Data Structures in Bioinformatics

Navigating in the complexity of life science data without drowning

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The workshop "Data Structures in Bioinformatics", or DSB for short, is an annual scientific meeting at the crossroads of computer science and biology. It is the unique forum to discuss compact data structures and their applications for processing data from life sciences.

Why Data Structures?

Data Structures

  • organize your data in memory
  • allow querying and mining the data on-the-fly
  • in optimal or nearly optimal time.

Truncated Hierarchical Overlap Graph

Why applications in life sciences?

Life Sciences

  • experience a revolution in data acquisition technologies, which yield huge quantities of sequencing data
  • target multiple, diverse molecular substrates and phenomena
  • offer a wide range of application domains (health, environment, agronomy, …)
  • require complex, efficient, and scalable data mining approaches.

Trie of a set of words - Extended Burrows Wheeler Transform

Why algorithms for compact data structures?

  • Although DS aren't their main focus, bioinformatics methods heavily relies on compact DS
  • Efficient algorithms for building, querying or maintaining DS are crucial for scalability
  • This recent topic fosters innovative ideas, a dynamic community, and beautiful algorithms.

Relation between Suffix Tree, Aho-Corasick automaton, and  Burrows Wheeler Transform of a set of words