As spring gracefully transitions into summer, the Dutch saying “In mei leggen alle vogels een ei”—“In May, all birds lay eggs”—comes to life. It symbolizes the renewal of nature and, for bioinformaticians in the Netherlands, it also marks an exciting time: the annual Bioinformatics and Systems Biology (BioSB) conference.
This year’s BioSB took place at the charming Castle “De Berckt” in the quaint town of Baarlo, nestled in the Limburg province. Surrounded by lush greenery, the venue offered a perfect blend of historic ambiance and modern conference facilities. Attendees enjoyed inspiring talks in both grand and intimate rooms, scenic views during lunch breaks, and plenty of opportunities for networking and poster sessions.
The Biolab was proudly represented by Utkarsh Mahamune, who delivered a compelling talk on ENCORE: A practical implementation to improve reproducibility and transparency of computational research. I also had the pleasure of presenting our poster on a Full-scan Lipidomics Pre-processing and Data Analysis Platform, developed in collaboration with the Core Facility Metabolomics. The poster sparked great interest and engaging discussions with fellow researchers.
This year, I also joined the traditional morning run organized by Peter-Bram ’t Hoen. Despite the early 7 a.m. start, it was a refreshing experience—complete with an unexpected encounter with a herd of cows blocking our path!
The conference was filled with insightful presentations from international speakers, lively conversations during the BBQ and social events, and a strong sense of community. I’m already looking forward to next year’s edition!
