Halmos Faculty Publishes Papers in International Journal, GigaScience

Stephen J. O’Brien, Ph.D., National Academy of Sciences USA member and faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center (HCAS), recently published two papers in the international journal GigaScience. This journal publishes ‘big data’, including ‘omics’, studies from across the entire spectrum of life and biomedical sciences.

The two papers deal with different disciplines in the genomic sciences, both of which O’Brien has a distinguished research record in.

One was a Review paper published in June 2022, titled “A decade of GigaScience: A perspective on conservation genetics” (citation below). This paper provides O’Brien’s perspective on the history and new developments in the currently burgeoning field of wildlife conservation genetics and genomics – a discipline he was one of the pioneers of and remains active in. This area of research provides key knowledge to inform successful conservation intervention in an era experiencing a rapid pace of wildlife extinctions resulting from anthropogenic activities.

The second paper, published in September 2022, is human biology focused, and titled “The Pioneer Advantage: Filling the blank spots on the map of genome diversity in Europe” (citation below). This paper provides a review of the gaps remaining in human genome sequencing data, which although spurring a revolution in biomedical research, still has major geographic genome deserts regarding genome biodiversity of humans.

O’Brien, S.J. A decade of GigaScience: A Perspective on Conservation Genetics. GigaScience, Volume 11, 2022, giac055, https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giac055

T.K. Oleksyk, W.W. Wolfsberger, K. Schubelka, S. Mangul, and S.J. O’Brien. The Pioneer Advantage: Filling the blank spots on the map of genome diversity in Europe. GigaScience, Volume 11, 2022, giac081, https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giac081

Posted 10/23/22