In the last twenty years, data science has become a crucial tool in biomedical research. At the CNIC Bioinformatics Unit we blend the latest developments in Computational Biology and Statistical modeling with deep molecular phenotyping of large human cohorts and animal models to improve our understanding of cardiovascular diseases and also of aging-related disorders.

To achieve this broad goal we have three main areas of research:

1. Omics data analysis: Ad-hoc analysis and integration of omics data (transcriptomics, methylomics, genomics for germline and somatic variants) in bulk samples or at the single-cell level in animal models and in human samples, to understand the underlying molecular mechanisms of health and disease. For that, we prefer probabilistic models inferred using Bayesian statistics to take into account the noisy and heterogeneous nature of various types of omics data.
2. Cardiovascular data science: Exploring the use of machine learning methods for outcome prediction through the integration of molecular and deep phenotyping information in large human prospective and retrospective cohorts. In this area we also work on the development of a data-warehousing solutions expanding the already implemented CNICtranSMART.
3. In silico prediction of protein structure for drug design and simulation of changes in protein structure produced by DNA variants.

All statistical methods and tools developed by the Bioinformatics Unit can be found at:  https://bioinfo.cnic.es/Apps

News

• 15/12/2022: Fátima Sánchez Cabo will be teaching at the course “Web-based Omics Data Analysis course in Cardiometabolic Diseases (WODA-CMD)” funded by the European Atherosclerosis Society (AES): https://bioinfo.cipf.es/woda-cmd/
• 24/11/2022: The CNIC Bioinformatics Unit collaborates in two projects funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III in the last Precision Medicine call, ACROMICS, led by Manuel Puig (IGTP), and PREMYO, led by Domingo Pascual (IMIB) to identify new biomarkers to improve the diagnosis and treatment of the inflammatory myocardial diseases
• 6/10/2022: The CNIC Bioinformatics Unit receives funding from the Agencia Española de Investigación to work on two new projects: LEUKODOMICS, to generate new tools on scRNA-Seq (TED2021-132296B-C54) and VIRTUALCARDIODRUG, to implement a virtual screening system to identify new drugs in cardiac regeneration (TED2021-131611B-I00)
• 26/04/2022: Daniel Jiménez and Fátima Sánchez Cabo write about the mathematics behind single-cell transcriptomics maps: https://elpais.com/ciencia/cafe-y-teoremas/2022-04-26/matematicas-para-crear-un-mapa-celular-de-las-enfermedades.html
• 21-23/03/2022: Fátima Sánchez Cabo presents the work of the Bioinformatics Unit at the workshop “Mathematics of life matter” organized by the CSIC Life Hub: https://lifehub.csic.es/evento/matematicas-de-la-materia-viva/
• 7/12/2021: CNIC Bioinformatics Unit participates in the IMPACT-Data Science program financed by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III
• 22/11/2021: The CNIC Bioinformatics Unit receives funding from the Agencia Española de Investigación to renew our computing cluster with the project “Contenedores en Kubernetes: Democratización y mejora de la eficiencia computacional para la medicina de precisión” (EQC2021-007294-P)