This webinar which is part of a series arising from the 2023-SYBEL Commissioned Service was presented by the ELIXIR Systems Biology Community, starting with an overview of the Community by Vitor Martins dos Santos, one of the Community Co-leads.
Welcome and overview of the ELIXIR Systems Biology Community
Vitor Martins dos Santos (Professor Biomanufacturing & Digital Twins, Wageningen UR (WUR), The Netherlands)
ELIXIR Communities are groups of experts across ELIXIR Nodes and beyond that represent a scientific or technological theme which drives the development of standards, services and/or training in and across services offered by ELIXIR. They connect the infrastructure services to research domains.
An idea for digital Twin for a Bacterial Strain
Andrzej Tkacz (Centre for Marine Sciences, University of Algarve) 
This project aims to create a digital twin for the bacterial strain Rhizobium leguminosarum 3841 by integrating its phenotypic and genetic information, starting with the wild-type version. The approach involves manual curation of a comprehensive database that includes experimental procedures, detailed growth conditions, measurement methods, and contextual metadata, such as the rationale behind experiments and quality of research publications.
The curated data will serve as a foundation for machine learning models to identify patterns between growth conditions and phenotypic observations, detect anomalous results, predict phenotypes under untested conditions, and discover novel associations between environmental factors and phenotypic traits. With over 100 relevant publications, this strain offers diverse phenotypic data, including growth rates, exopolysaccharide production, transport activities, colony morphology, plant assays, and survival metrics.
This project’s aim is to gather all experimental data into a computer-readable format but also to serve as a library exercise to systematically organize and catalog scientific findings. The project has the potential to be extended to include genotypic and mutant data (both genetic and phenotypic) for R. leguminosarum 3841 and to incorporate closely related rhizobia strains. Leveraging over a decade of personal hands-on experience with R. leguminosarum 3841, this project will produce a detailed digital model to advance predictive microbiology and improve our understanding of rhizobial physiology.
The recording of this event will be uploaded to the ELIXIR Europe Youtube channel