The Future of Queensland Bioinformatics is People – How to Create A Stronger Community?
In this 10min window, I will highlight how our greatest strength for a vibrant Queensland bioinformatics future lies with our people. But how can we work together to ensure that people have access to jobs, career growth pathways, and training programs that set them up for success in bioinformatics and computational biology? Our discipline represents some unique challenges, and Queensland poses some special strengths in having a future impact on a national and international stage.
Single Cells, Big Networks – Curiosity is at the heart of good science
Curiosity is at the heart of good science — and this talk traces a career built on asking simple questions about why cells behave differently from one another. From early work measuring gene expression variability before single-cell technologies existed, to using those insights to understand the biology of cells in human milk, the journey has been shaped as much by the tools we lacked as by those we had. Along the way, building community through ABACBS has shown that the networks we form between scientists matter just as much as the biological networks we study.
Bio
Jessica Mar is a Professor and Group Leader at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), University of Queensland, specialising in computational biology , bioinformatics and single-cell genomics. With a PhD from Harvard University and research positions at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Albert Einstein College of Medicine she brings an international perspective to Australian genomics research.
Jess’s work focuses on single-cell RNA sequencing, gene expression variability, and network-based approaches to gene regulation across diverse biological systems. She is a recipient of the Metcalf Prize, the Georgina Sweet Award, and the ABACBS Mid-Career Award, and currently serves as President of the Australian Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Society (ABACBS).
