Bioanalysis in the spotlight in the SPS network

The SPS bioinformatics working group was created in 2019, led by Nicolas Bouché (IJPB) and Étienne Delannoy (IPS2). Meetings are organized every month bringing together about 15 bioinformaticians from the five institutes constituting the SPS network (IJPB, IPS2, BIOGER, I2BC, GQE).    

Training the SPS community of researchers/students in bioanalysis is the objective of the bioinformatics group, with a funding of 1.5 million over four years.  The group relies on the existing community of bioanalysts within SPS, by encouraging interactions and the sharing of expertise, for example through annual meetings, the last of which took place on October 6 at the IJPB. Training courses are also organized several times a year (RNA-seq data analysis; genome annotations...).   

In 2023, three three-year doctoral contracts to be awarded following a competition similar to that of the doctoral schools will be proposed for projects at the interface between plant biology and bioanalysis. SPS teams can respond to the call for proposals open until December 15.   

The bioinformatics working group also supports projects by providing research teams with a bioinformatician recruited by the SPS network for 3 or 6 months per projects. The call for proposals is open twice a year.  

IJPB projects supported in 2021 and 2022 (6 months)
> SAPTICoN project "Stable analytical pipelines for the transcriptomes of isolated cells or nuclei" 2021, leader: Pierre Hilson, "Cell Biology and Plant Regeneration" BCR team
> MetAnnotation project "Improving the annotation of the plant specialized metabolome", 2021, leader: François Perreau, "The Plant Observatory - Chemistry/Metabolism" OV-Chem
> multiCRISPR2022 project "CRISPR multiplex genotyping by Pacbio sequencing", leader: Jean-Denis Faure, "Cell Differentiation and Polarity" DIPOL team  

The SPS bioinformaticians and the working group, contact