Bioinformatics and Research Computing (BaRC), Whitehead Institute

Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA

    Bioinformatics & Research Computing (BaRC) Department 

Name/Title:

   George W. Bell, Ph.D., Director of BaRC, (gbell AT wi.mit.edu) 

Group size:

   - Total staff is 5:
     - 1 Ph.D. director 
     - 3 Ph.D. Bioinformatics Scientists 
     - 1 M.S. Senior Bioinformatics Analyst 
   - We have a team of consultants for
     - scientific illustration
     - high-throughput image analysis
     - biostatistics (for advanced topics)
   - We have a full IT department that manages our hardware, Linux software, storage, and network. 

Environment:

   The Whitehead Institute is a private research institute affiliated with MIT. All faculty at 
   Whitehead are also Biology professors at MIT. There are about 20 labs - 16 faculty and several 
   Whitehead Fellows - with undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs and technicians. 
   Labs range in size from 6 to low 40s. 

Tools:

  We support software on Mac, Windows and Linux. For desktop software we currently support LaserGene, MacVector, Sequencher, Gene Construction Kit, the Adobe Creative Suite, PyMOL, and web tools like GeneGo and Oncomine Premium.
  We have a huge selection of Linux software.

Pertinent hardware info:

  The IT department supports a large cluster of machines and provides ample storage 
  to support the scientific work at the Institute.

Training:

  - Hands on mini-courses. See BaRC Education Pages.
  - Our "Hot Topics" series is held monthly and includes an hour talk plus hands-on session 
    about some specific computational or bioinformatics topic.  
  - We also do lots of one-on-one training. 

Bioinformatics support model:

  basic model is consultation, collaboration, training and education 
  in the areas of bioinformatics and graphics. 

Funding model:

  Institutional funds.