The Core Facility "Core Unit Bioinformatics" at the Medical Faculty of the Ruhr University Bochum (“CUBiMed.RUB”) offers comprehensive scientific cooperation opportunities such as consulting, analysis, tool and workflow development, training and hardware use in the fields of bioinformatics and biostatistics. The focus is on proteomics, genomics, transcriptomics, their combination (“multi-omics”), but also on other - related or new - omics technologies with or without reference to clinical research data.
CUBiMed.RUB pursues a scientific cooperation approach and no commercial interests. CUBiMed.RUB gives no guarantees of availability or fulfillment.
Is the cooperation with CUBiMed.RUB free of charge?
Yes, we provide our scientific infrastructure to academic users at no cost if they are manageable regarding our resources. However, to be able to provide it free-of-charge we have to document satisfied users and usage. Thus, our co-authorships in scientific articles based partly or completely on our data analyses, citation of our tools and infrastructure and their related papers as well as acknowledging our project in all scientific articles are mandatory (see "Publication of results").
Does CUBiMed.RUB guarantee to complete the agreed cooperation at the appointed time?
When starting a cooperation, a timeframe will be discussed, which also depends on the current situation regarding personnel and the occupancy rate with other cooperations. We always strive to adhere to agreed dates and deadlines, but this cannot be guaranteed. In case of delays, we will inform the user as soon as possible to rearrange the further course of action.
Is CUBiMed.RUB responsible for the correctness of the provided information and the results?
We work according to scientific principles and the best scientific knowledge. However, we cannot take liability for errors, which may occur, and the resulting disadvantages.
Who has to be informed about the data analysis by CUBiMed.RUB?
If the requester is not the project leader (e.g., PhD student), the project leader/PI has to be informed about the planned data analysis and/or consulting by CUBiMed.RUB and the resulting data transfer and has to sign the cooperation agreement. The same applies to the consortium leader if the project is part of a consortium.
How do I contact CUBiMed.RUB and what happens after a cooperation request?
You will usually make initial contact, e.g. by e-mail (cubimed@rub.de) or in person. Please do not send us any unsolicited data. An initial meeting will take place online or on site to discuss the existing data situation and its quality, as well as the research questions to be addressed in the project. The further course of the cooperation will also be determined there.
Does the data need to have a certain format?
Please provide data in open formats (vendor formats only after consultation). For clinical data, please agree upon a suitable data format and presentation (e.g., coding of categorical variables, representation of missing values) with our responsible scientist.
How do I transfer data to CUBiMed.RUB?
Please do not send data unsolicited, but only in coordination with us. Smaller data sets may be sent by mail (encrypted with password). For larger data sets or raw data, we will provide an upload link in the Sciebo cloud.
What has to be considered when transferring person-related data to CUBiMed.RUB?
For person-related data the data privacy regulations of the requesting institution (data provider) must be fulfilled. To fulfill our (data receiver) data privacy regulations, data must be at least pseudonymized and an informed consent of the patient/experimentee about data privacy (e.g., data transfer to RUB) must exist.
What has to be considered for publication of results acquired in collaboration with CUBiMed.RUB?
If you publish results that have benefited from the CUBiMed.RUB infrastructure (consulting, analysis, or usage of tools), it is mandatory to add an appropriate reference to CUBiMed.RUB according to the extent of our support as co-authorships/acknowledgements and/or citations of our infrastructure.
If results from the data analysis are published, our responsible researcher(s) and the PIs have to be included as co-authors. Including the appropriate affiliation (“Ruhr University Bochum, Medical Faculty, Core Unit Bioinformatics - CUBiMed.RUB”) for each co-author is mandatory. We need these references to document usage of the infrastructure and satisfied users. Please contact us in rational time before paper submission to allow us to fulfil our scientific responsibility and check the manuscript.
If publication of the results is planned as part of a consortium, the consortium leader (last author) has to be informed before starting the collaboration with CUBiMed.RUB.
If software tools or workflows provided by CUBiMed.RUB are used, the corresponding publications have to be cited.
Is there a claim of CUBiMed.RUB regarding patents?
If users plan inventions, patents or applications for industrial/intellectual property rights, the participation of the Ruhr University Bochum as CUBiMed.RUB’s hosting institution must be arranged in advance.
Does CUBiMed.RUB offer trainings?
Yes, CUBiMed.RUB regularly offers trainings on different topics regarding bioinformatics and data analysis. These trainings may be online or in-person, in some cases as workshops at scientific conferences. The trainings are usually free of charge (there may be fees if they are workshops at conferences). Please check the de.NBI training website for currently available trainings https://www.denbi.de/training.
Are recordings of past trainings online?
For some courses, online training material is offered together with recordings, please see https://www.denbi.de/online-training-media-library.
In the following you can find downloads of the current FAQs, our cooperation agreement form and our (preliminary) data privacy document.
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Last update: Nov 14, 2024
