Virtual Opportunities for BIoinformatiCs RESearch (VOICES): Virtual Planetary Protection Bioinformatics Seminar Series and Workshop

VOICES Program: Project VOICES will establish a 4-day virtual PP seminar series (lecture) focused on molecular biology and bioinformatics, followed by a hands-on 5-week summer research project, with students from HBCU/MSI institutions. Over the course of a month, three JPL PP researchers will host a 4-day intensive virtual seminar series (1 day per week or 2 days for 2 weeks) to inform and engage students in how molecular biology and bioinformatic concepts are used in interdisciplinary fields like PP and planetary science. Following the 4-day course, pending JPL?s on-Lab status, participating universities will select 1 student each (based on the university?s selection criteria) to participate in a 5-week summer (2021) research project characterizing the microbiome of a spacecraft assembly cleanroom at JPL. If JPL remains closed, the 5-week internship will then be conducted virtually, only focusing on the bioinformatics analysis. Students will be provided previously collected cleanroom DNA sequencing data to process and analyze, and will still get an opportunity to learn about using cloud computing resources and open source software for bioinformatics.