Workshop Overview:
 The H3Africa Consortium aims to study the genomic and environmental determinants of diseases in Africa. It also strives to build genomic expertise among scientific investigators in Africa as well as encourage collaborations between them through infrastructure development and research support.

The H3ABioNet, a Pan African Bioinformatics Network, while building and developing bioinformatics capacity in Africa provides support for the H3Africa consortium researchers and their projects through its Education and Training Working Group.  

In view of the above, the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) Node of the H3ABioNet Consortium will hold an H3ABioNet funded Intermediate Bioinformatics Workshop from 7th to 11th July, 2014 at the NMIMR Conference Room, Legon Accra, Ghana. This will complement the very successful Introduction to Bioinformatics Workshop held in March, 2014.

Keywords: Data analysis, Bioinformatics, Genetics

Language: English

Skill level: Intermediate

Type of training: face-to-face /  in person

Credential awarded: none

Objectives:
This Intermediate Bioinformatics Workshop will strengthen and expand on some relevant tools in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. It will also serve as a refresher for trainees of the previous workshop enabling a better integration of Bioinformatics into their on-going research and teaching. This workshop will prepare participants adequately to enrol in the last (advanced) workshop of the series in the current year. The modules for the Intermediate Workshop, like the previous modules, will be based on freely available software suites, Biocomputing platforms and data from public databases. Each module will consist of lectures, demonstrations and hands-on tutorials.

Syllabus and Tools:
The five day period workshop will include the following modules and topics as outlined in the tentative timetable:
•    Computing for Biomedical Scientists II
•    R Programming for Biologists
•    Introduction to MySQL
•    Python Programming for Biologists

 Programme:

Date

Module

Topics

7th July

Computing for Biomedical Scientists II

Common Linux utilities, Unix file system, Shell basics, Regular expressions, Administrative and Networking tools

8th July

R Programming for Biologists

Introduction to R, Statistical modeling in R, Programming with R, Introduction to Bioconductor

 

9th July

Introduction to MySQL

Introduction to Database Concepts and MySQL

10th July

Python Programming for Biologists

An overview of python, Getting started, Running python scripts, Flow control, Sequence data

 

11th July

Python Programming for Biologists

Defining functions, working with files, dictionaries and sets, errors and exception handling and using modules

 

Considerations:
•    Consideration will be given to participants of the previous workshop to ensure continuity in knowledge transfer. 
•    A new applicant with basic knowledge of Bioinformatics, the Linux OS and some basic molecular biology knowledge would be considered.
•    Staff and graduate students who are interested in Bioinformatics and will be available for the whole period of the workshop are welcome to apply.

NB: Successful applicants will be expected to come with wireless-enabled laptop computers.

Training Materials Availability:

Training materials for this course are available as a single downloadable archive here: https://doi.org/10.25375/uct.19129988. Should you re-use any of these materials, please ensure that both the author/s of the material AND H3ABioNet are clearly credited.