BIOMINA Community

We support bioinformatics community development through various initiatives.

Electronically we are active via our Slack channel, website, LinkedIN, the BIOMINA newsletter and Twitter. Physically you can connect with other BIOMINA members through our monthly Lunch Talks and yearly Research Day, or our frequently organized training events. Let us know if you'd like to sign up for any of these channels!

The BIOMINA labs share bioinformatics expertise with various institutes at a regional and national level. With the Institute of Tropical Medicine, a strategic collaboration is present, in which bioinformatics and broader data science expertise of Adrem are translated to infectious disease research. This fits into the larger Antwerp infectious disease ecosystem. There are excellent collaborations with other research institutes (Vito, SCK-CEN, VIB) demonstrating that our expertise is in demand beyond our own institute, and showing the potential to explore strategic long-term collaborations with these partners. BIOMINA labs collaborate with the University Hospital (UZA) and partnering hospitals (e.g., GZA Hospitals). BIOMINA labs also have several (mostly confidential) industrial collaborations ongoing with several biotechnology and pharma companies. With PreMeT, we will consolidate the BIOMINA core bioinformatics portfolio into a technology offer, aiming to expand the range of industry collaborations.

But BIOMINA can also be found in national and international networks. We represent UA in the European (IRI / ESFRI) ELIXIR network for life science data infrastructure. BIOMINA connects the bioinformatics community with the AI domain through its role in the Flemish AI impulse program. At the international level, its members are visible in many important international societies and editorial boards. BIOMINA aims to present its services and expertise also to other Universities of the YUFE alliance (Young Universities for the Future of Europe, of which UAntwerpen is a founding member, with the goal to build new strategic partnerships with the preferred European partner institutes of YUFE.

Bioinformatics has historically been at the forefront of the Open Science movement, and the bioinformatics community has always been strongly involved in the establishment of the now widely supported FAIR principles (in which data meet principles of findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability). Many of the bioinformatics software tools used by BIOMINA members are offered under open-source licenses, that often require that in house developed adaptations or extensions are also made available under such license.