The NIH Library's Bioinformatics Support Program


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The NIH Library's Bioinformatics Support Program was developed to provide researchers with powerful tools to analyze and understand the biological significance of a variety of data. The program is conducted by an expert bioinformatics trainer, Dr. Medha Bhagwat, and consists of the following:

One-on-One Consultation

Often a question arises in the course of research which requires knowledge of computational or database resources. For example, a seemingly simple search, such as finding more information about a gene of interest, can turn into a need to access and understand publicly available microarray or next generation sequencing data. The NIH Library Bioinformatics Program provides consultation services to further research at NIH by solving such problems.
  • The program staff offers a depth and breadth of experience ranging from understanding the work and needs of a bench scientist to performing sophisticated data analysis and programming. The services also include tutorials for licensed tools provided by the library. Additional resources, such as those publicly available, are also covered.
Past consultations have covered a variety of subjects:
  • Using data from GEO (Gene Expression Omnibus) and SRA (Sequence Read Archive) to augment understanding of gene of interest
  • Taking advantage of the library's licenses for commercially available pathway software to show which differentially expressed genes in particular pathways were unique to each experiment factor
  • Displaying and integrating data using various genome browsers which allow the use of custom tracks

Whether a researcher is seeking advice or information, such consultations are readily available for individuals, labs, or groups. Topics include:


Additionally, tutorials are available for any of our tools and resources. To schedule a tutorial, or to request consultation services, please contact Medha directly at 301-496-2185 or by email.
image Dr. Yi Ding, a Clinical Center postdoc, and Dr. Medha Bhagwat, the NIH Library Bioinformatics Support Program Coordinator, discuss how a library tutorial with Medha was instrumental in Ding's successful cloning of a gene promoter sequence.


Online Bioinformatics Tutorials

The page provides links to free on-line bioinformatics tutorials, either generated by the NIH Library or other institutes.

  1. Bioinformatics Tutorial Series (BITS) A collaboration of the MIT Engineering and Science Libraries and Harvard's Countway Library
  2. Coffee Break: Tutorials for NCBI Tools A resource at NCBI that combines reports on recent biomedical discoveries with use of NCBI tools.
  3. Entrez Gene Tutorial This video tutorial shows researchers effective search techniques for gene information using the NCBI Entrez Gene database. This database is a gateway to gene reference sequences from genomes of interest to the NCBI RefSeq group.
  4. NCBI YouTube Short tutorials on NCBI resources.
  5. Online Lectures on Bioinformatics This series includes exercises and answers for an in-depth study of classic sequence analysis algorithms.
  6. UCSC Genome Bioinformatics
    Getting Help with the UCSC Genome Browser.

Bioinformatics Training

The NIH Library offers several bioinformatics courses that are available free to all NIH and HHS staff. Bioinformatics courses are usually held in the NIH Library Training Room unless otherwise noted. Registration is required to guarantee a seat and to receive any training materials associated with the class. ***New registration process: Registration for NIH Library Bioinformatics classes is managed by CIT using the HHS Learning Management System. Please log into this system before proceeding to register for classes. For assistance with registration, please contact CIT at 301.594.6248 or [email protected].
  • Sign up for the NIH Library e-news to receive announcements about bioinformatics classes and training opportunities. Standard bioinformatics classes, course descriptions and exercises can be found on the Bioinformatics Training Page.

Analysis Tools and Databases

The NIH Library has secured licensing for a wide range of bioinformatics resources. The complete list and licensing information is below. The licenses are either floating (access is provided from any NIH computer) and/or static (access is provided from one of the NIH Library Bioinformatics Workstations). If you would like to recommend additional resources, please send your requests to Dr. Medha Bhagwat.

NIH Library Resources:

Search results from these sets are not comprehensive. Additional resources may be available from the NIH Library collections.

Bioinformatics Program Staff

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Dr. Medha Bhagwat, Informationist has a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Maryland, College Park, and has conducted postdoctoral training at NIDDK focusing on the structure-function studies of bacteriophage T4 RNase H. Medha published several articles on her research, as well as book chapters on bioinformatics classes/protocols.
From 2001 to 2008 she taught at the NCBI Core-Bioinformatics Facility training the representatives from NIH institutes in the use of the NCBI bioinformatics tools. Medha also developed and taught several 2-hour mini-courses
She conducts tutorials on using bioinformatics resources and Tools for Data Mining,and other bioinformatics resources such as Biobase, DAVID, Ensembl, and the UCSC Genome Browser.
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image Dr. Lynn Young has over twenty years of experience in the fields of computational biology and bioinformatics. She received her Ph.D. in physics from Purdue University where she studied vibrational modes of DNA. She worked in the field of structure-based drug design at NCI-Frederick and most recently worked in the Division of Computational Bioscience at the Center for Information Technology at NIH.
There she analyzed microarray data; developed web applications; led the development of the genomics component of the National Database for Autism Research (NDAR); and coordinated ontology development for NDAR. Lynn joined the NIH Library in August of 2010 to provide bioinformatics training, consulting, and programming.





Read more @ The NIH Library

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The NIH Library's Bioinformatics Support Program was developed to provide researchers with powerful tools to analyze and understand the biological significance of a variety of data. The program is conducted by an expert bioinformatics trainer, Dr. Medha Bhagwat, and consists of the following: