CyanoCyc Curate-a-thon for Synechocoystis PCC 6803

Join research colleagues in a cyanobacteria community curation workshop to provide an updated, curated Pathway Genome DataBase (PGDB) on CyanoCyc for Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, one of the most widely studied cyanobacteria. The goal of the workshop is for participants to help curate gene functions and metabolic pathways by correcting errors in annotation and metabolic predictions, providing experimental evidence from published literature for gene functions, pathways, and regulation, particularly updating recent research findings. During this process participants may identify areas of cellular function that need more experimental verification or would be useful for synthetic biology. The resulting high-quality, reference PGDB will serve as a resource to the research and biotechnology community, the participants will be recognized as database co-authors, and a possible publication of new findings will be discussed.

The workshop will be in-person and is open to 20 advanced (MSc and PhD) students, postdocs and research scientists. Prerequisites include basic understanding of genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology, and bioinformatics. No programming background is required as we will provide instructions for using our online curation tools. There will be daily lectures related to curation, bioinformatics tools, and cyanobacteria metabolism to guide the curation.

The registration fee covers drinks and snacks for morning and afternoon coffee breaks, breakfast on the first day, a group dinner on Wed, a group lunch on Fri, and some administrative costs. You will need to provide your own laptop and must be able to stay for the entire week-long workshop. Participants will have free access to BioCyc during the curate-a-thon and the rest of the year (Aug-Dec).

Detailed schedule forthcoming. For additional questions, please contact Lisa Moore at lisa.moore@sri.com.