Omics is a term that describes the study of large data sets of biological molecules such as DNA, RNA, proteins and metabolites.

In October 2025, we hosted the Functional Multi-omics Symposium which brought together researchers to discuss the potential of integrated omics research and spark new collaborations. The event was organised by our Senior Research Scientist Dr Muhammad Yasir together with Dr Sam Rowe, Project Manager for the Centre for Microbial Interactions (CMI).

Connecting functional genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics and proteomics

Yasir explains how the idea of the symposium came about, “I’m an expert in functional genomics but not the other omics. I wanted to bring together different disciplines to share knowledge, spark new ideas and foster collaboration.

Functional genomics is research that uses biological datasets to understand what different genes do.

Yasir continues, “I use the functional genomics tools such as Transposon Directed Insertion site Sequencing (TraDIS-Xpress) which tests the impact of gene mutations on survival and growth of bacteria, to understand what the genes do in bacteria.”

Other omics include transcriptomics, which is the study of RNA produced by the genome, while metabolomics is the study of metabolites, small molecules produced during metabolism. Proteomics describes the large-scale analysis of proteins.

Yasir says, “We might be able to combine our omics powers to solve the problems we are working on, whether it’s antimicrobial resistance, bioengineering or understanding communities of microbes such as in microbiome. We can help solve each other’s problems if we align our strengths.”

Planning the programme for the symposium

“After I had the idea of a symposium to bring together different omics fields, I contacted Sam to see if the Centre for Microbial Interactions could support the event and he said it fits in the realm of CMI remit,” explains Yasir.

The Centre for Microbial Interactions supports and promotes the microbiology community at Norwich Research Park, one of the world’s largest clusters of microbiologists.

Sam explains, “These are exactly the kind of events CMI can support to build connections for the microbiology community across and beyond Norwich Research Park.”

As well as gaining support from CMI, Yasir received funding from the Microbiology Society.

“I am a Microbiology Champion which means I help raise awareness of the Microbiology Society and microbiology research more broadly, so I wanted to run this as Microbiology Society Champion event,” says Yasir.

Ffion Lane from Microbiology Society says “Organising events isn’t easy – there’s a lot of different aspects to consider – and I’ve been really impressed to see how successful Yasir’s first event has gone. It was great to see that the Society’s funding helped to bring so many people together to network and collaborate.”

Yasir explains, “I was speaking to Dr Dipali Singh, an Early Career Fellow at the Quadram Institute and also part of the AI in Biosciences Network (AIBIO-UK), about how we were thinking of bringing together machine learning and omics experts. Dipali pointed towards the possibility of applying for the FlexiFund support from the network. We applied for the travel grant for speakers, and they funded it too which was great because it meant we could approach national and international speakers.”

Speakers and participants

Once funding was secured, the team put together the programme of the day and began promoting online for people to register.

Sam says, “We had a fantastic response from across Norwich Research Park including attendees from the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals and UEA as well as the research institutes. We also had people registered from further afield including the University of Reading, EMBL-EBI, and Cambridge University.”

The day featured talks from researchers across functional genomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics as well as a panel discussion and interactive sessions.

Professor Daniel Figeys Director of Quadram Institute, says “We can achieve remarkable functional assessment with metaproteomics and you can use it with other omics to go deeperhowever, data integration poses significant challenges: mRNA data is usually out of phase with protein data, and metabolites don’t come with tags telling us which bacteria produced them. Hopefully, this is exactly what we’ll address in meetings like this, tackling these integration challenges together.”

The keynote speaker of the day was Professor Lars Barquist from the University of Toronto in Canada and the Helmholtz Institute in Würzburg Germany.

Yasir says, “We invited Lars to speak as a keynote as his work integrates four different omics topics. He gave an excellent talk on the challenge of structure for functional omics data integration.”

From panel discussions to solving data puzzles

Sam reflects, “The variety of activities was great, not just the different research talks but also hands-on data challenges, panel discussions and posters. It gives everyone a chance to have their voice heard and connect with people working in diverse areas.”

Yasir says, “The first interactive session was run by Dr Leanne Sims and Dr Claire Hill who used mock data inspired by Leanne’s research. Participants seemed to really enjoy solving the puzzle as a team.”

“The second interactive session was on machine learning organized by Dr Dipali Singh and Dr Lisa Crossman. The only limitation was less time to cover machine learning and most of the audience were bioscientists so this activity was a bit more challenging for some.”

Plus there was a panel discussion which featured an expert from each of the omics areas.

Professor Mark Webber, Director of CMI, said during the discussion, “The purpose of this panel discussion is to highlight the opportunities, strengths, potential as well as the challenges and problems in integration of the functional multi-omics data sets.”

Sam reflects, “The panel discussion had a key message on how we can work together to integrate omics across the microbiology community. A topic that came up throughout the day was the importance of making data FAIR; findable, accessible, interporable and reusable. This is key to enabling collaboration”

He adds, “We thought it was important that the symposium included early career researchers so we had a poster presentation session over lunch and some flash talks.”

Yasir continues, “We got 14 posters which was fantastic. We had poster prizes from Microbial Genomics, with prizes for Lizzi Coy and Dr Claire Hill for the best scientific poster and another for Dr Hannah Pye for the best communication poster, judged by the communications team.”

You can watch one of the posters, from Gwenaelle Le Gall online.

The potential for omics in the future

Looking ahead Yasir reflects, “In one of the activities, we asked the participants, who they want to collaborate with and which big scientific challenge they want to solve, and we got brilliant response from all the participants. This huge bank of ideas can be a starting point for collaborating across Norwich Research Park and beyond.”

Sam says, “The theme of omics integration was broad enough to be relevant to lots of people but specific enough that you could get interesting deep dives into certain areas and explore how they come together.”

Sam concludes, “We want to continue the exciting conversations that started at the symposium and encourage further interactions in the future.”