Author: Marco Cappellato

The last years have seen an impressive revolution in the theory and application of bioinformatics since new technologies and the abundance of different types of data to be integrated in a personalized medicine perspective are posing various methodological challenges in different fields such as, for example, single cell analysis, individual genome analysis and pan-genomes, Multi-omics data analysis and integration with clinical data.
In this special issue, we invite researchers to submit primary research focusing on translational bioinformatics methods that, starting from population-based molecular profiling, clinical data, epidemiological data, and other types of data make healthcare decisions tailored to groups of patients or individual patients.

📢 SPECIAL ISSUE on Journal of Biomedical Informatics
🗓️SUBMISSION DEADLINE: January 31, 2023
ℹ️MORE INFO: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2022.104170
➡️GUEST EDITORS: Prof. Barbara Di Camillo (SysBioBig, Unipd) and Prof. Rosalba Giugno (InfOmics, Univr)

Just come back from ECCB2022 in Sitges, Barcellona. We had the opportunity to participate (finally in presence) in this great conference. Lots of talks, new opportunities for collaboration and exchange of ideas. This is research and science!
A list of our contributions:
– Workshop: “Spatial transcriptomics and cell-cell communication modeling: new opportunities to study the cellular dynamics of biological systems” (Baruzzo G, Calura E, Risso D, Romualdi C, Sales G, García-Alonso L, Vento-Tormo R, Saez-Rodriguez J, Saeys Y)
– Tutorial: “Software containerization in bioinformatics: how to make reproducible, portable and reusable bioinformatics software&pipelines” (Baruzzo G, Di Camillo B, Cappellato M, Cesaro G, Milia M)
– Poster contribution: “Differential Abundance analysis of microbiome data: which tool and how to choose it?” (Cappellato M, Baruzzo G, Di Camillo B)
– Poster contribution: “Analysis of differential cellular communication from single cell RNA-seq data with scSeqComm” (Cesaro G, Baruzzo G, Di Camillo B)
– Poster contribution: “Temporal changes in microbiome composition after FMT in subject with Clostridioides difficile infection: a network perspective” (Cappellato M, Bellato M, Baruzzo G, Facchin S, Barzon L, Besutti V, Brun P, Del Favero S, Schenato L, Savarino EV, Castagliuolo I, Di Camillo B)
– Poster contribution: “Tumor microenvironment evolution simulated through a hybrid Multi-Agent Spatio-Temporal model informed using sequencing data” (Milia M, Cesaro G, Baruzzo G, Finco G, Morandini F, Lazzarini A, Alotto P, de Miranda NF, Trajanoski Z, Finotello F, Di Camillo B)
– Poster contribution: “Simulation of ground truth interaction networks from microbial community model” (Rossato A, Cappellato M, Nikoloska N, Baruzzo G, Di Camillo B)

Last week we were at the 18th Annual Meeting of the Bioinformatics Italian Society (BITS 2022) in Verona, Italy. Great experience, with a lot of inspiring talks from all the bioinformatics landscapes.
Moreover, we had the opportunity to chat and exchange ideas (finally in presence!) about our work: that’s science!
Special thanks to all the organisers for making it possible

For more details, check the conference website: https://bioinformatics.it/bits2022

On Friday 18 February 2022, the Accademia di Medicina di Torino hosted a scientific meeting entitled Big data in transactional neuroscience. The meeting was introduced by Adriano Chiò, Head of the ALS Center of the University of Turin and member of the Academy. Our PI, Prof. Barbara Di Camillo, held a lecture on how the use of big data and Artificial Intelligence may impact in healthcare and, more specifically, in Translational Neuroscience.

ABSTRACT: In recent years we are facing a change in the socio-economic health models based on data. This is the result of the increase in the volume, speed, and variety of data collected in the healthcare sector, combined with the development of Artificial Intelligence and Information Technologies. However, the effective use of this data to address the challenges in understanding and treating human health problems has yet to show its full potential. The barriers that limit the impact and practical application of Artificial Intelligence in the healthcare sector are diverse. In addition to the volume characterizing “Big Data”, their heterogeneity, complexity, variability, together with their often dynamic nature pose a number of technical and methodological challenges. Moreover, the management of the data and the interpretation of the results raise new questions related to ethical aspects, and indicate a need to change the organizational model of health management. This lecture will illustrate some basic concepts of Artificial Intelligence, discussing through some practical examples potential, challenges, and limits of its use in the medical field.

You can find the recording here (in italian only)