New research in GigaScience on the genome of the Wuzhishan minipig The availability of a high quality reference genome sequence for a species is extremely important in the deeper understanding of its biology, evolution, and comparative genomics.

The worm that turned (epigenetics) GigaDB, GigaScience ’s associated database, has had a number of new datasets just added, many for data types previously not hosted. Today marks the publication of new research in our sister BMC journal Genome Biology shaking up the epigenetics field by shattering the assumption that DNA methylation is absent in nematodes.

A Grassroots Funding effort in Puerto Rico enables genome sequencing of the critically endangered Puerto Rican parrot The rationale and scope for GigaScience has been to cover and provide a home for the growing number of studies producing and handling large-scale biological data, and this “big-data” data bonanza is not just due to well funded labs, but an increasingly globalized and distributed network of researchers.

ICSB 2011 left me with a greater than ever appreciation for, to borrow from the title of the last plenary session, the complexity of life. I was impressed by the increasingly complex and explanative models that are being built, and faster and more detailed imaging methods under development, not to mention the exciting new applications of systems biology for disease treatment.I am sure I’m not the only one who feels this way.

In this era of “big-data” and supposed data-tsunamis, being able to sift through the vast swathes of information and find what you are looking will become more and more important.

Martin Szugat reported that a beta for BioJava 1.5 has been released. New features include: a new biojavax package with extension on the basic functionlity, such as the RichSequence.IOTools and the RichSequence object; a genetic algorithm library; features that allow manipulation of 3D structure files and objects; and non-HMM implementations of the NW and SW alignment algorithms.