Day 1: Foundations of Bioinformatics and Transcriptomics
Objectives: Recap bioinformatics foundations, get hands-on with computing environments, become familiar with genomic data formats, introduce transcriptomics concepts, and form project teams.
| Time |
Session |
Topics & Activities |
| 09:00-09:30 |
S1: Welcome and Introduction |
Program timeline, practical instructions, know the instructors |
| 09:30-10:00 |
S2: Recap: Foundations in Bioinformatics |
Bioinformatics recap, applications, sequencing technologies (from Stage 2), overview of main topics in Stage 3 |
| 10:00-10:30 |
S3: Bioinformatics Computing Environments & Context |
Overview of computing environments and essential bioinformatics skills |
| 10:30-12:00 |
L1: Bioinformatics Computing Environment & Genomic Data Sources |
Training environment familiarization, access public genomics resources
View Lab Instructions → |
| 14:00-14:45 |
S4: Transcriptomics Overview & Applications |
Biological motivation, gene expression profiling and other applications of RNA-seq |
| 14:45-15:15 |
L2: Hands-on with Transcriptomics Data |
Explore RNA-seq datasets and sequencing reads
View Lab Instructions → |
| 14:15-16:00 |
S5: RNA-seq Experimental Design |
Considerations in RNA-seq experiments including Replicates, sequencing depth, batch effects, etc. |
| 16:00-17:00 |
S6: Team Formation & Project Overview |
Bioinformatics challenges, applied RNA-seq project scenarios, team formation, dataset and topic selection |
Slides
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Day 2: The Genomics Data Analysis Pipeline
Objectives: Learn to evaluate and process raw sequencing data, understand key RNA-seq preprocessing steps, and gain hands-on experience with quality checks, trimming, alignment, and quantification.
| Time |
Session |
Topics & Activities |
| 09:00-09:15 |
S1: Recap of Day 1 |
Review of previous day's content |
| 09:15-10:00 |
S2: Quality Control |
Sequencing quality metrics, Phred scores, technical variation, trimming, preprocessing |
| 10:00-11:00 |
L3: Quality Control Hands-on |
FastQC, fastp; inspect data quality metrics, trimming, adapter removal, pre/post-QC comparison
View Lab Instructions → |
| 11:00-12:00 |
S3: Reference Genome Alignment |
Reference genomes, annotations, splice-aware alignment |
| 14:00-15:00 |
L4a: Genome Alignment Hands-on |
Align reads, evaluate mapping metrics (samtools, STAR)
View Lab Instructions → |
| 15:00-15:45 |
S4: Read Counting & Quantification |
Gene vs transcript quantification, expression matrices |
| 15:45-16:30 |
L4b: Quantification & Expression Matrix |
Salmon, expression matrix inspection
View Lab Instructions → |
| 16:30-17:00 |
Q&A & Project Review |
Questions and project progress support |
Slides
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Day 3: Downstream Analysis, Visualization, and Interpretation
Objectives: Get hands-on with downstream processing from gene counts to biological insights, learn normalization and differential expression, and perform enrichment analysis for biological interpretation.
| Time |
Session |
Topics & Activities |
| 09:00-09:15 |
S1: Recap of Day 2 |
Review of previous day's content |
| 09:15-10:00 |
S2: Differential Expression Concepts |
Normalization, dispersion, statistical testing |
| 10:00-11:00 |
L5: Differential Expression Analysis |
Perform differential expression analysis, inspect DE results
View Lab Instructions → |
| 11:00-11:30 |
S3: Visualization |
Volcano plots, heatmaps, boxplots, clustering, summary plots |
| 11:30-12:00 |
L6: Visualization & Integrated QC |
Generate plots using seaborn in Python, run MultiQC
View Lab Instructions → |
| 14:00-14:45 |
S4: Pathway & Enrichment Analysis |
Gene Ontology, gene pathways, GSEA concepts |
| 14:45-15:30 |
L7: Enrichment Analysis in Practice |
Run enrichment analysis and interpret biological results
View Lab Instructions → |
| 15:30-16:30 |
S5: Extended Applications of RNA-seq |
Alternative splicing, gene fusion, variant detection |
| 16:30-17:00 |
Q&A & Project Support |
Questions and project progress |
Slides
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Day 4: Conclusions, Presentations, and Evaluation
Objectives: Consolidate learning through group presentations, and evaluate participant progress.
| Time |
Session |
Topics & Activities |
| 09:00-09:30 |
S1: Recap of Genomics Analysis |
Review of day 1-3 contents |
| 09:30-12:00 |
Group Presentations (Flash Talks) |
Study design, pipeline overview, key findings |
| 12:00-13:00 |
Break |
|
| 13:00-14:00 |
Examination |
|
Slides
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