PLOS Computational Biology announces t-shirt design winner

PLOS Computational Biology is pleased to announce the winner of its 2013 t-shirt competition: This year’s t-shirt was designed by Chris Lauber and Katrin Sameith and will be given away by the journal at the ISMB/ECCB 2013 conference in Berlin. The t-shirt has become something of a tradition for PLOS Computational Biology, having been part of our presence at the ISMB meetings for over five years.

The winning design depicts chromosome 7 of baker’s yeast and its composite genes, the coordinates of which were obtained from the Saccharomyces Genome Database (www.yeastgenome.org).  All of the colours and dimensions were sourced from Katrin Sameith’s PhD thesis and built using a programming language called Processing, a variation of Java. Processing has a broad appeal for artists and designers as well as researchers, and is highly useful for data visualisation.

Katrin Sameith’s research was conducted on the transcription regulatory network in baker’s yeast, employing genome-wide approaches. Individual genes were deleted and the resulting gene expression changes were monitored by DNA microarrays. By integrating the gene expression data with other available data types, Katrin could analyse and interpret the data in various ways.

Chris Lauber’s PhD research was also based on genetics, as it investigates the evolution and genetic diversity of different RNA viruses through comparative genomics.

The PLOS booth will be open at ISMB/ECCB 2013 from the 20^th to the 23^rd of July. We are holding “Meet the Editors” sessions throughout the conference, so make sure you drop by for an insight into the journal and (while stocks last) a free PLOS Computational Biology t-shirt!

By Chris Hall, Senior Publications Assistant, PLOS Computational Biology