FAIR Software Award for Corinna Thoben and Prof. Boas Pucker

At the Data Days Lower Saxony 2025 recently held at Technische Universität Braunschweig, Corinna Thoben, a doctoral student at the Institute for Data Science in Biomedicine, and Professor Boas Pucker from the Plant Biotechnology and Bioinformatics Working Group at the University of Bonn (PuckerLab) were presented with the FAIR Software Award Lower Saxony 2025. They received the award for developing the research software ‘bHLH_annotator’. This software offers a freely available workflow for the automated annotation of an important group of plant gene regulators.

Corinna Thoben and Prof. Boas Pucker were honoured with the FAIR Software Award. Photo credits: Henry Fiebig/TU Braunschweig

In bioinformatics, annotation refers to the process of assigning structural or functional information to genome sequences, such as identifying genes in the genome and determining their possible function. The bHLH_annotator supports researchers in identifying and characterising genes of the basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) gene family. This gene family plays a central role in the regulation of numerous biological processes. Elucidating its function can help to better understand these processes.

The award is presented by the Lower Saxony Research Data Management Initiative and recognises projects that follow the FAIR principles of findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability in their implementation, thereby improving the usability of publicly available software. Data Days Lower Saxony also offered various workshops and opportunities for exchange and networking to further promote cooperation in the field of research data management.