Rusty Genomics: Rust in the Biosciences

Lisa Crossman discusses the application of the Rust programming language in the field of biosciences, particularly in genomics and bioinformatics. The talk covers the increasing scale of genomic data, various DNA sequencing technologies (Illumina short-read and Oxford Nanopore long-read), and the challenges in bioinformatics, such as handling large datasets and dependency management. Crossman highlights Rust's advantages in speed and efficiency for tasks like sequence assembly and file format conversion, comparing it to Python and R. The presentation also touches upon the 'One Health' approach, emphasizing the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health, and how Rust can contribute to more sustainable and innovative solutions in biological research.