Bioinformatics at Fiocruz

Laboratório de Genômica  Funcional e Bioinformática - Instituto Oswaldo Cruz - Fundação Oswaldo Cruz

Dr. Wim Degrave - Principal Investigator

Dr. Antonio Basílio de Miranda - Senior Scientist

The Bioinformatics Team is part of the Laboratory for Functional Genomics and Bioinformatics at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute (IOC), FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Our work involves the development and application of bioinformatics towards a better understanding of biological problems. One of our major ongoing projects is the achievement of the complete genomic sequence of Mycobacterium bovis BCG Moreau-RJ, the vaccinal strain used in Brazil for immunization against tuberculosis.

Main research lines

• Genome sequencing and annotation.
• Comparative and evolutionary genomics.
• Application of machine learning techniques in biological problems.
• Optimization of bioinformatics workflows.

Financial support

• Programa de Desenvolvimento Tecnológico em Insumos para a Saúde da Fiocruz (PDTIS).
• Pograma Estratégico de Apoio à Pesquisa em Saúde da Fiocruz (PAPES).
• Fundação Ataulpho de Paiva (FAP).

Good to know

• Any interested student is invited. We have several ideas for projects on different levels (Undergraduate, M.Sc. or Ph.D.). Write to Antonio or Thomas.
• We have a weekly paper club to discuss projects or new developments.
• We are working with Linux and Windows, using Oracle, and MySQL. We can program (and teach) in C, C++, Java, Perl, MATLAB and HTML. Our computers (30 machines) are used for grid application (e.g. BLAST - Squid).
• We also have some nice collaborations...
• Our team was formed twards the end of 2003.
• Fiocruz is situated in the north part of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.