In this post we want to present conference committee member Mauno Vihinen, Professor and Research Team Manager at Protein Bioinformatics.
Hi Mauno! Open Science covers many things and practice, of all the things that can be encompassed in the notion of open science, what are you most passionate about?
Mauno: I have worked for decades to make data, computer programs and analyses available. That has been the tradition in my field, bioinformatics. We have released more than 100 databases, all of them are publicly available. Such efforts are only possible if there are agreed standards and reference systems.
How do you apply open science in your research?
Mauno: At BMC we develop methods that are made publicly available. There are for example AI-based methods for identifying genetic variants (mutations) related to diseases, as well as tools for different effects and consequences of variations. We maintain some unique databases, such as VariBench, the only source for variation effect benchmark sets, which has users around the world.
I have also worked for open access publications for years in different roles, e.g. in editorial boards of journals, in work groups that have developed recommendations for reporting genetic data, and in international collaborations to develop standard data formats.
What will be your role during the LU Open Science Days?
Mauno: I will be an active participant. I want to learn about the on-going and coming aspects of open science and I want to continue contribute to open science in my open research.