Research Bazaar Melbourne February 2015

1. Tom Kelly
PhD Candidate, Genetics
@tomkXY
tom.kelly@postgrad.otago.ac.nz
My digital toolbox
● Operating system: Windows 7 / Ubuntu 14.04
● Data analysis and visualisation: R (CRAN and Bioconductor
packages), Bash Shell, Python
● Code development: RStudio
● High Performance Computing: Slurm (NZ eScience Infrastructure)
● Version control: GitHub
● Document editing: Microsoft Word, Wolfram Mathematica, LaTeX
● Reference manager: EndNote
● Graphics editing: Inkscape / GIMP
● Presentations: Microsoft PowerPoint / Rmarkdown (Slidify)
My favourite tool: R
As a computational biologist, R is my one-stop shop for data analysis and
visualisation. It is supported by a vast array of packages serving specialist
disciplines on CRAN, Bioconductor, and github repositories. R is growing
in the life sciences as, genomic datasets become commonplace, both in
use and value to employers.
I’ve got my eyes on: Prezi / Microsoft Sway
Effective communication is essential to conducting reproducible scientific
work of value to the community funding it. Communicating science is only
going to be more challenging as Interdisciplinary research teams become
the norm with sharing findings with collaborators, funding bodies,
students, and the lay public. MS Powerpoint has dominated the
presentation toolkit to the point where few of us question the limitations of
the format. Cloud-based and non-linear presentation tools are emerging
as feasible alternatives. I am particularly interested in trying MS Sway
which has been very popular in preview versions.
My research: Synthetic lethal interactions for cancer drugs
The synthetic lethal concept enables indirect targeting of tumour
suppressor genes for cancer therapy tailored to molecular profiles and
hereditary predispositions of patients. I am investigating computational
approaches to understand the mechanisms of genetic interactions and
increase the efficiency of experimental screening for candidate drug
targets to develop more effective cancer treatment.