Posted on: 7 March 2025 purlPURL: https://gxy.io/GTN:N00108

Helena Rasche , as a key member of the phenomenally creative and passionate Galaxy Training Network team alongside Saskia Hiltemann and Bérénice Batut , pioneered the concept of Training Infrastructure. In a world dominated by clunky virtual learning environments and expensive software, she built an open-source system that could seamlessly support individual users, trainers, and contributors across diverse disciplines and expertise levels.

• Potential bioinformatics trainers are often overwhelmed with competing demands—research questions, manuscripts, grant applications — an endless stream of pressures in modern academia.

As a result, building and delivering training often depends on goodwill. Ensuring training quality and adherence to FAIR principles becomes yet another hurdle. The modern’s world’s solution to literally every problem is to upskill individuals - leading to yet another burden of training on these time-poor, would-be contributors. Recognising this - with a profound respect for a trainer’s valuable time - the Galaxy Training Network team’s mantra, and indeed Helena Rasche ’s, is: “automate it”.

From auto-generating tutorial skeletons and workflow tests to embedding accessibility settings and tutorial validation, Helena Rasche designed an infrastructure that ensures high-quality training from a broad range of busy contributors. She rewards trainers with automated page metrics and systems for tracking the breadth and depth of training materials. The automated Galaxy Contributor page is often more comprehensive than institutional profiles, ORCID, or Google Scholar, capturing everything from testing to reviewing. This also allows users to verify whether materials have been tested - something sorely lacking in much of the chaotic world of bioinformatics documentation.

• Bioinformatics training is often built by passionate individuals without dedicated funding. Helena Rasche ‘s automation innovations allow them to build the vast array of GTN materials - that should cost a fortune to build and use - with only scraps of time

Quotes from the 🥓Bacon Brigade

“For me, Helena always fixed everything. Sometimes it felt like magic. She’s always been super efficient, quick and positive. I remember how supportive she was when, as a newcomer, I timidly reached out to them to ask for help when I encountered any problems. That attitude was really inspiring and motivated me to further contribute to the GTN community.”

• Julia Jakiela

“Helena has been a foundational pillar for the GTN. Her extensive work, knowledge, and kindness over the years has made the GTN an amazing place for people to contribute to. From helping with small queries, to automating entire processes to make the lives of everyone easier, I know that I’ve relied on her assistance and infrastructure more than a few times! Her work for the GTN has impacted not only myself, but to countless other people within the Galaxy community and will be forever valued.”

• Morgan Howells

“Helena has been so integral to the GTN that you don’t always realise she’s the one who has been making your life easier until someone tells you that Helena made that tool… and automated that process… and set up that system! She’ll still be supporting us through everything that she helped to build, so I’m sure I’ll keep being surprised by how much she has done for Galaxy.””

• Marisa Loach

“Helena has been a crucially strong, steady force since the day I began interacting with the GTN. Her expertise and willingness to support anyone in need of help has saved me hours of frustration–for which I am eternally grateful! Helena’s commitment and contributions to the GTN is representative of the platform’s mission to provide accessible bioinformatics education. Thank you Helena for everything you’ve done for the GTN!”

• Camila Goclowski

“Helena was instrumental in both my engagement with Galaxy and my contributions to it. She & Saskia have an extraordinary ability to transform scattered ideas into practical features and turn aspirations into reality with ingenuity and supportive communication. My favourite of Helena’s contributions is the Community page. Thanks to that, we are now writing the first SPOC manuscript, having gained a clear view of our collective progress over the years. I can confidently say that around 90% of my contributions to Galaxy were either through or in collaboration with Helena. She (and Saskia) then extended that same enthusiasm and support to everyone I brought into my group. They are what science should be.”

• Wendi Bacon

🎉She will be deeply missed, but we wish her bags of fun and joy and challenge in her new job!🎉