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Public Workshop

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the George Washington University and the BioCompute Partnership are co-sponsoring a workshop entitled, “BioCompute Objects: Tools for Communicating Next Generation Sequencing Data and Analysis.”

DATES:

The public workshop will be held on May 14, 2019, from 9:00am to 5:00pm.

LOCATION:

The public workshop will be held at the FDA White Oak Campus, 10903 New Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 31 Conference Center, room 1503 A, Silver Spring, MD 20993.  Entrance for the public workshop participants (non-FDA employees) is through Building 1, where routine security check procedures will be performed.  For parking and security information, please refer to https://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/WorkingatFDA/BuildingsandFacilities/WhiteOakCampusInformation/ucm241740.htm.

BACKGROUND:

In 2013, the FDA’s Genomics Working Group outlined specific goals for a mechanism to resolve complications in submitting next generation sequencing (NGS) data to a regulatory body like the FDA. Biocompute Objects were developed conceptually to address the tremendous need for clearly articulating bioinformatic workflows in a manner that was transparent and allowed for reproducibility and verification. The development of Biocompute Objects seeks to set a common standard for communicating bioinformatic analysis pipelines. The BioCompute project has become a model of collaborative communication and has grown to include participants from many institutions in both the public and private sectors, including biotech, pharmaceutical, government agencies, and academia. The Workshop builds on nearly 5 years of collaborative work to help streamline the way that bioinformatics analyses are communicated.

The BioCompute project has resulted in three prior workshops, two publications, several collaborations, and is currently undergoing formal balloting to become an official IEEE standard. The upcoming Workshop will engage more stakeholders in creating and using BioCompute for NGS and other bioinformatics data analysis communications with the FDA. Specifically, the Workshop will have two components: use case examples, and hands on & demonstrations of new tools that leverage BioCompute. A new Precision FDA-BioCompute Challenge will also be launched at the event.

REGISTRATION:

To register for the public workshop, please visit the following website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2019-biocompute-workshop-tickets-56204133075?ref=estw. There is no cost to attend. Space is limited and will be offered on a first come, first served basis. WebEx attendance will be available, and the event will also be recorded and hosted on the FDA’s website.  Contact Omar Zuber, [email protected] for more information.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

More information about BioCompute can be found on the BioCompute website (https://www.biocomputeobject.org/), and on the GitHub project page (https://github.com/biocompute-objects/BCO_Specification/tree/IEEE-vote).