QFAB Bioinformatics
{{Short description|Academic organisation in Australia}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{More citations needed|date=June 2019}}
{{Undisclosed paid|date=June 2019}}
}}
{{Infobox organization
| name = Queensland Facility for Advanced Bioinformatics
| abbreviation = QFAB Bioinformatics
| formation = {{start date|2007}}
| website = {{URL|qfab.org}}
| headquarters = Institute for Molecular Bioscience
University of Queensland
Brisbane
| region = Australia
| type = academic not-for-profit
| leader_title = Director
| leader_name = Dr Dominique Gorse
}}
QFAB Bioinformatics is a Queensland-based organisation concerned with the provision of resources in bioinformatics, biostatistics and specialised computing platforms. QFAB operates Australia-wide and is a key contributor to the EMBL Australia Bioinformatics Resource.
{{cite journal
| last1 = Schneider
| first1 = Maria Victoria
| last2 = Griffin
| first2 = Philippa C
| last3 = Tyagi
| first3 = Sonika
| last4 = Flannery
| first4 = Madison
| last5 = Dayalan
| first5 = Saravanan
| last6 = Gladman
| first6 = Simon
| last7 = Watson-Haigh
| first7 = Nathan
| last8 = Bayer
| first8 = Philipp E
| last9 = Charleston
| first9 = Michael
| last10 = Cooke
| first10 = Ira
| last11 = Cook
| first11 = Rob
| last12 = Edwards
| first12 = Richard J
| last13 = Edwards
| first13 = David
| last14 = Gorse
| first14 = Dominique
| last15 = McConville
| first15 = Malcolm
| last16 = Powell
| first16 = David
| last17 = Wilkins
| first17 = Marc R
| last18 = Lonie
| first18 = Andrew
| date = 2008
| title = Establishing a distributed national research infrastructure providing bioinformatics support to life science researchers in Australia
| journal = Briefings in Bioinformatics
| volume = 20
| issue = 2
| pages = 384–389
| doi = 10.1093/bib/bbx071
| pmid = 29106479
| pmc = 6433737
}}
History
{{cite journal
| last1 = Ragan
| first1 = M. A.
| last2 = Littlejohn
| first2 = T.
| last3 = Ross
| first3 = Bruce
| date = 2008
| title = Genome-scale computational biology and bioinformatics in Australia
| journal = PLOS Computational Biology
| volume = 4
| issue = 8
| pages = e1000068
| doi = 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000068
| pmid = 18769502
| pmc = 2440818
| bibcode = 2008PLSCB...4E0068R
| doi-access = free
}}
with funding from the Queensland Government's National and International Research Alliances Program,{{Cite web|url=https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2006/04/qld-government-grants-imb-over-25-million-funding|title=Qld Government grants IMB over $2.5 million in funding|last=|first=|date=2006|website=UQ News|language=|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2019-05-30}} as a joint venture between The University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, Griffith University, CSIRO’s Australian eHealth Research Centre and the Queensland Government’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
Mark Ragan from the Institute of Molecular Bioscience (IMB) and Anthony Maeder from the Australian eHealth Research Centre led QFAB's establishment{{cn|date=May 2021}} and appointed Jeremy Barker as CEO (2007–2014) to address three critical issues then facing bioinformatics in Queensland:{{Cite web|url= http://researchers.uq.edu.au/research-project/9187|title=Queensland Facility for Advanced Bioinformatics (QFAB) (2006–2010)|last=|first=|date=2006|website=UQ Researchers|language=|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2019-05-30}}
- integrated data and high-performance computing in a secure environment
- affordable network bandwidth
- access to expert personnel
In 2015, Dominique Gorse became CEO of QFAB and led the strategic alliance with QCIF, the Queensland Cyber Infrastructure Foundation; the two organisations merged in April 2016.{{cite web |title=QCIF - QCIF in 2017: A year in review |url=https://archive-www.qcif.edu.au/index.php/news/373-qcif-in-2017-a-year-in-review |website=archive-www.qcif.edu.au |access-date=31 May 2021}} QCIF operates significant high-performance computing, cloud computing and data storage resources, is part of the national eResearch infrastructure.
Queensland Cyber Infrastructure Foundation
QFAB Bioinformatics is a unit of the Queensland Cyber Infrastructure Foundation (QCIF), a not-for-profit member-based organisation.
=Members=
=Affiliate member=
Galaxy Australia
QFAB and QCIF, together with the University of Melbourne's Melbourne Bioinformatics, and the University of Queensland's Research Computing Centre jointly built and operate Galaxy Australia, which is a major feature of the Genomics Virtual Laboratory,
{{cite journal
| last1 = Afgan
| first1 = Enis
| last2 = Sloggett
| first2 = Clare
| last3 = Goonasekera
| first3 = Nuwan
| last4 = Makunin
| first4 = Igor
| last5 = Benson
| first5 = Derek
| last6 = Crowe
| first6 = Mark
| last7 = Gladman
| first7 = Simon
| last8 = Kowsar
| first8 = Yousef
| last9 = Pheasant
| first9 = Michael
| last10 = Horst
| first10 = Ron
| last11 = Lonie
| first11 = Andrew
| date = 2015
| title = Genomics Virtual Laboratory: A Practical Bioinformatics Workbench for the Cloud
| journal = PLOS ONE
| volume = 10
| issue = 10
| pages = e0140829
| doi = 10.1371/journal.pone.0140829
| pmid = 26501966
| pmc = 4621043
| bibcode = 2015PLoSO..1040829A
| doi-access = free
}}
based on the Galaxy (computational biology) scientific workflow system.