In a special edition of the Channels Podcast, Geraldine Van der Auwera interviews four members of the Nextflow community attending the 2023 nf-core hackathon: Raquel Manzano, Edmund Miller, Rieke Hanssen and Francesco Lescai. Recorded in-person at the Nextflow Summit Barcelona, we hear a bit about what they have been working on, how they came to use Nextflow and what motivated them to join the nf-core hackathon.

Last October, the Nextflow community gathered in Barcelona for the 2023 Nextflow Summit and nf-core hackathon! We took advantage of the opportunity to interview four hackathon particpants in person.

• Raquel Manzano, PhD candidate at Cambridge University, told us about her journey into bioinformatics and her work developing a pipeline for somatic variant calling in bulk RNAseq data. We also talked about her experience participating in the nf-core mentorship program and the importance of initiatives like the Open Bioinformatics Foundation’s Travel Fellowship for enabling people to participate in events like the hackathon and summit.
• Edmund Miller, PhD candidate at the University of Texas, Dallas, spoke about his research into enhancer RNAs, moving from Snakemake to Nextflow, and his history with the nf-core hackathons. He also spoke of the work he was doing at the hackathon, which included improvements to the nf-test framework and building Docker containers with Wave.
• Rieke Hanssen, PhD candidate at QBiC, at the University of Tubingen, gave us a great perspective on the work she does as a bioinformatician working on pipeline development as part of a core facility. She talked about her role as a maintainer of the Sarek variant calling pipeline as well as a member of the nf-core steering group. We also talked about opportunities for nurturing diversity and participation in the community, and the importance of inclusivity.
• Francesco Lescai, associate professor of Bioinformatics at the University of Pavia, told us about his group’s research and their work developing pipelines focused on the genomics of human diseases. We also discussed the evolution of nf-core and the value of community resources, as well as the importance of training initiatives such as the nf-core mentorship program.

All four of our interviewees highlighted the vibrant community around Nextflow, and nf-core in particular. They expressed their enthusiasm for the hackathons as an amazing opportunity to get together with fellow researchers and bioinformaticians to exchange ideas, solve problems and produce resources that support the wider community.