Periodic Reporting for period 3 - BIORISE (Establishment of the Bioinformatics ERA Chair at the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics)
Période du rapport: 2018-07-01 au 2020-06-30
The BIORISE programme is important for society, in the areas of health, economy, research and education. It is estimated that at least 5% of the population in Cyprus is suffering from genetic diseases, with the cause remaining unknown for the majority of cases. These diseases include congenital heart defects, neurological diseases, myopathies, etc. BIORISE is expected to make a contribution towards understanding the pathogenetic mechanisms leading to the onset of various genetic diseases, thus helping in providing timely and accurate diagnosis that will result in better care and treatment for the patients. The economic cost that arises from the loss of the patients’ most productive years, as well as their caregivers will also be minimised.
The Bioinformatics field is at infancy stage in Cyprus. Through BIORISE, CING and Cyprus in general will expand research capacity, and upgrade the quality of research being conducted. Moreover, CING personnel will be scientifically enhanced by learning to use various Bioinformatics tools and incorporating Bioinformatics to their work routine.
BIORISE will also provide the opportunity of training new Bioinformaticians in Cyprus. This is expected to upgrade higher education in Cyprus and attract more students both national and international.
The overall objectives of BIORISE are:
1) Recruitment of the Bioinformatics expert who will hold the Bioinformatics ERA Chair and who will also establish a core Bioinformatics Group at the CING.
2) CING Bioinformatics needs assessment and intervention in order to increase capacity and improve the research and innovation performance of the Institute.
3) Educate and train the next generation of scientists (PhD and MSc student levels) as well as researchers on the applications and uses of the various Bioinformatics tools in order to empower the scientific workforce.
• Formation of the Scientific Committee, to deal with all the scientific aspects of the project
• Employment of the Project Manager
• Creation and yearly update of a communication plan to outline the activities for announcing BIORISE outcomes, and of a dissemination plan to ensure optimal distribution of information to all relevant stakeholders
• Formation of the BECH Recruitment Committee for the recruitment of the Bioinformatics ERA-Chair Holder (BECH)
• Employment of the BECH
• Design, development and regular update of the project website to ensure the best possible project dissemination to all relevant stakeholders
• Formation of the Ethics Advisory Board (EAB), the External Scientific Advisory Board (ESAB) and the Intellectual Property (IP) Committee of BIORISE
• Employment of 4 Postdoctoral Researchers
• Formation of the Bioinformatics Course Syllabus to be offered as an elective for the CSMM postgraduate programmes
• Preparation of a Report describing the CING Bioinformatics needs assessment and proposing analysis models
• Participation in the preparation and submission of several grant proposals
• Talks and presentations on Bioinformatics within and outside CING
• Ethical approval of the BIORISE programme by the Cyprus National Bioethics Committee
• Participation in BIORISE communication and dissemination activities
• Installation of the Bioinformatics computational infrastructure and the Bioinformatics Group analysis tools
• Implementation of Bioinformatics pipelines analyses
• Introduction of the Bioinformatics course within the CSMM MSc and PhD programmes
• Employment of 3 PhD students
• Establishment of the Bioinformatics ERA Chair Lecture Series at the CING
• Organisation of a COST Training School, 2 Bioinformatics-related Workshops and the CING Bioinformatics Journal Club
• Participation in 9 EU, international and national grants, 27 published research papers, 2 book chapters and 27 scientific abstract presentations
• Establishment of the Bioinformatics Department at the CING