DSI/CyVerse power international bioinformatics workshops – CompBio Asia 2025
Kasetsart University in Bangkok, Thailand hosted the 2025 CompBio Asia—Advanced Studies Workshops (ASW) which was a two-week international program of workshops in computational biology. The June 15-28 program brought together graduate students, faculty, researchers, and professionals from the United States and Southeast Asia for intensive workshops and practical exercises in molecular dynamics and genomics.
The Data Science Institute (DSI) and CyVerse at the University of Arizona played key roles in ensuring the event ran smoothly by supporting the cyberinfrastructure behind the scenes. The workshops demanded significant computing power and DSI/CyVerse helped to deliver it. A central tool in this support was CACAO, a deployment platform developed by the CyVerse infrastructure team led by Edwin Skidmore. CACAO was used on the JetStream2 high-performance computing system to create customized Virtual Machines and JupyterHubs. The setup allowed attendees to carry out molecular simulations, predictions, and sequence alignments as part of their training.
Attendees were expected to bring graduate-level experience in areas such as genomics, structural biology, or artificial intelligence, and to expand their skills across disciplines. ASW combined workshops with hands-on sessions and collaborative projects that created a fast-paced learning environment.
The U of A was directly involved in both instruction and workshop development. Travis Wheeler, Associate Professor in Pharmacy Practice and Science, served as both an instructor and organizer. He was joined by colleague Jeremiah Gaiser from the R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy who was an instructor.
CompBio Asia 2025 was developed by teams from the University of Arizona and the University of Montana and included instructors from institutions across Asia, Europe, and the USA. The workshop received funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation through awards 1953405 and 2420222.