Introduction to Next Generation Sequencing

Overview

Usage of NGS is increasing in several biological fields due to a very rapid decrease in cost. However, it often results in hundreds of Gbs of data making the downstream analysis very challenging and requires bioinformatics skills.

In this module, we will introduce the most used sequencing technologies and explain their decryption concepts.

We will also introduce the repositories e.g. The European Nucleotide Archive (ENA), Sequence Read Archive (SRA) from which you could retrieve raw data based on specific experiments. We will practice the usage of command line tools to search and fetch NGS raw data in a powerful way.

Finally, based on different datasets, we will practice screening for quality control and trimming and clipping reads for better downstream analysis.

Audience

This course is intended for life scientists who are already dealing with NGS data or willing to efficiently use publicly available NGS data, and would like to be able to start analysing them.

Learning objectives

At the end of the course participants should be able to:

• distinguish between the different NGS technologies
• navigate and retrieve efficiently datasets from the The European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) and the Sequence Read Archive (SRA)
• perform quality control before and after the mapping for better downstream analysis

Prerequisites

Knowledge / competencies:

Participants should have a basic understanding of working with command line tools on Linux or Windows-based operating systems. If you do not feel comfortable with UNIX commands, please take our UNIX fundamentals e-learning module.

Technical:

Participants should bring their own computer with WIFI Eduroam activated and virtual box software installed as a virtual image will be distributed prior to the course.

Application

The registration fees for academics are 100 CHF. Participants from non-academic institutions should contact us before application.

Deadline for registration and free-of-charge cancellation is set to May 9. Cancellation after this date will not be reimbursed. Please note that participation to SIB courses is subject to this and other general conditions, available here.

You will be informed by email of your registration confirmation.

Location

Bern, Hochschulstrasse 4 - Seminarraum Nr. 331, Hauptgebäude, University of Bern

Additional information

The course will be taught by Walid Gharib.

Coordination: Diana Marek, Training group at SIB

We will recommend 0.5 ECTS credits for this course (given a passed exam (optional) at the end of the session). 

You are welcome to register to the SIB courses mailing-list to be informed of all future courses and workshops, as well as all important deadlines using the form here.

For more information, please contact training@sib.swiss.