United Kingdom
October 16, 2019
Do you have a business idea or project that needs scientific expertise? Come and find out how you can collaborate with Earlham Institute (EI) at our upcoming event, 'EI Innovate: genomics data to advance bioscience’ on 13 November 2019.
EI is at the cutting-edge of bioscience which is applied to global issues by understanding complex biological systems in plants, animals and microbes and their interaction with the environment.
Decoding living systems with research in genomics, bioinformatics, synthetic biology, phenotyping, and high-performance computing, EI’s science embraces innovation with the development of leading-edge technology for the bioscience community.
EI’s socio-economic impact assessment in 2018 estimated that the Institute's return on investment is £14.77 for every £1 invested with its operating impact at £10.3m GVA (gross value added) to the UK economy per year. The overall potential impact of EI’s business development on the UK economy was estimated at £235m over the next 25 years.
Applications of our research could provide solutions to industrial challenges in ensuring food safety and security, improving human, animal and plant health, and aid conservation. EI works with several high-profile academic and private organisations across the agriculture, food and health sectors, as well as charities and other organisations involved in conservation and protection of biodiversity.
For example, current EI Industry projects such as using machine learning for image analysis to help increase yield in vegetable crops; assembling complex genomes of economically important crops such as strawberry and wheat; and bioinformatics analysis for portable sequencing to aid rapid detection of foodborne diseases and monitoring gut health.*
Offering talks, networking and discussion groups, the event will help Industry to fully understand the opportunities for collaboration with EI - how engaging with the Institute’s science, genomics and synthetic biology platforms, automation and bioinformatics expertise can be of benefit to their organisations.
The event also offers tours of the EI’s BIO Foundry and Genomics Pipelines facilities. The state-of-the-art BIO Foundry provides automation to a number of workflows including high-throughput nanoscale DNA assembly, while our Genomics Pipelines offer access to the latest high-throughput sequencing platforms and expertise in developing the best analytical approach to answer specific biological questions.
Head of Business Development and Impact at EI, Liliya Serazetdinova, said: “EI Innovate aims to attract and engage potential collaborators, stakeholders and clients to make them aware of our capabilities and facilitate joint projects."
“We need to listen to the business world on what they need and the challenges they face, and explore how we can help. We’re looking to diversify our engagement with Industry, promote the breadth of EI’s expertise including genomics, health and environmental diagnostics, bioinformatics tools for genome assembly and annotation, data mining and data standardisation knowledge."
“We would also like to provide wider access to our BIO Foundry (automation) for a range of projects involving nanoscale DNA assembly, screening of recombinant DNA and microfermentation, as well as share our expertise in advanced genomics, single-cell analysis and bioinformatics with the wider community.”
* Combining computer vision and deep learning to enable ultra-scale aerial phenotyping and precision agriculture: A case study of lettuce production
* OctoSEQ project on sequencing the octoploid strawberry
* Rapid profiling of the preterm infant gut microbiota using nanopore sequencing aids pathogen diagnostics
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