Diversifying the genomic data science research community

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, the explosion of genomic data collection and the cloud computing revolution have made computational and data science research accessible to anyone with a web browser and an internet connection. However, students at institutions with limited resources have received relatively little exposure to curricula or professional development opportunities that lead to careers in genomic data science. To broaden participation in genomics research, the scientific community needs to support these programs in local education and research at underserved institutions (UIs). These include community colleges, historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, and tribal colleges and universities that support ethnically, racially, and socioeconomically underrepresented students in the United States. We have formed the Genomic Data Science Community Network to support students, faculty, and their networks to identify opportunities and broaden access to genomic data science. These opportunities include expanding access to infrastructure and data, providing UI faculty development opportunities, strengthening collaborations among faculty, recognizing UI teaching and research excellence, fostering student awareness, developing modular and open-source resources, expanding course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs), building curriculum, supporting student professional development and research, and removing financial barriers through funding programs and collaborator support.

Cloud-based biomedical data storage and analysis for genomic research: Landscape analysis of data governance in emerging NIH-supported platforms

“…Notably, initiatives such as the Genomic Data Science Community Network are working toward these ends. 49 …”

Revisiting barriers to implementation of bioinformatics into life sciences education

“…Five focus groups, each 60-90 min long (Saldana and Omasta, 2022), were conducted with life sciences faculty about the perceived barriers to integrating bioinformatics into their courses. IRB approval for the focus groups was sought from Georgetown University's Institutional Review Board (GU IRB# STUDY00005685), and the study was deemed exempt.…”

“…The semi-structured focus groups were conducted by a facilitator from Georgetown's Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship. An interview guide [written with reference to Saldana and Omasta (2022)] was used by the facilitator (Supplementary material 3) but spontaneous conversations among the participants were encouraged. At least one member of the NIBLSE Leadership Team sat in on each focus group and, as disciplinary experts, occasionally interjected with questions.…”

Ten Simple Rules for Using Public Biological Data for Your Research

“…Reasons for reusing public biological research data include cost-effectiveness and efficiency, access to datasets that would be difficult or impossible to regenerate, an increased sense of community, greater transparency and clarity of research, ability to retest and validate a shared dataset, support for recognition of data ownership, and an increase in citations [11]. Critically, public biological data reuse can also promote workforce diversity and research inclusivity worldwide [12][13][14]. Use of public biological data provides individuals with a unique opportunity to leverage existing data sets in combination with other public data or their own.…”