paper
Accurate pathogen identification is crucial during outbreaks, especially with the emergence of new variants requiring frequent primer updates. In this article, the authors introduce ViralPrimer, a web server facilitating primer design, SARS-CoV-2 and Mpox variant monitoring, and adaptation to future threats. ViralPrimer aims to enhance diagnostic accuracy with its comprehensive primer database, mutation analysis assistance, and user primer upload feature. Its adaptable design allows monitoring of other rapidly mutating pathogens, contributing to broader public health protection efforts.
Read more
Deploying deep Solanaceae domestication and virus biotechnology knowledge to enhance food system performance and diversity
An ELIXIR Italy paper
Our knowledge of crop domestication, genomics, and of the plant virosphere unevenly represents the taxonomic distribution of the global biodiversity, and is significantly enriched for the Solanaceae. Within the family, potato, tomato, eggplant, pepper, and over 100 lesser-known edible species play important nutrition and cultural roles in global and local food systems. In this research, the authors highlight the potential of virus-based biotechnologies for fast-track improvement of Solanaceae crop production systems, contributing to enhanced global and local human nutrition and food security.
Read more
Updates from Nodes
A new pan-European supercomputer and a European Union AI Factory to be placed in Finland
Finland has been chosen as one of the locations for the EuroHPC Joint Undertakings next-generation pan-European supercomputers and the European Unions AI Factories. It is a significant investment that ensures Finlands pioneering position in high-performance computing long into the future.
Read the news
Updates from Communities
Register for the 3D BioInfo Community meeting
19-21 March 2025 | Barcelona, Spain
Deadline for abstracts: 15 December 2024
Registration deadline: 1 March 2025
The 3D-BioInfo Community meeting will take place in March 2025 as part of a joint event with 3DSIG COSI from ISCB. The meeting aims to bring together structural bioinformatics researchers from two communities for networking and to exchange ideas on the workflows and resources needed to exploit the transformative new developments in the data and methods.
More information and registration
Updates from other initiatives
ESFRI position paper on Framework Programme 10
The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) has published its position paper on Framework Programme 10 presenting its view on some of the strategic aspects that FP10 should include.
Read more
Upcoming ELIXIR events & webinars
ELIXIR Training Courses & Webinars
The ELIXIR TeSS portal has a variety of interesting events and courses organised by the ELIXIR Nodes. For more, visit TeSS portal
de.NBI training course: Mastering research data management for human data: safeguarding sensitive information and elevating data security
23-24 January 2025 | online
SIB course: Introduction to statistics with R
27-29 January 2025 | Lausanne, Switzerland
SIB course: First steps with R in life sciences
3 - 4 February 2025 | Basel. Switzerland
SIB course: Introduction to GPU programming for life sciences
11 - 12 February 2025 | Online
de.NBI training course: Training clinic
14 February 2025 | Online
de.NBI training course: Maximising the potential of microbial research data - strategies for effective management & utilization
18 February 2025 | Online
de.NBI training course: Transforming microbial research data management with Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELNs)
20 February 2025 | Online
SIB course: Long-read sequence analysis
27 - 28 February 2025 | Bern, Switzerland
EMBL-EBI course: Microscopy data analysis: machine learning and the BioImage Archive
31 March - 4 April 2025 | Online
EMBL-EBI course: Cancer genomics and transcriptomics
12 - 16 May 2025 | Online
EMBL-EBI course: Introduction to metabolomics analysis
20 - 23 May 2025 | EMBL-EBI, UK
ELIXIR Events and Conferences
ELIXIR 3D BioInfo Community F2F/hybrid meeting
19-21 March 2025 | Hybrid - Barcelona, Spain
ELIXIR Microbiome Community F2F/hybrid meeting
09-10 April 2025 | Hybrid - Barcelona, Spain
ELIXIR Biodiversity Community F2F/hybrid meeting
10-11 April 2025 | Hybrid - Barcelona, Spain
ELIXIR All Hands 2025
2-5 June 2025 | Thessaloniki, Greece
Job vacancies
All vacancies are also published on the ELIXIR website (also including those from industry). If you need our help communicating your new open positions, you can submit a job advertisement and it will automatically appear on our newsletters. Go to our vacancy page to submit a job