The understanding of biochemical and other networks is an important part of systems biology, and I enjoyed attending an interesting seminar on “network-based drug design” by Péter Csermely of Semmelweiss University, where I was alerted to a number of his papers such as this one, and even a book, that had passed me by. Not for the first time, one is led to lament the difficulty of keeping up with the voluminous literature.

We had a meeting of the Chairs of the Institute Assessment Panels. Council also met.

I attended the launch by Minister of Universities and Science David Willetts of the Innovation and Research Strategy for Growth paper (pdf), which set down a number of important initiatives for the research base.
Continue reading: Networks, assessment, innovation and the semantic web

Last week was somewhat truncated by the Bank Holiday, and I had comparatively few external meetings on which to report. However, since I have a role in the oversight of the needs of e-research and e-infrastructure for RCUK, as ‘champion’ of the RCUK Research Group, one meeting that was particularly useful was with the senior team of the Joint Academic Network, aka janet, that has provided – without most users knowing or probably caring how – effective access to the internet for the UK academic community since as long as I have known.

Historically, we have (within reason) been able to move as much data (bytes) as we cared to around the network, but the rise of Big Data, data-driven science, Open Data, and in BBSRC’s case in particular genomics data, means that there is increasing recognition that we might soon break the system without a step change.
Continue reading: e-infrastructure, networks and change

Last week I attended a particularly interesting meeting that we had co-organised with colleagues at AHRC. This was a workshop on the wide-ranging, important and fundamental topic of data visualisation. Biological data visualisation can be defined as “a branch of bioinformatics concerned with the application of computer  graphics, scientific visualization, and information visualization to different areas of the life sciences”.  We recognised, as did the make-up of delegates at the workshop, that this included skills in and understanding of perception, cognition and design.
Continue reading: Data visualisation, and the next generation of bioscientists

Among last week’s engagements was the excellent launch of our joint programme (with DfID and the Scottish Government) entitled Combating Infectious Diseases of Livestock in Developing Countries (more manageably: CIDLID). Livestock are often the chief assets of the rural poor, and their diseases can consequently be particularly devastating. CIDLID will provide ca £13M of research investment via 16 grant proposals, each  involving researchers based in the UK and in appropriate developing countries. As with the eradication of Rinderpest (considered to be worth $1Bn per annum), to which we contributed significantly (PDF), the potential gains could be huge.
Continue reading: Combating infectious diseases, photographs and memristors

Last week saw my appearance before the House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology, giving oral evidence into their enquiry into Bioengineering (with its focus on stem cells, genetic modification and synthetic biology) My fellow witnesses on the day were Professor Sir Martin Evans, the discoverer of embryonic stem cells, and Professor Richard Kitney, a leader of the Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation at Imperial College, London (and Chair of a report by the Royal Academy of Engineering). The Committee asked some very penetrating but fair questions, and clearly understood the many important issues. The unedited transcript will soon be available, while the video recording of the session will be available from the  website for a month. Overall it was an interesting and surprisingly enjoyable experience.
Continue reading: Bioengineering and systems biology