European Virus Bioinformatics Center, 07743 Jena, Germany.
RNA Bioinformatics and High-Throughput Analysis, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, 07743 Jena, Germany.
Viruses. 2022 Jul 12;14(7):1522. doi: 10.3390/v14071522.
Viruses are the cause of a considerable burden to human, animal and plant health, while on the other hand playing an important role in regulating entire ecosystems. The power of new sequencing technologies combined with new tools for processing "Big Data" offers unprecedented opportunities to answer fundamental questions in virology. Virologists have an urgent need for virus-specific bioinformatics tools. These developments have led to the formation of the European Virus Bioinformatics Center, a network of experts in virology and bioinformatics who are joining forces to enable extensive exchange and collaboration between these research areas. The EVBC strives to provide talented researchers with a supportive environment free of gender bias, but the gender gap in science, especially in math-intensive fields such as computer science, persists. To bring more talented women into research and keep them there, we need to highlight role models to spark their interest, and we need to ensure that female scientists are not kept at lower levels but are given the opportunity to lead the field. Here we showcase the work of the EVBC and highlight the achievements of some outstanding women experts in virology and viral bioinformatics.
病毒对人类、动物和植物的健康造成了相当大的负担，但另一方面，它们在调节整个生态系统方面也起着重要作用。新测序技术的力量与处理“大数据”的新工具相结合，为回答病毒学中的基本问题提供了前所未有的机会。病毒学家迫切需要针对病毒的生物信息学工具。这些发展导致了欧洲病毒生物信息学中心的形成，这是一个由病毒学和生物信息学专家组成的网络，他们正在联合起来，使这些研究领域能够进行广泛的交流与合作。EVBC 致力于为有才华的研究人员提供一个没有性别偏见的支持性环境，但科学领域中的性别差距，特别是在计算机科学等数学密集型领域，仍然存在。为了让更多有才华的女性进入研究领域并留住她们，我们需要突出榜样来激发她们的兴趣，我们需要确保女性科学家不会被限制在较低水平，而是有机会领导该领域。在这里，我们展示了 EVBC 的工作，并突出了一些杰出的病毒学和病毒生物信息学女性专家的成就。
