Fostering Bioinformatics Growth in Türkiye

After diving into the Nextflow community, I’ve seen how it benefits bioinformatics in places like South Africa, Brazil, and France. I’m confident it can do the same for Türkiye by fostering collaboration and speeding up research. Since I became a Nextflow Ambassador, I am happy and excited because I can contribute to this development! Even though our first attempt to organize an introductory Nextflow workshop was online, it was a fruitful collaboration with RSG-Türkiye that initiated our effort to promote more Nextflow in Türkiye. We are happy to announce that we will organize a hands-on workshop soon.

I am Kübra Narcı, currently employed as a bioinformatician within the German Human Genome Phenome Archive (GHGA) Workflows workstream. Upon commencing this position nearly two years ago, I was introduced to Nextflow due to the necessity of transporting certain variant calling workflows here, and given my prior experience with other workflow managers, I was well-suited for the task. Though the initial two months were marked by challenges and moments of frustration, my strong perseverance ultimately led to the successful development of my first pipeline.

Subsequently, owing much to the supportive Nextflow community, my interest, as well as my proficiency in the platform, steadily grew, culminating in my acceptance to the role of Nextflow Ambassador for the past six months. I jumped into the role since it was a great opportunity for GHGA and Nextflow to be connected even more.

Transitioning into this ambassadorial role prompted a solid realization: the absence of a dedicated Nextflow community in Türkiye. This revelation was a shock, particularly given my academic background in bioinformatics there, where the community’s live engagement in workflow development is undeniable. Witnessing Turkish contributors within Nextflow and nf-core Slack workspaces further underscored this sentiment. It became evident that what was lacking was a spark for organizing events to ignite the Turkish community, a task I gladly undertook.

While I possessed foresight regarding the establishment of a Nextflow community, I initially faced uncertainty regarding the appropriate course of action. To address this, I sought counsel from Marcel, given his pivotal role in the initiation of the Nextflow community in Brazil. Following our discussion and receipt of valuable insights, it became evident that establishing connections with the appropriate community from my base in Germany was a necessity.

This attempt led me to meet with RSG-Türkiye. RSG-Türkiye aims to create a platform for students and post-docs in computational biology and bioinformatics in Türkiye. It aims to share knowledge and experience, promote collaboration, and expand training opportunities. The organization also collaborates with universities and the Bioinformatics Council, a recently established national organization as the Turkish counterpart of the ISCB (International Society for Computational Biology) to introduce industrial and academic research. To popularize the field, they have offline and online talk series in university student centers to promote computational biology and bioinformatics.

Following our introduction, RSG-Türkiye and I hosted a workshop focusing on workflow reproducibility, Nextflow, and nf-core. We chose Turkish as the language to make it more accessible for participants who are not fluent in English. The online session lasted a bit more than an hour and attracted nearly 50 attendees, mostly university students but also individuals from the research and industry sectors. The strong student turnout was especially gratifying as it aligned with my goal of building a vibrant Nextflow community in Türkiye. I took the opportunity to discuss Nextflow’s ambassadorship and mentorship programs, which can greatly benefit students, given Türkiye’s growing interest in bioinformatics. The whole workshop was recorded and can be viewed on YouTube.

I am delighted to report that the workshop was a success. It was not only attracting considerable interest but also marked the commencement of a promising journey. Our collaboration with RSG-Türkiye persists, with plans underway for a more comprehensive on-site training session in Türkiye scheduled for later this year. I look forward to more engagement from Turkish participants as we work together to strengthen our community. Hopefully, this effort will lead to more Turkish-language content, new mentor relations from the core Nextflow team, and the emergence of a local Nextflow ambassador.

How can I contact the Nextflow Türkiye community?

If you want to help grow the Nextflow community in Türkiye, join the Nextflow and nf-core Slack workspaces and connect with Turkish contributors in the #region-turkiye channel. Don’t be shy—say hello, and let’s build up the community together! Feel free to contact me if you’re interested in helping organize local hands-on Nextflow workshops. We welcome both advanced users and beginners. By participating, you’ll contribute to the growth of bioinformatics in Türkiye, collaborate with peers, and access resources to advance your research and career.