Nordic Computational Biology (NCB) was launched in late 2020. It initially began as a collaboration to bring together Nordic RSGs* and later resulted in a more inclusive project with a goal to further expand the network for people interested in computational biology across all Nordic regions.
Our aim is to spread knowledge and inspiration within the field of computational biology, as well as to highlight important research breakthroughs in Nordic countries. According to our community, NCB is an excellent platform for people of all career levels and backgrounds; for students and early-career scientists to exchange research, for biotech companies to share bioinformatics advancements happening at industrial level, for developers and engineers to promote latest tools and algorithm, and for senior researchers to inspire the next generation of computational biologists.
*The first Regional Student Group (RSG), of the ISCB, in the Nordic countries was RSG-Denmark. Shortly thereafter it was joined by RSG-Sweden and RSG-Norway in 2018 and 2020, respectively. In late 2020, a collaborative organization between the nordic RSGs was arranged and international events quickly entered the planning phase.
Our mission is to foster a collaborative and inclusive computational biology community across the Nordics. We do this by organising and promoting events, launching new initiatives, highlight scientific advancements happening across Nordics, and providing an open platform for people to connect, learn together, and create support network.
In the near future, we are focusing on expanding the Nordic CompBio Talks through theme-focused seminars, launching flagship events such as hackathon, and developing into a resource-based platform. There are different ways to become a part of Nordic CompBio, visit nordic-compbio.org/sign-up to learn more.
Numerous biological revelations have been achieved without the assistance of advanced computation and processing power. Long before the field of bioinformatics and computational biology, researchers have managed to revolutionise their field and contribute greatly to the understanding of life and evolution. However, the current speed with which computational methods aid in uncovering complex biological processes can be attributed to the development of modern computers, which have been essential for multiplex analyses and subsequent data analysis.
Are bioinformatics and computational biology synonymous? As a matter of fact, they are not. Computational biology is a central part of bioinformatics that covers all mathematical and programmatic efforts to understand and/or replicate biological systems. Bioinformatics, as the name suggests, is a very broad term that envelops many different disciplines in the field of data science and biology. Bioinformatics is a field of research that was originally developed to meet the increasing demand to receive, analyse, interpret and share the abundance of biological data, being created, following the development of computing power and high-throughput assays.