An Introduction to Omics

Due to the high demand of the previous course, we will once again be running the Introduction course where you can learn the background and an overview of the data analysis for Genomics, Transcriptiomcs, Proteomics, and Metabolomics. The course will cover two days and includes lectures, practical sessions as well as tea, coffee and lunch breaks which are all catered for. Please contact us if you would like a place.

NGS Data Analysis Workshop with Biotexcel

Following the success of the workshop and conference last year, we are once again teaming up with Biotexcel! We will be providing the training aspect for the conference which will include lecture and practical sessions on informatics for the analysis of genomics and transcriptomic data sets. Here is a video made during the workshop last year, other videos of the conference can also be found on the page.

We are pleased to welcome several new members of staff:

Rónán Daly has been recruited as our Data Analyst Manager and replaces Fraser Morton. Rónán is an expert in Statistical analyses and Software Development. We also hope he will strengthen out ties to the School of Computing Science.

Through ISSF funding we have Julian Augley who is starting as an NGS data analyst, and, David Meltzer who will be looking after our Galaxy Server for the College and running training courses to keep staff up to date.

We also have David McGuinness who has been recruited as an NGS technician to speed up processing of samples in our busiest facility.

We welcome Christina Naula to Polyomics on a Newton Grant to Richard Burchmore. Christina will be working as a Proteomics and Teaching co-ordinator.

We were pleased this month to have been able to announce the Awardees of the Catalyst 2014-15 awards. The lead PI and institution have been listed below, but the full details can be found on the Impact Page of our website.

Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health, and Comparative Medicine

• PI: Simon Babayan; Co-I: Rowland Kao. "Transcriptomic predictors of acquired immunity to Bovine TB in vaccinated Eurasian Badgers"
• PI: Collette Britton; Co-I: Graham Hamilton (Polyomics), Tom McNeilly (Moredun). "Profiling microRNAs associated with immunity to parasitic nematode infections"
• PI: Jean Rodgers; Co-I: Elmarie Myburgh (WTCMP, III), Nick Dickens (WTCMP, III) "Comparative transcriptomic analysis of central nervous system and bloodstream -resident trypanosomes in a murine model of human African sleeping sickness"

Institute of Cancer Sciences

• PI: Shafiq Ahmed; Co-I: Anthony Chalmers; Karl Burgess (Polyomics, III); Pawel Herzyk (Polyomics, MCSB). "Integrative polyomics approach to identify metabolomic and genomic signatures of glioma stem cells for therapeutic intervention in glioblastoma"
• PI: Vignir Helgason; Co-I: Stephen Tait, Pawel Herzyk (Polyomics, MCSB). "Identification of mechanism(s) of acquired drug resistance in CML using a genome-scale CRISPR-knockout screening approach"
• PI: Xu Huang; Co-I: David Vetrie; Mhairi Copland. "Identification and validation of downstream targets of the histone demethylase KDM4A(JMJD2A) in Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML)"

Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences

• PI: Lesley Graham; Co-I: Sandosh Padmanabhan, Martin McBrride, Nicholas Ferreri (NY Medical College); Niall Fraser (Dundee). "Global regulation of gene expression in the Thick Ascending Limb of the Loop of Henle by TNFalpha: implications for salt-uptake and blood pressure regulation"

Institute of Infection, Immunity, and Inflammation

• PI: Tansy Hammarton; Co-I: Leandro Lemgruber Soares, Terence Smith (St Andrews). "Mapping lipid distribution in Trypanosoma brucei during cell division"
• PI: Vicky Morrison; Co-I: Simon Milling. "Use of transcriptomics to determine how integrins regulate migratory dendritic cells and inflammation"
• PI: Andy Roe; Co-I: Pawel Herzyk (Polyomics, MCSB). "Unravelling the secret lives of bacteria: RNA-seq for exploring niche-specific gene expression"
• PI: Christine Wells; Co-I: Ruaidhrí Carmody, Julia Edgar, Carl Goodyear, Pasquale Maffia, Iain McInnes, Megan McLeod, Neal Miller, Simon Milling, Alan Mowat, Jagtar Singh Nijjar, Tomasz Guzik (CAMS). “The Glasgow – FANTOM6 consortium investigation of the role of LncRNAs in specifying tissue macrophage phenotypes"

Congratulations everyone, we look forward to working with you this following year.

Networking within the College

Throughout this year we will be hosting networking events with each of the Institutes in the College. We hope to foster collaboration and friendly working relationships, and fully embed Polyomics within MVLS.

This month we met with some folk from CoA. We are hoping to meet with those from III and BAHCM in the coming months.

Public Engagement

Beer-omics at Mugstock

In August, Glasgow Polyomics took the science out to Mugstock, a new music festival in Mugdock Country Park, Milngavie. We had two activities. One was sponsored by Williams Brothers Brewing Co. Adults were offered two beers to try and were shown a radial graph demonstrating the flavour profiles of each beer (hoppy, fruity, bitter etc). This allowed us to talk about how we can use mass spectrometry to detect the molecules that give beer its taste. We also talked about how mass spectrometry and other detectors are useful in our own research.

Sugary Drinks at Mugstock

Glasgow Polyomics also had something for the junior (and not-so-junior) festival-goers. We took a selection of common drinks and a couple of boxes of sugar cubes and asked the audience to guess how many sugar cubes they would have consumed if they drank the whole bottle. Many were very surprised by the results – particularly for Ribena and Volvic Touch of Fruit. This is a hot topic at the moment with Tesco banning lunchbox sized cartons of Ribena and Capri Sun. Campaigns such as “Give up Loving Pop” and “Action on Sugar” are highlighting the dangers of consuming sugary drinks.