Monthly Archives: February 2021

Education, Europe, Health, Medical Education

Extending a warm welcome to a guest lecturer from Hungary!

I’m honored to welcome an old friend, Prof. Joe Petersburger, from the University of Pécs Medical School in Pécs, Hungary as a guest lecturer this semester. He will be joining us periodically for insight on the COVID-19 pandemic in Central Europe.
Prof. Petersburger embodies the ideals of a Renaissance scholar; he is not only a biologist, but also a photographer, former business executive, and medical communications expert. Prof. Petersburger earned his doctorate in biology from the University of Debrecen in Hungary and also was an exchange student at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. He went on to become the first Hungarian photographer to have his work featured in National Geographic magazine. After a stint working in the pharmaceutical industry, he directed his immense talents to teaching medical students and encouraging interdisciplinary studies (through ITD, the only trans-disciplinary studies institute at a Hungarian medical school).
https://itdweb.hu/en/
Please send along any questions you may have about how COVID has impacted Europe as well as any you may have regarding opportunities to study at the University of Pécs. It is Hungary’s oldest university offering courses of study in more than 300 disciplines (including the country’s oldest English language medical degree program).
Genetics, Research, Technology

Striking while the data is hot with AnVIL: Manipulating bioinformatics data with a great new opportunity for students and teachers

Thrilled to be starting work with the AnVIL and the curriculum development team to bring the power of this computational genomics research system to students and teachers all across the country! Through Johns Hopkins University and NIH’s genome research branch (NHGRI), college faculty from around the country are coming together to design curriculum and classroom lab exercises to teach students how to use this powerful data resource.

What would you like to do with genetic data? What would you like to investigate? Send in your questions or project suggestions for consideration!

What is AnVIL?

The task of turning the masses of generated biology healthcare data into useful information has been a problem since the advent of genetic sequence data production. With exponential increase in genomic data produced over the last 10 years, researchers are swimming in data. Without a centralized system for storing data generated in labs, datasets were not freely comparable because of silo-like storage. AnVIL, a data storage project sponsored by the NIH’s NHGRI uses Google cloud storage to serve anyone interested in computational genomics research.

This means students, teachers, and anyone curious who has internet access large data sets and run analytic programs. The promise of the internet breaking down barriers to information is finally being realized for genetics data.