Ideas4biology is a group of four bioinformaticians and molecular biologists: Izabela Makałowska (PhD, Professor), Michał Szcześniak (PhD), Joanna Ciomborowska (PhD) and Michał Kabza (M.Sc.). They are constantly striving to improve their knowledge in various bioinformatics subjects and other life sciences, including experimental biology. They attend scholarships at international academic institutions and specialized courses or conferences. At the same time they conduct intensive research and the results of their work are published in reputable scientific journals. Their primary engagement is with the organization and teaching of numerous bioinformatics courses, mostly designed for PhD students and young researchers as a way to develop their knowledge and skills. These courses cover a wide range of subjects involving NGS data analyses, fundamentals of bioinformatics, statistics, programming for biologists, as well as creating biological databases. They are also active in the PSSB Poznań Summer School of Bioinformatics project, a biennial international event held in Poznań, focusing on state-of-the-art advancements in bioinformatics. The last 2015 edition covered such subjects as next-generation sequencing of transcriptomes (RNA-Seq), small RNAs discovery, long non-coding RNAs, as well as secondary and tertiary structures of RNA molecules. All their courses are suitable for beginners and for those who already have some basic knowledge in bioinformatics and want to learn more about bioinformatics applications in the course of their studies. Courses are delivered through lectures and practice, a combination best tailored to researchers’ needs, so that they get an opportunity to implement the theoretical methods in practice. Moreover, i4b performs next generation sequencing data analyses in some scientific projects, including close cooperation with UMB in the STRATEGMED2 project, funded by the National Centre for Research and Development (MOBIT).
