VISUALIZING BIOLOGICAL DATA VIZBI

The paper deadline for BioVis 2015 (http://biovis.net/, July 10-11) – the 5th Symposium on Biological Data Visualization – closes soon. Original contributions are invited on all aspects of visualization in biology, from molecular to cell, tissue, organism and population biology. In addition to full scientific papers, BioVis also invites scientific posters, participation in a data contest, or in a design contest. BioVis 2015 brings together researchers from the visualization, bioinformatics, and biology communities with the purpose of educating, inspiring, and engaging visualization researchers in problems in biological data visualization as well as bioinformatics and biology researchers in state-of-the-art visualization research. It will be co-located with the ISMB/ECCB conference in Dublin, Ireland.

PhenoPlot – a tool for visualizing cellular imaging data that won Best Scientific Poster Award at VIZBI 2014 – has recently been published in Nature Communications by Heba Sailem and colleagues. PhenoPLot is an open source Matlab toolbox and GUI that enables intuitive visualization of multidimensional data from thousands of cellular images. It uses a flexible, glyph-based approach to visually depict up to 21 variables that characterize cellular structure. The concepts employed in Phenoplot can be extended to many other phenotypic datasets such as those describing tissues, or organisms such as worm or zebrafish. PhenoPlot can also be used for science communication and outreach.

Today (Feb. 4) at 4:30pm Canberra time you can join a live video steam covering the premiere screening of two stunning new biomedical animations from Maja Divjak and Chris Hammang – both trained by world-renowned animator Drew Berry. The event will be opened by Iann Chubb, Australia’s Chief Scientist. After the event, a recording of the event and the animations will be on YouTube. Details at http://vizbi.org/plus/events/. After the event, the animations are available at http://vizbi.org/plus/.

Aquaria is a web resource for biologists that simplifies the process of gaining insight from protein structures. To coincide with the publication of Aquaria in this month’s Nature Methods by O’Donoghue and co-workers, the Aquaria team are hosting a webinar today that shows how it can be used to gain insight into protein function. Details at http://aquaria.ws/launch. Aquaria will also be at VIZBI 2015 as part of a combined tutorial on 3D structures with the Chimera team.

Two updates re. VIZBI 2015: First, the early registration deadline has been extended to February 7, 23:59 PST. Second, the program for the tutorial day has been finalised, now including 13 compelling tutorials to choose from. The tutorial rooms have limited capacity, so book soon to ensure your place.

One of the keynotes at VIZBI 2015 will be given by John T. Stasko, a pioneer in the fields of Information Visualization and Visual Analytics. John is currently Professor of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech; his research interests cover a wide range of topics including theoretical foundations of visualisation, interaction, and evaluation. With over 125 research articles, numerous best paper awards, and multiple organisational activities, John has played a major role in establishing Information Visualization and Visual Analytics as research areas of their own. His lab has developed several widely used systems, especially the Jigsaw tool for analysing document collections, which has been featured by various media.

VIZBI 2015 will take place March 25-27 at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA. It features 21 invited talks, posters and lightning talks from all participants, and 12 half-day tutorials. Remote participation is possible, and there are opportunities to promote your organization. Early registration closes 31 January 2015.

As with previous years, VIZBI 2015 (at the Broad Institute, USA) will be preceded by a tutorial day prior to the main meeting. The tutorial day (March 24, 2015) gives delegates the opportunity to learn about key methods and to gain hands-on experience with a variety of tools for visualizing biological data.

Running a tutorial can be an excellent opportunity to showcase your work. Tutors will also receive $40/student, equal to a third of the tutorial registration fee. Based on past experience, tutorials covering topical or widely-used tools and methods are likely to be well received, as are tutorials on principles of either data visualization or user experience design.

Please complete the tutorial proposal form, by 11.59 PST on December 28, 2014. Applicants will be notified on December 31, 2014.
We look forward to seeing your proposals!

Art Meets Science 2014 (at MDI Biological Laboratory, Bar Harbor Maine, USA, 1 July 1 – 30 September, 2014) features work from 43 artists exploring a wide variety of biological themes. Tours of the exhibit will be available by only reservation – call +1 207-288-3147).

Body Image (at UNSW Galleries, Sydney, Australia – 6 September to 8 November, 2014) features visualisations of complex scientific and biomedical data that arise from collaborations between artists and medical scientists – including VIZBI participants Drew Berry, Chris Hammang, and Kate Patterson. The exhibition takes viewers on enthralling visual journeys inside the human body, discovering aspects of blood flow, organ and cellular behaviour.

Noted scientist and artist David Goodsell (Scripps) will present three upcoming events in Sydney, as announced today in the Financial Review. David is the author of Molecule of the Month at RCSB Protein Data Bank. He will talk about tools for predicting small molecule interactions, his watercolour paintings of proteins and cells in molecular detail, and the processes and challenges of working at a molecular and cellular scale.

David Goodsell: Computational Docking with AutoDock
Wednesday, 28 May, 5:30 – 6:30 pm (free). NAB Auditorium, Garvan Institute, Darlinghurst

David Goodsell: On Making Science Beautiful
An evening event at the Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney, featuring David Goodsell, our three new biomedical animations, the finalists from the VizbiPlus Challenge, and an opportunity for audience members to give a 30 sec. lightning talk about their own projects bridging art and science. This event is geared towards the general public. Thursday, 29 May, 6:30 – 8:00 pm (tickets: $25 + BF) plus a mixer from 8:00 – 10:00 pm (free).

Unlocking the Protein Data Bank: A Masterclass with David Goodsell
This is a hands-on workshop for people interested in producing visuals using the resources from PDB. Friday, 30 May at 8:30 – 11:00 am (tickets: $35 + BF).

Just released on YouTube: video of Drew Berry’s awesome Virus one billion times installation, created for Melbourne’s White Night. Drew gave a short talk on this work at VIZBI 2014.

Today at the VizbiPlus premiere event in Melbourne, three stunning new animations were officially launched. Each animation deals with an important topic in human health, namely: type 2 diabetes, cancer, and the link between diet, the gut microbiome and health. These are the first of six animations planned as part of the VizbiPlus project, which aims to inspire and educate the public about cutting-edge biomedical research.