Steven Vercruysse Researcher, Full-Stack Web Developer

Building bridges between biologists and computers has been my research focus since 2002.

My most important work is a user-friendly tool (VSM) that helps biologists manually collect and encode any kind of information from the scientific literature, into a computable form. This single interface can capture the findings from diverse research topics, in full detail, and can be applied to any biological domain, and other research domains as well.

It is my research goal to:

• Apply this tool to new research niches, other than the ones we already tested it in;
• Connect its theoretical basis to current semantic technologies so one can benefit from inferencing and AI tools;
• Develop a shared, interdisciplinary, open platform (SciCura) where scientists can transform the conclusions of any scientific publication into a computation-ready form.

I am continuously on the lookout for new partnerships or support for this broadly applicable information-capturing tool and project. This technology can undoubtedly assist the many research projects who face the problem of gathering and integrating information from literature. New applications also serve as a stepping stone to mature it and fulfill its potential for global applicability.

To read more about the research field, the tool VSM, and the SciCura web-platform, see scicura.org/vsm.

Education: MSc in Physics, MSc in Computer Science,  Full-Stack Web Developer.
Research: PhD in Computational Biology, PostDoc at NTNU, Associate researcher for NTNU, Researcher at NTNU.

A simple, graphical way to construct the semantic meaning of complex information — or: “How to easily plant complex ideas into computers”. Vercruysse S, Kuiper M. (in preparation).

Gene regulation knowledge commons: community action takes care of DNA binding transcription factors. Tripathi S, Vercruysse S, et al. Database. 2016.

Jointly creating digital abstracts: dealing with synonymy and polysemy. Vercruysse S, Kuiper M. BMC Res Notes. 2012.

Putting Semantics in Systems Biology. Kuiper M, …, Vercruysse S, et al. Meta. 2012.

OLSVis: an animated, interactive visual browser for bio-ontologies. Vercruysse S, Venkatesan A, et al. BMC Bioinformatics. 2012.

WordVis: JavaScript and Animation to Visualize the WordNet Relational Dictionary. Vercruysse S, Kuiper M. IHCI Conf. 2011.

The Arabidopsis leaf as a model system for investigating the role of cell cycle regulation in organ growth. Beemster GT, Vercruysse S, et al. J Plant Res. 2006.

Genome-wide analysis of gene expression profiles associated with cell cycle transitions in growing organs of Arabidopsis. Beemster GT, De Veylder L, Vercruysse S, et al. Plant Physiol. 2005.

The cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor KRP2 controls the onset of the endoreduplication cycle during Arabidopsis leaf development through inhibition of mitotic CDKA;1 kinase complexes. Verkest A, Manes CL, Vercruysse S, et al. Plant Cell. 2005.

Versatile gene-specific sequence tags for Arabidopsis functional genomics: transcript profiling and reverse genetics applications. Hilson P, …, Vercruysse S, et al. Genome Res. 2004.

Transcript profiling of early lateral root initiation. Himanen K, …, Vercruysse S, et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2004.

Simulating genetic networks made easy: network construction with simple building blocks. Vercruysse S, Kuiper M. Bioinformatics. 2005.