SyBIT - SystemsX.ch Biology IT

SyBIT Mission

SyBIT provides IT support for SystemsX.ch. It was created by the SystemsX.ch Executive Board to address the Computing and IT needs of the SystemsX.ch Research and Technology Projects.

• SyBIT supports SystemsX.ch scientists in their data-rich biology workflows: from data production and validation to data analysis and publication
• We provide tools and standards to the SystemsX.ch community: to enable end-to-end integration of the digital workflows; to facilitate reproducibility of workflows through automated provenance information and metadata; to guarantee reusability, modularity, openness and visibility of programs developed by the community for the community; and to facilitate communication and collaboration
• We actively promote information and knowledge exchange within SystemsX.ch by supporting existing technology-oriented communities or creating new ones where necessary
• We educate the scientists and bioinformaticials and supporting personnel in the usage of tools and standards
• We help in the usage of the available IT infrastructure for data and computing, and assist in the IT coordination and planning

SyBIT Activites

Our software solutions satisfy strategic research needs of SystemsX.ch projects. This includes infrastructure as well as the development of large-scale data handling platforms. Supporting technologies include project web sites, wiki pages, software repositories, and electronic lab books. We train the scientists in the use of those tools. We negotiate access to computational resources and services, such as clusters or authentication mechanisms. We develop databases and workflows  for high content screening, proteomics, metabolomics, CHiP-Seq and deep sequencing.

• Software: View Current Software Projects. Large software projects include the development of openBIS and the reengineering of iBRAIN and porting it to other locations. We develop novel image analysis solutions and work together with software teams developing CellProfiler and KNIME .
• Communities: We organise Swiss meetings for research groups developing new solutions in Genomics (Next Generation Sequencing), Proteomics, and High Content Screening.
• Services: We provide a wiki infrastructure for e-Notenbooks and public web sites for SystemsX.ch projects, alongside training in wiki use. We have also produced a one-login security software solution for our users, in collaboration with SWITCH-AAI. We negotiate and offer solutions for storage and compute use.
• Industry and academic collaborations: We recently worked with KNIME on the specification of new workflow features. We engage with SILA and we work with IBM and CloudBroker to provide cloud computing solutions for proteomics.