Bioinformatics for Everyone

In 2012, The College of Natural Sciences Dean's Office started a Bioinformatics Initiative, operated jointly by the Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (CCBB) and the Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology (CSSB), led by CCBB's previous Director, Dr. Hans Hofmann. Currently, the CCBB works in close collaboration with the CBRS (Center for Biomedical Research Support). Our goal is to lower as much as possible the threshold to enter the -omics area of the life sciences. To achieve this goal, we have established a much-in-demand Bioinformatics Consulting Group, introduced a cutting-edge training program for graduate students and postdocs, and developed many popular networking opportunities in addition to high-performance computing and administrative support.

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Dhivya Arasappan (Research Scientist)

Dhivya Arasappan has many years experience analyzing NGS data from multiple platforms: Illumina, PacBio and SOLiD. Her areas of expertise include: de novo genome assembly, particularly using hybrid sequencing data, RNA-Seq analysis, exome analysis, and benchmarking of bioinformatics tools. She is the research educator for the Big Data in Biology Freshman Research Initiative stream and teaches an RNA-Seq course as part of the Summer School for Big Data in Biology.

: darasappan[at]gmail.com

: Google Scholar page

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Benni Goetz (Research Engineering/Scientist Associate III)

Benni Goetz, M.S., (Research Engineering/Scientist Associate III) Benni Goetz joined the Bioinformatics Consulting Group in 2012. Before joining, Benni studied differential geometry at the University of Texas and completed a Master's Degree in Mathematics. He has experience with transcriptome assembly and annotation, bacterial genome annotation, and next-generation sequence databases. He also can implement custom pipelines, or parallelize existing pipelines to run at TACC, and has familiarity with Python and Bash scripting.

: benni[at]utexas.edu

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Dennis Wylie (Research Scientist)

Dennis joined the Bioinformatics group in 2015. He has experience in NGS data analysis (including variant calling and analysis of RNA-seq and metagenomic data) and application of statistical and machine learning methods to biological data sets for biomarker discovery, pathway analysis, classification and regression modeling, and motif analysis. Prior to UT, Dennis earned a PhD in Biophysics from UC Berkeley applying stochastic simulation methods to problems in immunology and did postdoctoral work in modeling the transmission of infectious diseases on contact networks before spending six years as a bioinformatician in industry.

: denniswylie[at]austin.utexas.edu

Google Scholar Page

How to Work With Us

Walk-in Consultations

Consultants are available to discuss any bioinformatics or biocomputing questions, for up to an hour at a time. Appointments are highly recommended to ensure that a consultant is available.

For more information, email us here

Hourly Projects

Consultants can be hired on an hourly basis to work on well-defined problems, such as data analysis, pipelines, or scripting. For examples, see this link to standard pipelines on wiki.

For more information, email us here

Long-Term Projects

For research projects where a research team requires CCBB's expertise on a more involved, collaborative basis, consultants can be hired for a fixed percentage of their time over a pre-defined time period.

For more information, email us here

Full Service Pipelines

Our Bioinformatics Consulting Group can also perform standardized analyses for a minimal fee. Each pipeline is a "best practices" implementation of commonly cited, open-source tools and techniques appropriate to the data provided and questions asked. For a detailed description and pricing of our Full Service Pipelines, please visit this website.

To schedule a consultation use the “Request a Consultation” tool below or send one of us an email.

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