What a wonderful time of the year spring is! The days get longer, the sun gets brighter, and science gets hotter! This season has stirred things up in the ConesaLab, and we just can’t stop doing great things.
March: Open Science and New Faces 🌸
As always in Valencia, March is an explosive month, characterized by Fallas and Semana Santa. Even though you might think we couldn’t get much done with all the fireworks and holidays, we still did!
Pablo attended the second General Assembly of the OSCARS project. He got a front-row seat to see how the European landscape for Open Science is shaping up, and we have to say it looks truly promising! After enjoying some sun and science in Seville, Pablo came back with fresh ideas to FAIRify even our breakfast.
Victor, our designated BioinformARTician, swept the competition and won the first edition of the I2SysBio photography contest in the “Data, Models, and Simulations” category! 🏆 His masterpiece, “Colored Labyrinths”, captivated the jury and the public alike, making his victory a unanimous decision. What do you think—should he stop coding and focus on his art? 😉📸
To help make the lab a more automated place, Tian gave us a seminar on how to elevate our bioinformatics game using AI agents like OpenClaw. Clara joined the AI hype too, presenting Base44—an AI-assisted development platform. We had a chance to play around and build our own AI tools to facilitate our research. Even if we didn’t create anything world-changing on the spot, the seed was definitely planted… 🤖
However, March also brought a lab renewal. Raul, the Master’s student who single-handedly brought IsoAnnot back to life, finished his internship and moved on to keep doing wonders at BioBam. Pablo was sad to see him go but incredibly happy to watch such a great student and person grow. Soon you will have fresh news about IsoAnnot!
To fill Raul’s empty chair, we didn’t just get one replacement—we got three! But don’t worry, they didn’t have to fight for a single spot; we just invaded our neighbors’ space 😉 Hugo, Miguel, and Dani are three students from a Web Design Higher Technical Diploma (FP). They joined us to aid Julen, Pablo, and Fabian with their web projects!
April: Collaborations and Travel Spirits 🌧️
March left and the rainy April came, but that did not damp our enthusiasm. The COCREA projects were finally set in motion!
Pablo had his first meeting with the team at the Fundación Carlos Simón, where they kicked off the project. It looks incredibly promising! For now, we can’t share too many details, only that it is going to be a beautiful journey where Pablo is reunited with his beloved microbiome. 🧬
On the other hand, the other Pablo (yes, the intern “mini-me”) also started working on the second COCREA project. He got his hands on the fresh data from LongSeq and ran the first analyses. In between running analyses, he used his internship time to improve the plots for SQANTI-reads and assess how well different transcriptome reconstruction methods perform with the new batches of direct-RNA Nanopore sequencing (since LRGASP results are starting to look a bit outdated—the field advances faster than we dare to dream!).
During April, Ana recovered her traveling spirit, making a quick visit to Barcelona for the PacBio PRISM meeting and hosting the third General Assembly of the BCB Conexión. She was joined by Julen (one of the new coordinators of the Junior Hub), Fabian, Quique, and Pablo. Julen did an outstanding job organizing an amazing seminar, where Quique presented his results in a short talk and Pablo spoke about his work experience in Denmark during a round table. It was an inspiring few days as we discussed the present and future steps for the Conexión. Something as great as that should live forever, and we will do our best to make it happen!
At the end of April, we went out for drinks to say goodbye to Nitin! He was a visiting postdoc from the Neuroscience Institute of Alicante, who spent the month with us to get started with the SQANTI-verse and analyze his neural transcriptomics data.
May: Bittersweet Farewells 🎓👋
May started with our favourite activity of the year: ExpoCiencia! During this day, the whole Parc Científic (the research facility where our institute is located) organizes a science fair focused on families, bringing science closer to the community. In recent editions, there has been a strong focus on making science accessible and adapting activities so everyone can enjoy them and interact with the researchers. Our lab participated with our signature activity: “Which protein is encoded in your name?” Kids absolutely loved the colorful DNA bracelets they created with their names—so cute! Parents also had fun checking out on our website how DNA is translated and mapped against databases containing thousands of proteins to find a match. Some are already calling our protein-matching app the new zodiac signs 😉
The ConesaLab Team
Smiles, energy, and science at our ExpoCiencia tent! 🧬
DNA Bracelet Workshop
Future bioinformaticians translating names into DNA jewelry. 🎨
Mas Camarena Centre
Introducing Pathological Anatomy & Molecular Biology classes to the wonders of bioinformatics. 🏫
Clinical University Hospital
Stepping up to the big leagues to talk about the importance of Long-Read Transcriptomics. 🏥
Additionally, keeping up with our outreach spirit, Carol gave several lectures on bioinformatics. She started with an introductory lecture to the Professional Vocational Training (Formación Profesional) classes of Pathological Anatomy and Molecular Biology at the Mas Camarena centre. She then stepped up to the big leagues, giving another lecture on the importance of Long-Read Transcriptomics at the Unit of Molecular Biology of the Clinical University Hospital of Valencia. Unbeatable, this Carol of ours!
Our colleague Julen also attended the 2026 EOHA ASM meeting, where he served as an organiser for the youth committee, helping to ensure the smooth running and overall success of the conference. Such a great face of the Junior Hub of the BCB Conexión! Go Julen, GOOOOOO!
To wrap up the spring, the end of May brought some bittersweet goodbyes as our students finished their stays.
We had to say farewell to Pablo (our hard-working intern under Pablo’s wing), who did a fantastic job stress-testing the latest SQANTI3 release. We also bid adieu to our three FP web design students—Hugo, Miguel, and Dani—who spent the last few months helping Julen, Pablo, and Fabian bring their web projects to life. We will miss having their energy around the office and wish them the absolute best in their next steps!
Pizza Celebrations
Any excuse is a good excuse to celebrate together! Enjoying a great slice of pizza with the lab family. 🍕
Bittersweet Send-offs
Bidding a fond farewell to Pablo and our wonderful FP students as they finish their stay. We will miss you! 🎓👋
To close off this post, we have to remind you that the time is almost here: the VALT Summer Course and VALT Symposium are right around the corner! We already have the initial draft ready for both, and registrations are about to close. If you want to become a pro in the vital field of long reads, don’t miss your chance to join us and attend one (or both) of these events!
And that was all for Spring 2026—a season of hard work, growth, and wonderful connections! See you in the next post!