MorphoBank is thrilled to invite you to MorphoBank Connects 2025, a virtual conference for the scientific community. This is the first event bringing together researchers, educators, curators, and data professionals for presentations, discussion, and shared learning on September 18 & 19. It’s our hope that the sessions will provide an opportunity for users to connect, share experiences and advice, and collaborate, based on their shared interest in high-quality, reproducible morphological research. The conference is fully sponsored by Phoenix Bioinformatics. There is no cost to attend.

 

Featured speakers at MorphoBank Connects 2025

Thursday September 18 features invited and submitted talks with a keynote by Dr. Maureen O’Leary of Stony Brook University. Dr. O’Leary founded MorphoBank nearly 25 years ago as an accessible online home for morphological data, and a gathering point for those interested in comparative biology, evolutionary biology, paleontology, and related fields.

Presentations include:

  • “Repository of morphological data for deep-sea faunal novelties”, presented by Dr. Xikun Song, of the Chinese Academy of Science
  • “Fluctuating Asymmetry Reveals Species-Specific and Metapopulation Responses to Anthropization in Squamates”, presented by Dr. Aldo Gómez-Benitez of Metropolitan Autonomous University
  • “Accelerating FAIR Morphological Data Curation with an AI-Empowered Tool” presented by Shreya Jariwala of University of California, Berkeley
  • “Building a bigger tent: institutional tracking of data publications and maximally FAIR data require rigorous repository metadata standards” presented by Bryan M. Gee of University of Texas, Austin
  • “Is morphology still relevant to phylogenetic analyses?” Presented by Daniel Yudi Miyahara Nakamura, of University of Sao Paulo
  • “Quantitative analysis of ophiomicrodermatoglyphics in shed-off skin: a novel taxonomic approach in snake identification” presented by Harij Uddin of University of Chittagong
  • “Making academic publishing Open and FAIR: how MorphoBank aids data reproducibility” presented by Dr. Mark T. Young of Historical Biology

On Friday September 19 the focus shifts to usability, beginning with a workshop led by MorphoBank Director Tanya Berardini and Data Curation Scientist Brooke Long-Fox. Attendees will learn how to explore existing projects, create new ones of their own, and curate datasets through a combination of guided instruction and independent practice. Later, get specific, hands-on support during our open office hours.

We’re enormously excited for this opportunity to exchange ideas and share experiences with the researchers who rely on and contribute to our collaborative Open Access repository for morphological data. Even if you’re not a MorphoBank user yet, we hope you’ll join us! 

 

Looking ahead

MorphoBank Connects isn’t your only opportunity to connect with the MorphoBank team. Coming up this fall, we aim to host group community meetings on topics including the future of MorphoBank, new features and functionality, and dataset expansion. Separately, we’re inviting you to join a new data mining project to assess the current reuse of data from MorphoBank. Watch this space for details!