Course description

This course will give a comprehensive introduction to the research field of metagenomics. It will cover the basic concepts of microbiome analysis of shotgun metagenomic data using state of the art bioinformatics (amplicon sequencing will not be covered). The analysis methods that are being introduced are generic for all types of microbiomes, but we will be using data from the human microbiome as showcases. The course will start with the main preprocessing steps of raw sequence data, before various downstream analysis will be covered separately. These include taxonomic analysis, assembly, binning, and finally functional analysis with focus on antibiotic resistance genes. The theoretical part for each topic will be introduced via lectures, followed by practical hands-on exercises.

Objectives

The participant will have acquired a theoretical basis and practical experience to understand the basic concepts of metagenomic analysis in order to conduct academic studies related to microbiome samples. This includes:

• performing advanced downstream analysis on both taxonomic functional profiles
• performing quality control, assembly and binning of metagenomic sequence data
• performing functional analysis and resistome analysis of metagenome

Target Audience

The course is intended for researchers and students that are, or are planning to work with data analysis of metagenomic data.

Important Dates

Deadline for applications: October 25^th 2021
Course date: November 2^nd - November 5^th 2021

Candidates with adequate profile will be accepted in the next 72 hours after the application until we reach 20 participants.

Instructors

Erik Hjerde (University of Tromsø, Tromsø, NO)

Espen Robertson (University of Tromsø, Tromsø, NO)