SARS-CoV-2 : Studying a new virus

Do you want learn to find, use or interpret basic information about a virus? This asynchronous e-learning course can be completed online, at the desired pace and in the absence of an instructor.

Overview

The first patient infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus was identified in Wuhan, China in Nov 2019. In December 2019, a new type of virus of the family Coronaviridae called SARS-CoV-2 (formerly 2019-nCoV) was identified as the cause of an outbreak. The sequence of the virus was made public in Jan 2020. What do we know about the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic? This e-learning course is based on a series of webinars given during the first half of 2020.

In this e-learning course, you will learn to find, use or interpret information about a virus using the new SARS-CoV-2 virus as an example.

Audience

This course is addressed to life scientists, bioinformaticians and researchers from academia or industry who would like to use bioinformatics resources to find, use or interpret basic information about a virus.

Competencies

At the end of the e-learning course, participants should be able to:

• Find information about a virus
• Use or interpret information about a virus

Learning outcomes

At the end of the e-learning course, participants are expected to:

• Find information on the SARS-CoV-2 in ViralZone
• Identify information on SARS-CoV-2 glycobiology in GlyConnect
• Evaluate SARS-CoV-2 sequence variability with V-pipe
• Interpret phylogenetic SARS-CoV-2 data to track the evolution of the virus
• Interpret graphs showing the progression of COVID-19

Prerequisites

Knowledge / competencies

Knowledge of the basic molecular biology of viruses is presumed. There are no particular bioinformatics competencies required to take this course.

Technical

None.

Time required

5 hours, 1 hour per module

Instructions

This course has been designed such that modules can be completed in any order.

1. Open the module in a browser tab. As the resource is constantly evolving, some of the images may not correspond to the current web site.
2. Open a separate browser tab to carry out the exercises and be able to answer the quizzes.
3. If you leave a module before the end, your score will be reset to 0.
   

COURSE PRESENTATION

MODULE 1 - Retrieve and list information on SARS-CoV-2 from ViralZone

MODULE 2 - Find out about SARS-CoV-2 glycobiology using GlyConnect

MODULE 3 - Use V-pipe to evaluate SARS-CoV-2 sequence variability

MODULE 4 - Interpret phylogenetic data to track SARS-CoV-2 evolution

MODULE 5 - Make sense of COVID-19 data

What's next?

Additional information

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.

Please note that participation in SIB courses is subject to our general conditions.

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