Canadian Bioinformatics Workshops

Canadian Bioinformatics Workshops (CBW) are a series of advanced training workshops in bioinformatics, founded in 1999 in response to an identified need for a skilled bioinformatics workforce in Canada.

The Canadian Bioinformatics Workshops

Company type	Not for profit workshop delivery
Founded	1999
Headquarters	Ontario , Canada
Area served	Biomedical Research
Key people	Michelle Brazas (Scientific Director), Francis Ouellette (Founder)
Products	Workshops and Bioinformatics Web resources
Number of employees	2
Website	http://bioinformatics.ca/

1999–2007

The Canadian Bioinformatics Workshops series began offering one- and two-week short courses in bioinformatics, genomics and proteomics in 1999, in response to an identified need for a skilled bioinformatics workforce in Canada. In partnership with the Canadian Genetics Diseases Network and Human Resources Development Canada, and under the scientific direction of Director, Francis Ouellette, the CBW series was established.

For eight years, the series offered short courses in bioinformatics, genomics and proteomics in various cities across Canada. The courses were taught by top faculty from Canada and the US, and offered small classes and hands-on instruction.

2007–2018

In 2007, the Canadian Bioinformatics Workshops moved to Toronto, where it is now hosted by the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. A new format and series of workshops were designed in the fall of 2007. It was recognized that with the introduction of new technologies and scientific approaches to research, having the computational biology capacity and skill to deal with this new data has become an even greater asset.

The new series of workshops focuses on training the experts and users of these advanced technologies on the latest approaches used in computational biology to deal with the new data. The Canadian Bioinformatics Workshops began offering the 2-day advanced topic workshops in 2008.

2018–2021

In 2018, the series was hosted by McGill University with support from the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. As a result of the global pandemic, the format of workshops changed to virtual in 2020. In 2021, Francis Ouellette stepped down from scientific leadership of Bioinformatics.ca and CBW.

2021-present

With funding support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Genome Canada and Ontario Genomics, Bioinformatics.ca moved back to the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research under the leadership of Dr. Michelle Brazas (CBW Program Manager from 2007-2015) and underwent a reimagining exercise to scale the workshops across the country.

All workshop material is licensed under a Creative Commons-Share Alike 4.0 license and is available on the CBW Git^[1] site.

The CBW is sponsored by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research.