QLS Seminar Series - Fiona Brinkman

Disrupting disease, while promoting health: Bacterial Bioinformatics Battles

Fiona Brinkman, Simon Fraser University
Tuesday April 4, 12-1pm
Zoom Link: https://mcgill.zoom.us/j/86855481591

Abstract: For more sustainable infectious disease control we need a multi pronged, more holistic, approach that is not so combative against bacteria. I will present approaches we are developing that include (1) Better targeting the true cause of infectious disease – the virulence factors (2) Better tracking the mobility of of such factors (and improving pathogen tracking and disease outbreak risk assessment in the process), and (3) Better supporting the “good” bacteria - promoting a good microbiome to support health. Throughout this, I will provide examples of our “bioinformatics battles”/lessons learned, as we use an interdisciplinary computational, molecular biological and social sciences approach to tackle these challenges. Some of these bioinformatics battles, including dealing with exponentially growing diverse data, are broadly an issue in other disciplines. I will end with what we need to do next to move toward more sustainable, targeted infectious disease control, while promoting health.