Each year the LBRN program has an annual meeting in which program participants, committee members and administrators meet to review individual research accomplishments and to discuss the overall program activity. Summer research faculty and graduate and undergraduate students are encouraged to present their LBRN sponsored research, and talks are scheduled to highlight sponsored research projects from partnered campuses across the state.

The 23rd LBRN Annual Meeting will be held virtually on Thursday and Friday, February 20-21. Details and registration information will be posted on the LBRN webpage later on.

LBRN was established in September 2001 with Biomedical Research Infrastructure Networks (BRIN) funding by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), through the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) Grant P20RR016456, the LBRN is committed to raising the research competitiveness of Louisiana researchers. IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) is the second phase of the BRIN Program when LBRN initially started. Currently, LBRN is in the third phase with continued funding by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) Grant 8P20GM103424 and the Louisiana Board of Regents Support Fund.

The LBRN training platform is developed and operated by Division of Biotechnology and Molecular Medicine (BioMMed) at School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM), Louisiana State University- Baton Rouge, LA. The platform provides a comprehensive foundation in bioinformatics, -omics data analysis, machine learning, computational languages for -omics data handling, structural biology, and drug discovery. Designed to build strong foundational knowledge and skills, it prepares students for advanced topics and specialized courses offered by the NIGMS Sandbox.

A one-day training session was held on August 20th, hosted by LBRN and CCT, covering a variety of topics, including an introduction to QIAGEN’s Ingenuity Pathway Analysis, data formatting and upload, result interpretation, RNA-seq analysis in IPA, Perform Pathway Analysis on ‘OmicData, QIAGEN CLC Genomics Workbench, and Mine IPA’s rich database for novel discoveries.

The 29th annual Summer Undergraduate Research Forum (SURF) will showcase the numerous undergraduate students who have engaged in summer research projects this year at institutions throughout the LSU System. SURF will take place on Friday, July 28th in the LSU Patrick F. Taylor hall.

The Work In Progress Seminars are presentations by LBRN PI’s where they present their research progress and have an opportunity for input from their peers and mentors in a collaborative setting.