"The biologist gathers knowledge, will often describe his or her work as if telling a story, strives to draw conclusions and construct models, and appreciates that exceptions are just as common as rules in our biological world. Compare this to the logic and process-oriented computer scientist, for whom rules and optimization are the goals... We have found, though, that this is where the strength of interdisciplinary research shows its full potential." -Jennifer Gardy and Fiona Brinkman, Science I recently wrote a guest blog post for the Broad Institute's Terra Blog. Terra is the Institute's cloud platform for biological researchers. I wrote about how their Terra-backed tool, the Single Cell Portal, can be used to smooth over the divide between computational and wet-lab researchers. Check it out here. Tools like this one are an important part of my field of research. A lot of attention, deservedly, is paid to new technology, such as the development of of single-cell RNA-seq assays, which has enabled us to measure and predict more things more accurately in biological research. But it's also incredibly important to have smart people building tools like this, which connect researchers across their various expertise. As I say in my post, "It's been amazing to experience first hand how emerging technology can help us not only to improve assays and analysis of biological data, but also to bridge the gap and facilitate hand-offs between data-producers and data-analyzers, and ultimately speed up and amplify the discovery process." There's a growing list of great tools like this - which can range from using Google Drive and GitHub in your research, to large-scale cloud-based platforms like Terra which are built with biological researchers in mind. I'd love to hear about your favorite tools and platforms that make your collaborative work easier.
1 Comment
|
AuthorAmanda Kedaigle's work in the Broad Institute focuses on leveraging brand new biological data modalities to study novel models of human brain development. Archives
February 2022
Categories |