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This webinar is an Introduction to Biological Networks, their types, and applications. It will include two of the most commonly used open source Network Visualisation Platforms (R-igraph and Cytoscape) with step-wise protocols for creating and visualising your own data as a network. It will present some of the major layout algorithms, visual styles and tips for effective visualisation, with examples from biology revealing how these can improve analysis and provide insights.

The webinar will be presented in the form of a lecture as well as a tutorial with step-wise screenshots that enable listeners to emulate simple Network creation and analysis. Please note that this is a webinar and not a coding exercise. Links to publicly available resources and hands-on tutorials will be shared with you for further reading and practice.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

Through the use of real world examples and the JMP, JMP Pro, and JMP Genomics software, we will cover best practices used in both industry and academia today to visually explore data, plan biological experiments, detect differential expression patterns, find signals in next-generation sequencing data and easily discover statistically appropriate biomarker profiles and patterns.

The training room is located on the first floor and there is currently no wheelchair or level access available to this level.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

An introduction to long-read sequencing new Thu 13 Feb 2020   09:30 Finished

Analysis of whole genome data unearths a multitude of variants of different classes, which need to be filtered, annotated and validated to arrive at a causative variant for a disease. The current short length sequences, whilst being excellent at identifying single nucleotide variants and short insertions/deletions, struggle to correctly map structural variants (SVs). Long-read sequencing technologies offer improvements in the characterisation of genetic variation and regions that are difficult to assess with short-read sequences.

The aim of this course is to familiarise participants with long read sequencing technologies, their applications and the bioinformatics tools used to assemble this kind of data. Lectures will introduce this technology and provide insight into methods for the analysis of genomic data, while the hands-on sessions will allow participants to run analysis pipelines, focusing on data generated by the Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) platform.

The training room is located on the first floor and there is currently no wheelchair or level access available to this level.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

This week-long course is aimed at people with little or no experience using statistical analyses in research. It introduces participants to core concepts in statistics and experimental design, aimed at ensuring that the resulting data is able to address the research question using appropriate statistical methods.

The interactive course gives participants a hands-on, applied foundation in statistical data analysis and experimental design. Group exercises and discussions are combined with short lectures that introduce key theoretical concepts. Computational methods are used throughout the course, using the R programming language. Formative assessment exercises allow participants to test their understanding throughout the course and encourage questions and critical thinking.

By the end of the course participants will be able to critically evaluate and design effective research questions, linking experimental design concepts to subsequent statistical analyses. It will allow participants to make informed decisions on which statistical tests are most appropriate to their research questions. The course will provide a solid grounding for further development of applied statistical competencies.

As a follow-up of this course, we run an extra optional session on 25 April. This is an applied, hands-on session where you can bring your own data and we provide direct support to your analysis. This is exclusively available to participants on this course.


If you do not have a University of Cambridge Raven account please book or register your interest here.

Analysis of bulk RNA-seq data (IN-PERSON) Fri 21 Jun 2024   09:30 Not bookable

In this course you will acquire practical skills in RNA-seq data analysis. You will learn about quality control, alignment, and quantification of gene expression against a reference transcriptome. Additionally, you will learn to conduct downstream analysis in R, exploring techniques like PCA and clustering for exploratory analysis. The course also covers differential expression analysis using the DESeq2 R/Bioconductor package. Furthermore, the course covers how to generate visualisations like heatmaps and performing gene set testing to link differential genes with established biological functions or pathways.


If you do not have a University of Cambridge Raven account please book or register your interest here.

Additional information
  • ♿ The training room is located on the first floor and there is currently no wheelchair or level access.
  • Our courses are only free for registered University of Cambridge students. All other participants will be charged according to our charging policy.
  • Attendance will be taken on all courses and a charge is applied for non-attendance, including for University of Cambridge students. After you have booked a place, if you are unable to attend any of the live sessions, please email the Bioinfo Team.
  • Further details regarding eligibility criteria are available here.
  • Guidance on visiting Cambridge and finding accommodation is available here.
Analysis of ChIP-seq data (ONLINE LIVE TRAINING) Thu 20 Jul 2023   09:30 Finished

Chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing (ChIP-seq) is a method used to identify binding sites for transcription factors, histone modifications and other DNA-binding proteins across the genome. In this course, we will cover the fundamentals of ChIP-seq data analysis, from raw data to downstream applications.

We will start with an introduction to ChIP-seq methods, including important considerations when designing your experiments. We will cover the bioinformatic steps in a standard ChIP-seq analysis workflow, covering raw data quality control, trimming/filtering, mapping, duplicate removal, post-mapping quality control, peak calling and peak annotation. We will discuss metrics used for quality assessment of the called peaks when multiple replicates are available, as well as the analysis of differential binding across sample groups. Throughout the course we will also cover tools and packages that can be used for visualising and exploring your results.


If you do not have a University of Cambridge Raven account please book or register your interest here.

Additional information
  • Our courses are only free for registered University of Cambridge students. All other participants will be charged according to our charging policy.
  • Attendance will be taken on all courses and a charge is applied for non-attendance, including for University of Cambridge students. After you have booked a place, if you are unable to attend any of the live sessions, please email the Bioinfo Team.
  • Further details regarding eligibility criteria are available here.
Analysis of ChIP-seq Data with SeqMonk (IN-PERSON) new Fri 5 Jul 2024   09:30 [Places]

Chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing (ChIP-seq) is a method used to identify binding sites for transcription factors, histone modifications and other DNA-binding proteins across the genome. In this course, we will cover the fundamentals of ChIP-seq data analysis, from raw data to downstream applications.

We will start with an introduction to ChIP-seq methods and cover the bioinformatic steps in processing ChIP-seq data. We will then introduce the use of the graphical program SeqMonk to explore and visualise your data. Finally, you will perform peak calling and perform differential enrichment analysis.


If you do not have a University of Cambridge Raven account please book or register your interest here.

Additional information
  • ♿ The training room is located on the first floor and there is currently no wheelchair or level access.
  • Our courses are only free for registered University of Cambridge students. All other participants will be charged according to our charging policy.
  • Attendance will be taken on all courses and a charge is applied for non-attendance, including for University of Cambridge students. After you have booked a place, if you are unable to attend any of the live sessions, please email the Bioinfo Team.
  • Further details regarding eligibility criteria are available here.
  • Guidance on visiting Cambridge and finding accommodation is available here.

This course will cover all aspects of the analysis of DNA methylation using sequencing, including primary analysis, mapping and quality control of BS-Seq data, common pitfalls and complications.

It will also include exploratory analysis of methylation, looking at different methods of quantitation, and a variety of ways of looking more widely at the distribution of methylation over the genome. Finally the course will look at statistical methods to predict differential methylation.

The course comprises of a mixture of theoretical lectures and practicals covering a range of different software packages.


If you do not have a University of Cambridge Raven account please book or register your interest here.

Additional information
  • ♿ The training room is located on the first floor and there is currently no wheelchair or level access.
  • Our courses are only free for registered University of Cambridge students. All other participants will be charged according to our charging policy.
  • Attendance will be taken on all courses and a charge is applied for non-attendance, including for University of Cambridge students. After you have booked a place, if you are unable to attend any of the live sessions, please email the Bioinfo Team.
  • Further details regarding eligibility criteria are available here.
  • Guidance on visiting Cambridge and finding accommodation is available here.

This workshop focuses on expression proteomics, which aims to characterise the protein diversity and abundance in a particular system. You will learn about the bioinformatic analysis steps involved when working with these kind of data, in particular several dedicated proteomics Bioconductor packages, part of the R programming language. We will use real-world datasets obtained from label free quantitation (LFQ) as well as tandem mass tag (TMT) mass spectrometry. We cover the basic data structures used to store and manipulate protein abundance data, how to do quality control and filtering of the data, as well as several visualisations. Finally, we include statistical analysis of differential abundance across sample groups (e.g. control vs. treated) and further evaluation and biological interpretation of the results via gene ontology analysis. By the end of this workshop you should have the skills to make sense of expression proteomics data, from start to finish.


If you do not have a University of Cambridge Raven account please book or register your interest here.

Additional information
  • ♿ The training room is located on the first floor and there is currently no wheelchair or level access.
  • Our courses are only free for registered University of Cambridge students. All other participants will be charged according to our charging policy.
  • Attendance will be taken on all courses and a charge is applied for non-attendance, including for University of Cambridge students. After you have booked a place, if you are unable to attend any of the live sessions, please email the Bioinfo Team.
  • Further details regarding eligibility criteria are available here.
  • Guidance on visiting Cambridge and finding accommodation is available here.

This advanced course will cover high-throughput sequencing data processing, ChIP-seq data analysis (including alignment, peak calling), differences in analyses methods for transcription factors (TF) binding and epigenomic datasets, a range of downstream analysis methods for extracting meaningful biology from ChIP-seq data and will provide an introduction to the analysis of open chromatin with ATAC-seq and long-distance interactions with chromosomal conformation capture based Hi-C datasets.

Materials for this course can be found here.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

This course provides an introduction to the tools available through the Bioconductor project for manipulating and analysing high-throughput sequencing (HTS) data. We will present workflows for the analysis of ChIP-Seq and RNA-seq data starting from aligned reads in bam format. We will also describe the various resources available through Bioconductor to annotate and visualize HTS data, which can be applied to any type of sequencing experiment.

The course timetable is available here.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book by linking here.

PLEASE NOTE that until further notice, due to the evolving situation with Coronavirus no courses will be offered as classroom based at the Training Facility. The Bioinformatics Team will be teaching the course live online in conjunction with the presenters.

SeqMonk is a graphical program for the visualisation and analysis of large mapped sequencing datasets such as ChIP-Seq, RNA-Seq, and BS-Seq.

The program allows you to view your reads against an annotated genome and to quantitate and filter your data to let you identify regions of interest. It is a friendly way to explore and analysis very large datasets.

This course provides an introduction to the main features of SeqMonk and will run through the analysis of a couple of different datasets to show what sort of analysis options it provides.

Further information is available here.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

Analysis of RNA-seq data with Bioconductor Wed 28 Mar 2018   09:30 Finished

This course provides an introduction to the tools available through the Bioconductor project for manipulating and analysing bulk RNA-seq data. We will present a workflow for the analysis RNA-seq data starting from aligned reads in bam format and producing a list of differentially-expressed genes. We will also describe the various resources available through Bioconductor to annotate, visualise and gain biological insight from the differential expression results.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book by linking here.

Analysis of single cell RNA-seq data (IN-PERSON) Thu 16 May 2024   09:30 [Full]

Recent technological advances have made it possible to obtain genome-wide transcriptome data from single cells using high-throughput sequencing (scRNA-seq). Even though scRNA-seq makes it possible to address problems that are intractable with bulk RNA-seq data, analysing scRNA-seq is also more challenging.

In this course we will be surveying the existing problems as well as the available computational and statistical frameworks available for the analysis of scRNA-seq.


If you do not have a University of Cambridge Raven account please book or register your interest here.

Additional information
  • ♿ The training room is located on the first floor and there is currently no wheelchair or level access.
  • Our courses are only free for registered University of Cambridge students. All other participants will be charged according to our charging policy.
  • Attendance will be taken on all courses and a charge is applied for non-attendance, including for University of Cambridge students. After you have booked a place, if you are unable to attend any of the live sessions, please email the Bioinfo Team.
  • Further details regarding eligibility criteria are available here.
  • Guidance on visiting Cambridge and finding accommodation is available here.
Analysis of small RNA-seq data new Tue 2 May 2017   09:30 Finished

This course focuses on methods for the analysis of small non-coding RNA data obtained from high-throughput sequencing (HTS) applications (small RNA-seq). During the course, approaches to the investigation of all classes of small non-coding RNAs will be presented, in all organisms.

Day 1 will focus on the analysis of microRNAs and day 2 will cover the analysis of other types of small RNAs, including Piwi-interacting (piRNA), small interfering (siRNA), small nucleolar (snoRNA) and tRNA-derived (tsRNA).

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book by linking here.

Bacterial Genome Assembly and Annotation in Galaxy new Thu 8 Jun 2017   09:30 Finished

The workshop will cover the basics of de novo genome assembly using a small genome example. This includes project planning steps, selecting fragment sizes, initial assembly of reads into fully covered contigs, and then assembling those contigs into larger scaffolds that may include gaps. The end result will be a set of contigs and scaffolds with sufficient average length to perform further analysis on, including genome annotation (link to that nomination). This workshop will use tools and methods targeted at small genomes. The basics of assembly and scaffolding presented here will be useful for building larger genomes, but the specific tools and much of the project planning will be different.

This workshop will also introduce genome annotation in the context of small genomes. We’ll begin with genome annotation concepts, and then introduce resources and tools for automatically annotating small genomes. The workshop will finish with a review of options for further automatic and manual tuning of the annotation, and for maintaining it as new assemblies or information becomes available.

This session will include an introduction to the Galaxy platform.

This event is co-organized with EMBL-ABR and the Genomics Virtual Lab. Course materials can be found here.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book by linking here.

In this course we will introduce web-based, open source tools to analyse and interpret high-throughput biological data.

The main focus will be g:Profiler - a toolset for finding most significant functional groups for a given gene or protein list; MEM - a query engine allowing to mine hundreds of public gene expression datasets to find most co-expressed genes based on a query gene; and ClustVis - a web tool for visualizing clustering of multivariate data using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) plot and heatmap.

MEM and g:Profiler are ELIXIR-Estonia node services.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book by linking here.

Bioinformatics for Principal Investigators Mon 16 Sep 2019   09:30 Finished

The aim of this workshop is to provide principal investigators with an introduction to the challenges of working with biological data and to the best practices, and tools, needed to perform bioinformatics research effectively and reproducibly.

On day 1, we will cover the importance of experimental design, discuss the challenges associated with (i) the analysis of high-throughput sequencing data (utilising RNA-seq as a working example) and (ii) the application of machine learning algorithms, as well as issues relating to reusability and reproducibility.

On day 2, we will put into practice concepts from day 1, running a RNA-seq data analysis pipeline, going from raw reads through differential expression analysis and the interpretation of downstream analysis results. Challenges encountered at each step of the analytical pipeline will be discussed. Please note that day 2 is optional.

The training room is located on the first floor and there is currently no wheelchair or level access available to this level.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

The Open Microscopy Environment (OME) is an open-source software project that develops tools that enable access, analysis, visualization, sharing and publication of biological image data.

OME has three components:

  • OME-TIFF, standardised file format and data model;
  • Bio-Formats, a software library for reading proprietary image file formats; and
  • OMERO, a software platform for image data management and analysis.

In this one day course, we will present the OMERO platform, and show how Facility Managers can use it to manage users, groups, and their microscopy, HCS and digital pathology data.

Help pages on 'Using OMERO for Facility Managers' can be found here.

This course is organized alongside a one day course on Biological Imaging Data Management for Life Scientists. More information on this event are available here.

This course will be delivered by members of the OMERO team. The OME project is supported by BBSRC and Wellcome Trust.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

The Open Microscopy Environment (OME) is an open-source software project that develops tools that enable access, analysis, visualization, sharing and publication of biological image data.

OME has three components:

  • OME-TIFF, standardised file format and data model;
  • Bio-Formats, a software library for reading proprietary image file formats; and
  • OMERO, a software platform for image data management and analysis.

In this one day course, we will present the OMERO platform, and show how to import, organise, view, search, annotate and publish imaging data. Additionally, we will briefly introduce how to use a variety of processing tools with OMERO.

This course is organized alongside a one day course on Biological Imaging Data Processing for Data Scientists. More information on this event are available here.

This course will be delivered by members of the OMERO team. The OME project is supported by BBSRC and Wellcome Trust.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

The Open Microscopy Environment (OME) is an open-source software project that develops tools that enable access, analysis, visualization, sharing and publication of biological image data.

OME has three components:

  • OME-TIFF, standardised file format and data model;
  • Bio-Formats, a software library for reading proprietary image file formats; and
  • OMERO, a software platform for image data management and analysis.

In this one day course, we will present the OMERO platform, and show how to transition from manual data processing to automated processing workflows. We will introduce how to write applications against the OMERO API, how to integrate a variety of processing tools with OMERO and how to automatically generate output ready for publication.

This course is organized alongside a one day course on Biological Imaging Data Management for Life Scientists. More information on this event are available here.

This course will be delivered by members of the OMERO team. The OME project is supported by BBSRC and Wellcome Trust.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

High-throughput data analyses usually involve many data processing steps, including the use of a range of command line tools and scripts to transform, filter, aggregate and visualise data. Each tool may require a specific set of inputs and options to be defined and, as we chain multiple tools together, this can become challenging to manage. As analyses pipelines become more complex and with the ever-increasing amounts of data being collected in research, reproducible and scalable automatic workflow management becomes increasingly important.

The Snakemake workflow management system is a tool to create reproducible and scalable data analyses pipelines/workflows. Workflows are described via a human-readable, Python-based language. They can be seamlessly scaled to server, cluster, grid and cloud environments, without the need to modify the workflow definition. Finally, Snakemake workflows can entail a description of the required software, which will be automatically deployed to any execution environment.

With over 500k downloads on Bioconda, and over 2k citations, Snakemake is a widely used and accepted standard for reproducible data science that has powered numerous research goals and publications.

This 1-day workshop will cover the principles for building workflows using Snakemake, as well as more advanced strategies to fully customise, automate and scale your analysis.

The training room is located on the first floor and there is currently no wheelchair or level access available to this level.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to Book or register Interest by linking here.

PLEASE NOTE The Bioinformatics Team are presently teaching many courses live online, with tutors available to help you work through the course material on a personal copy of the course environment. We continue to monitor advice from the UK government and the University of Cambridge on resuming in-person teaching back in the training room.

Complex natural systems permeate many aspects of everyday life—including human intelligence, social media, biomedicine, agriculture, economics, even our personal and professional relationships. The past decade has seen intensification of research into structural and dynamical properties of complex networks. This course will introduce the basic principles of network theory, and hands-on DIY Network analysis using Cytoscape, one of the most widely used global platforms for construction and analysis of biomolecular networks such as gene regulatory interactions, protein complexes, hydrogen-bonding meshwork in active sites and neuronal networks. The aim is to conceptualize your own textual, tabular or genomic datasets as networks, and to understand how simple topological features can help to decipher complex properties of systems and processes.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

CRUK: Advanced Image Analysis with Fiji new Tue 10 Dec 2019   09:00 Finished

Fiji/ImageJ is a popular open-source image analysis software application. This course will build on top of the Fiji basic course, to continue explore advanced image processing: segmentation, tracking, and with a specific focus on scripting/programming using Fiji scripting environment. We will use python programming language, and aim to give a tutorial on both image processing and python programming.

This course is run by the CRUK CI Light microscopy core facility.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to Book or register Interest by linking here.

CRUK: Analysis of publicly available microarray data Mon 20 Feb 2017   09:30 Finished

Although microarrays have been superseded by high-throughput sequencing technologies for gene expression profiling, years of experience gained from analysing microarray data has led to a variety of analysis techniques and datasets that can be exploited in other contexts. In this course, we will focus on retrieving and exploring microarray data from public repositories such as Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO).

Course materials can be found here.

This event is part of a series of training courses organized in collaboration with Dr. Mark Dunning at CRUK Cambridge Institute.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book by linking here.

CRUK: Image Analysis with Fiji Mon 23 Mar 2020   12:30 Finished

Fiji/ImageJ is a popular open-source image analysis software application. This course will briefly cover introductory aspects of image processing and analysis theory, but will focus on practical sessions where participants will gain hands on experience with Fiji.

This course is run by the CRUK CI Light microscopy core facility.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to Book or register Interest by linking here.

CRUK: Introduction to CRUK High Performance Computing Tue 26 Nov 2019   09:00 Finished

Using the Cambridge Institute's High Performance Computing Facilities, this brief (0.5 day) course will give you three things:

  • A refresher on Unix and an introduction to cluster computing, i.e. what High Performance Computing facilities re available to you at CI.
  • Basic instruction on using our scheduler (The scheduler allots slots of processing time to the jobs submitted by the multiplicity of users on the cluster).
  • Some performance hints for efficient use of the HPC

It won't make you an expert on parallel computing and H.P.C, but will let you get to work.

Note that a pre-requisite for this course is either existing familiarity with the Unix/Linux command-line or attendance of our Linux course CRUK: Introduction to Linux Command Line.

This course is run by the CRUK CI Bioinformatics and IT core.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to Book or register Interest by linking here.

Galaxy is an open, web-based platform for data-intensive life science research that enables non-bioinformaticians to create, run, tune, and share their own bioinformatic analyses.

A Galaxy introduction course covering basic functions, simple data manipulation using use cases and examples and visualisation mostly targeted at first time users.

Further information is available from the course website.

This event is part of a series of training courses organised in collaboration with Dr. Mark Dunning at CRUK Cambridge Institute.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to Book by linking here.

This course has the following objectives:

  • To provide an overview on the importance of microscopy image analysis and tools in Arivis Vision4D software for the quantification of various biological problems: cell analysis, time-lapse, colocalization, stitching, handle large images etc
  • Practical session with computers during which participants will be introduced to image analysis and visualization using Vision4D
  • Demonstration on how virtual reality can help with image visualization and quantification

This course is run by the CRUK CI Light microscopy core facility.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to Book or register Interest by linking here.

THIS EVENT IS NOW FULLY BOOKED!

PLEASE NOTE The Bioinformatics Team are presently teaching as many courses live online, with tutors available to help you work through the course material on a personal copy of the course environment. We aim to simulate the classroom experience as closely as possible, with opportunities for one-to-one discussion with tutors and a focus on interactivity throughout.

This School aims to familiarise biomedical students and researchers with principles of Data Science. Focusing on utilising machine learning algorithms to handle biomedical data, it will cover: effects of experimental design, data readiness, pipeline implementations, machine learning in Python, and related statistics, as well as Gaussian Process models.

Providing practical experience in the implementation of machine learning methods relevant to biomedical applications, including Gaussian processes, we will illustrate best practices that should be adopted in order to enable reproducibility in any data science application.

This event is sponsored by Cambridge Centre for Data-Driven Discovery (C2D3).

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

Experimental Design (ONLINE LIVE TRAINING) Tue 17 Jan 2023   09:45 Finished

Modern technologies are able to deliver an unprecedented amount of data rapidly. However, without due care and attention early in the experimental process, such data are meaningless if they cannot adequately answer the intended research question. This course is aimed at those planning high-throughput experiments and highlights the kinds of questions they should be asking themselves. The course consists of a lecture and small-group discussions led by a member of the Genomics or Bioinformatics Cores.

This event is part of a series of training courses organized in collaboration with the Bioinformatics Core Facility at CRUK Cambridge Institute.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

Many experimental designs end up producing lists of hits, usually based around genes or transcripts. Sometimes these lists are small enough that they can be examined individually, but often it is useful to do a more structured functional analysis to try to automatically determine any interesting biological themes which turn up in the lists.

This course looks at the various software packages, databases and statistical methods which may be of use in performing such an analysis. As well as being a practical guide to performing these types of analysis the course will also look at the types of artefacts and bias which can lead to false conclusions about functionality and will look at the appropriate ways to both run the analysis and present the results for publication.


If you do not have a University of Cambridge Raven account please book or register your interest here.

Additional information
  • Our courses are only free for registered University of Cambridge students. All other participants will be charged according to our charging policy.
  • Attendance will be taken on all courses and a charge is applied for non-attendance, including for University of Cambridge students. After you have booked a place, if you are unable to attend any of the live sessions, please email the Bioinfo Team.
  • Further details regarding eligibility criteria are available here.
  • Guidance on visiting Cambridge and finding accommodation is available here.
IAFIG-RMS: Bioimage analysis with Python new charged Mon 9 Dec 2019   09:30 Finished

THIS EVENT IS NOW FULLY BOOKED!

The aim of this 5 days course is to develop motivated participants toward becoming independent BioImage Analysts in an imaging facility or research role. Participants will be taught theory and algorithms relating to bioimage analysis using Python as the primary coding language.

Lectures will focus on image analysis theory and applications. Topics to be covered include: Image Analysis and image processing, Python and Jupyter notebooks, Visualisation, Fiji to Python, Segmentation, Omero and Python, Image Registration, Colocalisation, Time-series analysis, Tracking, Machine Learning, and Applied Machine Learning.

The bulk of the practical work will focus on Python and how to code algorithms and handle data using Python. Fiji will be used as a tool to facilitate image analysis. Omero will be described and used for some interactive coding challenges.

Research spotlight talks will demonstrate research of instructors/scientists using taught techniques in the wild.

This event is organized in collaboration with the Image Analysis Focused Interest Group and is sponsored by the Royal Microscopical Society.

The training room is located on the first floor and there is currently no wheelchair or level access available to this level.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

One of the most important tasks of systems biology is to create explanatory and predictive models of complex biological systems. Availability of gene expression data in different conditions has paved the way for reconstructing direct or indirect regulatory connections between various genes and gene products. Most often, we are not interested in single interactions between gene products; instead, we try to reconstruct networks that provide insights into the investigated biological processes or the entire system as a whole.

This webinar will expand upon the concept of Gene Co-expression Networks to elucidate Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA), and introduce the importance of visualising clustered gene expression profiles as single ‘Eigengenes’. It will describe the complete protocol for WGCNA analysis starting from normalised Gene Expression Datasets (Microarrays or RNA-Seq). This will be followed by a discussion on methods of extraction and analysis of consensus modules and Network motifs from Gene Co-Expression Networks and Transcriptional Regulatory Networks.

The webinar will be presented in the form of a lecture and tutorial with screenshots that enable listeners to emulate the protocols in R. Note that this is a webinar and not a coding exercise. Links to further reading and practice will be shared.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

Image Analysis for Biologists Mon 11 Dec 2017   09:30 Finished

This course will focus on computational methods for analysing cellular images and extracting quantitative data from them. The aim of this course is to familiarise the participants with computational image analysis methodologies, and to provide hands-on training in running quantitative analysis pipelines.

On day 1 we will introduce principles of image processing and analysis, giving an overview of commonly used algorithms through a series of talks and practicals based on Fiji, an extensible open source software package.

On day 2, we will cover time series processing and cell tracking using TrackMate. The afternoon of day two will focus on understanding the basics of deconvolution and colocalisation, using tools in Fiji to look at basic examples of how to apply deconvolution and how to carry out colocalisation analysis in fluorescence microscopy.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

Image Analysis for Biologists Mon 24 Jun 2019   09:30 Finished

This course will focus on computational methods for analysing cellular images and extracting quantitative data from them. The aim of this course is to familiarise the participants with computational image analysis methodologies, and to provide hands-on training in running quantitative analysis pipelines.

On day 1 we will introduce principles of image processing and analysis, giving an overview of commonly used algorithms through a series of talks and practicals based on Fiji, an extensible open source software package.

On day 2, we will cover time series processing and cell tracking using TrackMate and advanced image segmentation using Ilastik. Additionally, in the afternoon we will run a study design and data clinic (sign up will be required) for participants that wish to discuss their experiments.

On day 3, we will describe the open Icy platform developed at the Institut Pasteur. Icy is a next-generation, user-friendly software offering powerful acquisition, visualisation, annotation and analysis algorithms for 5D bioimaging data, together with unique automation/scripting capabilities (notably via its graphical programming interface) and tight integration with existing software (e.g. ImageJ, Matlab, Micro-Manager).

The training room is located on the first floor and there is currently no wheelchair or level access available to this level.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

Image Processing and Visualisation with LithoGraphX new Thu 4 Aug 2016   10:00 Finished

LithoGraphX is a software to visualize, process and analyse 3D images and meshes.

On the first day of this course, we will demonstrate how to use LithoGraphX to visualize, clean and process 2D and 3D images. We will cover: (i) how to extract cell shape from 2D or 3D images by marking the cell wall or membrane, (ii) how to extract key morphological features and (iii) how to use these features to build a cell classifier. The first day is intended for biologists and computer scientists interested in using LithoGraphX.

On the second day, we will see how to write and distribute extensions to LithoGraphX. To this purpose, we will learn more about the internals of LithoGraphX and its API both in C++ and Python. The second day is intended for computer scientists wanting either to write their own algorithm or automate complex protocols.

Participants can choose to register for both days or for individual days, depending on their interest and background knowledge.

The timetable for this event can be found here.

This course is organized in collaboration with Dr Susana Sauret-Gueto from the OpenPlant Lab of the Department of Plant Sciences of the University of Cambridge.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to Book or register Interest by linking here.

One of the most important tasks of systems biology is to create explanatory and predictive models of complex biological systems. Availability of gene expression data in different conditions has paved the way for reconstructing direct or indirect regulatory connections between various genes and gene products. Most often, we are not interested in single interactions between gene products; instead, we try to reconstruct networks that provide insights into the investigated biological processes.

This webinar will introduce the importance and applications of Gene Expression Datasets (Microarrays and RNA-Seq), followed by methods of extraction and analysis of Co-Expression Networks and Transcriptional Regulatory Networks from these datasets. The webinar will focus on the pros and cons of Weighted and Unweighted Networks, citing examples to aid decisions about which networks to use and when.

The webinar will be presented in the form of a lecture and tutorial with screenshots that enable listeners to emulate the protocols in R. Note that this is a webinar and not a coding exercise. Links to further reading and practice will be shared.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

Galaxy (http://galaxyproject.org/) is an open, web-based platform for data intensive life science research that enables non-bioinformaticians to create, run, tune, and share bioinformatic analyses. The goal of this course is to demonstrate how to use Galaxy to explore RNA-seq data, for expression profiling, and ChIP-seq data, to assess genomic DNA binding sites. You will learn how to perform analysis in Galaxy, and then how to share, repeat, and reproduce your analyses.

The timetable for this event can be found here.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to Book by linking here.

Introduction to genome variation analysis using NGS Thu 18 May 2017   09:30 Finished

This course provides an introduction to the analysis of human genome sequence variation with next generation sequencing data (NGS), including:

  • an introduction to genetic variation as well as data formats and analysis workflows commonly used in NGS data analysis;
  • an overview of available analytical tools and discussion of their limitations; and
  • hands-on experience with common computational workflows for analysing genome sequence variation using bioinformatics and computational genomics approaches.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

This course provides an introduction to high-throughput sequencing (HTS) data analysis methodologies. Lectures will give insight into how biological knowledge can be generated from RNA-seq, ChIP-seq and DNA-seq experiments and illustrate different ways of analyzing such data. Practicals will consist of computer exercises that will enable the participants to apply statistical methods to the analysis of RNA-seq, ChIP-seq and DNA-seq data under the guidance of the lecturers and teaching assistants. It is aimed at researchers who are applying or planning to apply HTS technologies and bioinformatics methods in their research.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

The course will cover ANOVA, linear regression and some extensions. It will be a mixture of lectures and hands-on time using RStudio to analyse data.

This event is part of a series of training courses organized in collaboration with the Bioinformatics Core Facility at CRUK Cambridge Institute.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to Book or register Interest by linking here.

Introduction to Metabolomics (IN-PERSON) Tue 18 Jun 2024   09:30 [Places]

The goal of metabolomics is to identify and quantify the complete biochemical composition of a biological sample. With the increase in genomic, transcriptomic and proteomic information there is a growing need to understand the metabolic phenotype that these genes and proteins ultimately control.

The aim of this course is to provide an introductory overview of metabolomics and its applications in life sciences and environmental settings. We will introduce different techniques used to extract metabolites and analyse samples to collect metabolomic data (such as HPLC or GC-based MS and NMR), present how to analyse such data, how to identify metabolites using online databases and how to map the metabolomic data to metabolic pathways.

As a follow-up of this course, we run an extra data clinic on 20 June AM, where you can get one-to-one support with your own data analysis and/or experimental design. This is exclusively available to participants on this course.


If you do not have a University of Cambridge Raven account please book or register your interest here.

Additional information
  • ♿ The training room is located on the first floor and there is currently no wheelchair or level access.
  • Our courses are only free for registered University of Cambridge students. All other participants will be charged according to our charging policy.
  • Attendance will be taken on all courses and a charge is applied for non-attendance, including for University of Cambridge students. After you have booked a place, if you are unable to attend any of the live sessions, please email the Bioinfo Team.
  • Further details regarding eligibility criteria are available here.
  • Guidance on visiting Cambridge and finding accommodation is available here.
Introduction to Metagenomics (IN-PERSON) Mon 6 Nov 2023   09:30 Finished

This workshop will focus on the theory and applications of metagenomics for the analysis of complex microbiomes (microbial communities). We will cover a range of methods from the fastest, simplest and cheapest amplicon-based methods up to Hi-C metagenomics techniques that give highly detailed results on complex microbial communities. In addition to the theory, we will introduce several bioinformatic software packages suited for the analysis of metagenomic data, quality control and downstream analysis and interpretation of the results.


If you do not have a University of Cambridge Raven account please book or register your interest here.

Additional information
  • ♿ The training room is located on the first floor and there is currently no wheelchair or level access.
  • Our courses are only free for registered University of Cambridge students. All other participants will be charged according to our charging policy.
  • Attendance will be taken on all courses and a charge is applied for non-attendance, including for University of Cambridge students. After you have booked a place, if you are unable to attend any of the live sessions, please email the Bioinfo Team.
  • Further details regarding eligibility criteria are available here.
Introduction to Phylogenetics (IN-PERSON) Fri 24 May 2024   09:30 [Places]

This course will teach you how to use molecular data to construct and interpret phylogenies. We will start by introducing basic concepts in phylogenetic analysis, what trees represent and how to interpret them. We will then cover how to produce a multiple sequence alignment from DNA and protein sequences, and the pros and cons of different alignment algorithms. You will then learn about different methods of phylogenetic inference, with a particular focus on maximum likelihood and how to assess confidence in your tree using bootstrap resampling. Finally, we will introduce how Bayesian methods can help to estimate the uncertainty in the inferred tree parameters as well as incorporate information for more advanced/bespoke phylogenetic analysis.


If you do not have a University of Cambridge Raven account please book or register your interest here.

Additional information
  • ♿ The training room is located on the first floor and there is currently no wheelchair or level access.
  • Our courses are only free for registered University of Cambridge students. All other participants will be charged according to our charging policy.
  • Attendance will be taken on all courses and a charge is applied for non-attendance, including for University of Cambridge students. After you have booked a place, if you are unable to attend any of the live sessions, please email the Bioinfo Team.
  • Further details regarding eligibility criteria are available here.
  • Guidance on visiting Cambridge and finding accommodation is available here.
Introduction to RNA-seq and ChIP-seq data analysis Wed 25 Oct 2017   09:30 Finished

The aim of this course is to familiarize the participants with the primary analysis of datasets generated through two popular high-throughput sequencing (HTS) assays: ChIP-seq and RNA-seq.

This course starts with a brief introduction to the transition from capillary to high-throughput sequencing (HTS) and discusses quality control issues, which are common among all HTS datasets. Next, we will present the alignment step and how it differs between the two analysis workflows. Finally, we focus on dataset specific downstream analysis, including peak calling and motif analysis for ChIP-seq and quantification of expression, transcriptome assembly and differential expression analysis for RNA-seq.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

PLEASE NOTE that until further notice, due to the evolving situation with Coronavirus no courses will be offered as classroom based at the Training Facility. The Bioinformatics Team will be teaching the course live online in conjunction with the presenters.

This course provides a practical guide to producing figures for use in reports and publications.

It is a wide ranging course which looks at how to design figures to clearly and fairly represent your data, the practical aspects of graph creation, the allowable manipulation of bitmap images and compositing and editing of final figures.

The course will use a number of different open source software packages and is illustrated with a number of example figures adapted from common analysis tools.

Further information and access to the course materials is here.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

This event introduces participants to the KNIME Analytics Platform, an open source data science platform with a visual workflow editor, that can be used by users without prior programming experience or integrated with existing scripts written in R or Python.

These sessions are aimed towards anyone who has an interest in building data science workflows with different kinds of life science data. The sessions will cover how to aggregate data from different sources (e.g., files, databases, web services), how to calculate simple statistics (e.g., for data exploration), network mining (e.g., protein-protein interactions) and big data analytics (e.g., next-generation sequencing data).

The webinar will combine practical and taught content to demonstrate how users can use KNIME to design and utilise reproducible data science workflows, such as analytics tasks, and better explore and understand their data.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

MATLAB: Image Processing Workshop (Online) new Mon 4 May 2020   15:00 Finished

Join us for a two-hour workshop on image processing and analysis in MATLAB. This practical session provides a series of example workflows to extract quantitative data from image files.

This workshop is the first event in Imaging ONE WORLD, a series of events bringing together scientists working from home to deliver workshops and talks on imaging theory and analysis. An initiative made up of scientists, imaging systems and software providers in collaboration to deliver high quality training to the image analysis community.

Although not a necessity, we recommend attending the Introduction to MATLAB course run at the Training Facility and / or the Intro to MATLAB using MathWorks prior to the workshop. For the MathsWorks course you will need to sign up for a MathWorks Account. All University of Cambridge members should be eligible to obtain a MathWorks Account. Create an account using your institution email address.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to Book or register Interest by linking here.

Network Visualisation and Analysis of Biological Data new Thu 14 Apr 2016   09:30 Finished

This two day course will cover network-based approaches to visualise and analyse complex biological ‘big’ data and model pathway systems. The course will be centred on the use of BioLayout Express3D, a tool developed between scientists at the University of Edinburgh and EBI over the last 10 years.

BioLayout provides rapid and versatile means to explore and integrate very large datasets, providing a stunning interface to visualise the relationships between 10’s of thousands of data points. Originally designed for the analysis of microarray data, it is equally effective in analysing data matrices from other analysis platforms.

Day one of the course will introduce principles of network analysis and their use as a generic medium to understand relationships between entities. We will introduce the basics of network visualisation and navigation within BioLayout and principles of correlation analysis of data matrices. We will then explore how data can be explored and clustered within the tool and how you can use the software to rapidly extract meaning from large and complex datasets.

Day two will focus on pathway modelling. We will explain how to collate information about a given system of interest from the literature, and to turn this information into a logic-based pathway model. We will then explore how these models can be parametrised and imported into BioLayout where simulations can be run that model the dynamics of these systems under different conditions. For more information see: http://www.virtuallyimmune.org/

A draft agenda can be found here.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to Book or register Interest by linking here.

Next Generation Sequencing data analysis Tue 17 Mar 2015   09:00 Finished

This course provides an introduction to next generation sequencing (NGS) data analysis methodologies. Lectures will give insight into how biological knowledge can be generated from RNA-seq, ChIP-seq and DNA-seq experiments and illustrate different ways of analyzing such data. Practicals will consist of computer exercises that will enable the participants to apply statistical methods to the analysis of RNA-seq, ChIP-seq and DNA-seq data under the guidance of the lecturers and teaching assistants. It is aimed at researchers who are applying or planning to apply NGS technologies and bioinformatics methods in their research.

The timetable for this event can be found here.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to Book or register Interest by linking here.

  • Nowomics - Access to the latest data and papers relevant to your research
  • Nowomics is a new website to help biologists stay up to date with the latest data and papers relevant to their research. Try it here.
  • Nowomics tracks new papers and many types of data in online repositories. You ‘follow’ the genes and processes you work on to see a Twitter-like news feed of new papers, annotation, interactions, curated comments and more.
  • For each gene you can also include information from orthologues and related genes directly in your news feed.
  • Data are currently included for human, mouse, rat, fly and plant.
  • This short workshop will show you how to use the Beta version of Nowomics to find the latest information for genes & keywords, how to set up your personalised news feed and configure email alerts. We’ll also demonstrate new portals to help researchers working on Drosophila or Arabidopsis find the latest and most popular papers.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book by linking here.

Ontologies and ontology-based data analysis Wed 21 Nov 2018   10:00 Finished

Ontologies have long provided a core foundation in the organization of biomedical entities, their attributes, and their relationships. With over 500 biomedical ontologies currently available there are a number of new and exciting opportunities emerging in using ontologies for large scale data sharing and data analysis.

This tutorial will help you understand what ontologies are and how they are being used in computational biology and bioinformatics. It will include hands-on examples and exercises and an introduction to Onto2Vec and OPA2Vec, two methods that can be used to learn semantic similarity measures in a data- and application-driven way.

The training room is located on the first floor and there is currently no wheelchair or level access available to this level.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

Jalview hands-on training course is for anyone who works with sequence data and multiple sequence alignments from proteins, RNA and DNA.

Jalview is free software for protein and nucleic acid sequence alignment generation, visualisation and analysis. It includes sophisticated editing options and provides a range of analysis tools to investigate the structure and function of macromolecules through a multiple window interface. For example, Jalview supports 8 popular methods for multiple sequence alignment, prediction of protein secondary structure by JPred and disorder prediction by four methods. Jalview also has options to generate phylogenetic trees, and assess consensus and conservation across sequence families. Sequences, alignments and additional annotation can be accessed directly from public databases and journal-quality figures generated for publication.

The course involves of a mixture of talks and hands-on exercises.

Day 1 is an introduction to protein multiple sequence alignment editing and analysis with Jalview.

Day 2 focuses on using Jalview for RNA sequence analysis, and also integrating cDNA and protein analysis and covers more advanced applications after lunch.

Day 3 concentrates on protein secondary structure prediction with JPred version 4 as well as protein sub-family analysis to identify functionally important residues.

There will be opportunities for attendees to get advice on analysis of their own sequence families.

Further information, including some training videos, is also available.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book by linking here.

Protein Structure Analysis new Thu 24 May 2018   09:30 Finished

This course covers data resources and analytical approaches for the discovery and interpretation of biomacromolecular structures.

Day 1 focuses on public repositories of structural data (Protein Data Bank and Electron Microscopy Data Bank) and resources for protein analysis and classification (Pfam, InterPro and HMMER).

Day 2 covers how to find information about the structure and function of your protein sequence using CATH, principles of modern state-of-the-art protein modelling with Phyre2 and methods for predicting the effects of mutations on protein structure and function using the SAAP family of tools.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book by linking here.

Protein Structure Analysis new Thu 20 Jun 2019   10:00 Finished

This course covers analytical approaches for the interpretation of biomacromolecular structures including how to find information about the structure and function of your protein sequence using CATH, principles of modern state-of-the-art protein modelling with Phyre2 and methods for predicting the effects of mutations on protein structure and function using the SAAP family of tools. In addition, we will look at mapping genetic variants onto structures as well as visualisation and basic analysis of protein structures.

The training room is located on the first floor and there is currently no wheelchair or level access available to this level.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

This course covers the potential pitfalls of short-read sequencing studies and provides options for visualisation and quality control (QC) for early detection and diagnosis of issues. You will gain an understanding of Illumina sequencing and different QC metrics that can be extracted from sequencing reads, such as base quality scores. The course also covers how QC metrics vary across different library types and thus distinguish between expected and unexpected QC results. You will be introduced to key software tools including FastQC, FastQ Screen, and MultiQC to carry out quality assessment of your sequencing data.


If you do not have a University of Cambridge Raven account please book or register your interest here.

Additional information
  • Our courses are only free for registered University of Cambridge students. All other participants will be charged according to our charging policy.
  • Attendance will be taken on all courses and a charge is applied for non-attendance, including for University of Cambridge students. After you have booked a place, if you are unable to attend any of the live sessions, please email the Bioinfo Team.
  • Further details regarding eligibility criteria are available here.

The course will teach intermediate R object-oriented programming and how to build a fully functional R package.

Relevant teaching materials are available here and the sequences example package used as template in the course can be found here.

The training room is located on the first floor and there is currently no wheelchair or level access available to this level.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

PLEASE NOTE The Bioinformatics Team are presently teaching as many courses live online, with tutors available to help you work through the course material on a personal copy of the course environment. We aim to simulate the classroom experience as closely as possible, with opportunities for one-to-one discussion with tutors and a focus on interactivity throughout.

RNA-Seq technology has been transformative in our ability to explore gene content and gene expression in all realms of biology, and de novo transcriptome assembly has enabled opportunities to expand transcriptome analysis to non-model organisms.

This course provides an overview of modern applications of transcriptome sequencing and popular tools, and algorithms, for exploring transcript reconstruction and expression analysis in a genome-free manner.

Attendees will perform quality assessment and upstream analysis of both Illumina and long reads single molecule sequencing data; the derived transcriptomes will be compared, annotated and used as reference for quantifying transcript expression, leveraging on Bioconductor tools for differential expression analysis. Additional methods will be explored for characterising the assembled transcriptome and revealing biological findings.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

Microscopy experiments have proven to be a powerful means of generating information-rich data for biological applications. From small-scale microscopy experiments to time-lapse movies and high-throughput screens, automatic image analysis is more objective and quantitative and less tedious than visual inspection.

This course will introduce users to the free open-source image analysis program CellProfiler and its companion data exploration program CellProfiler Analyst. We will show how CellProfiler can be used to analyse a variety of types of imaging experiments. We will also briefly discuss the basic principles of supervised machine learning with CellProfiler Analyst in order to score complex and subtle phenotypes.

The training room is located on the first floor and there is currently no wheelchair or level access available to this level.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

The Ensembl Project provides an interface and an infrastructure for accessing genomic information, including genes, variants, comparative genomics and gene regulation data, covering over 300 vertebrate species. This workshop offers a comprehensive practical introduction to the use of the Ensembl genome browser as well as essential background information.

This course will focus on the vertebrate genomes in Ensembl, however much of what will be covered is also applicable to the non-vertebrates (plants, bacteria, fungi, metazoa and protists) in Ensembl Genomes.


If you do not have a University of Cambridge Raven account please book or register your interest here.

Additional information
  • Our courses are only free for registered University of Cambridge students. All other participants will be charged according to our charging policy.
  • Attendance will be taken on all courses and a charge is applied for non-attendance, including for University of Cambridge students. After you have booked a place, if you are unable to attend any of the live sessions, please email the Bioinfo Team.
  • Further details regarding eligibility criteria are available here.
Variant Analysis with GATK Wed 12 Jul 2017   09:30 Finished

This workshop will focus on the core steps involved in calling variants with the Broad’s Genome Analysis Toolkit, using the “Best Practices” developed by the GATK team. You will learn why each step is essential to the variant discovery process, what are the operations performed on the data at each step, and how to use the GATK tools to get the most accurate and reliable results out of your dataset.

In the course of this workshop, we highlight key functionalities such as the germline GVCF workflow for joint variant discovery in cohorts, RNAseq­ specific processing, and somatic variant discovery using MuTect2. We also preview capabilities of the upcoming GATK version 4, including a new workflow for CNV discovery, and we demonstrate the use of pipelining tools to assemble and execute GATK workflows.

The workshop is composed of one day of lectures and two days of hands­on training, structured as follows. Day 1: theory and application of the Best Practices for Variant Discovery in high­throughput sequencing data. Day 2 and the morning of Day 3: hands­on exercises on how to manipulate the standard data formats involved in variant discovery and how to apply GATK tools appropriately to various use cases and data types. Day 3 afternoon: hands-on exercises on how to write workflow scripts using WDL, the Broad's new Workflow Description Language, and to execute these workflows locally as well as through a publicly accessible cloud-based service.

Please note that this workshop is focused on human data analysis. The majority of the materials presented does apply equally to non­human data, and we will address some questions regarding adaptations that are needed for analysis of non­-human data, but we will not go into much detail on those points.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to Book or register Interest by linking here.

Variant Discovery with GATK4 (IN PERSON) Tue 18 Apr 2023   09:30 Finished

This workshop will focus on the core steps involved in calling variants from Illumina next generation sequencing data using the Genome Analysis Toolkit (GATK). You will learn about best practices in calling somatic variants: single nucleotide variants (SNVs), short insertion/deletions (indels) and copy number variants (CNVs). We will also cover considerations to take when calling variants on the mitochondrial genome, as well as variant calling from bulk and single-cell RNA-seq data. We will also cover how the data structures provided by GATK can help you process large datasets in parallel and at scale. Although this workshop focuses on human data, the majority of the concepts and approaches apply to non-human data, and we will cover some adaptations needed in those situations.

The training room is located on the first floor and there is currently no wheelchair or level access available to this level.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to Book or register Interest by linking here.

This course covers state-of-the-art tools and methods for NGS RNA-seq and exome variant data analysis, which are of major relevance in today's genomic and gene expression studies.

It is oriented to experimental researchers, post-doctoral and PhD students who want to learn about the state-of-the-art of genomic variant and transcriptomics data analysis methodologies and carry out their own analysis.

Further information is available here.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book by linking here.

This 1-week course provides an introduction to data exploration of biological data. It provides a learning journey starting with learning about how we can automate processes that can be reproduced to analyse our biological data.

The course will begin with discussing what opportunities and challenges are associated with aspects of bioinformatics analyses. We will address a subset of them in greater detail in the central part of the course and provide time for participants to practise using some of the associated bioinformatics tools.

Focusing on solutions around handling biological data, we will cover programming in R, version control, statistical analyses, and data exploration. The R component of the course will cover from the foundations of programming in R to how to use some of the most popular R packages (dplyr and ggplot2) for data manipulation and visualisation. No prior R experience or previous knowledge of programming is required. At the end of the course we will address issues relating to reusability and reproducibility.

More information about the course can be found here.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.

Working with Bacterial Genomes (IN-PERSON) new Mon 22 Jul 2024   09:30 Not bookable

This comprehensive course equips you with essential skills and knowledge in bacterial genomics analysis, primarily using Illumina-sequenced samples. You'll gain an understanding of how to select the most appropriate analysis workflow, tailored to the genome diversity of a given bacterial species. Through hands-on training, you'll apply both de novo assembly and reference-based mapping approaches to obtain bacterial genomes for your isolates. You will apply standardised workflows for genome assembly and annotation, including quality assessment criteria to ensure the reliability of your results. Along with typing bacteria using methods such as MLST, you'll learn how to construct phylogenetic trees using whole genome and core genome alignments, enabling you to explore the evolutionary relationships among bacterial isolates. You’ll extend this to estimate a time-scaled phylogeny using a starting phylogenetic tree. Lastly, you'll apply methods to detect antimicrobial resistance genes. As examples we will use Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pneumoniae, allowing you to become well-equipped to conduct bacterial genomics analyses on a range of species.


If you do not have a University of Cambridge Raven account please book or register your interest here.

Additional information
  • ♿ The training room is located on the first floor and there is currently no wheelchair or level access.
  • Our courses are only free for registered University of Cambridge students. All other participants will be charged according to our charging policy.
  • Attendance will be taken on all courses and a charge is applied for non-attendance, including for University of Cambridge students. After you have booked a place, if you are unable to attend any of the live sessions, please email the Bioinfo Team.
  • Further details regarding eligibility criteria are available here.
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