EMBO 2005

3-9, April 2005
Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, UK

Deadline for applications: 07/02/2005
Selected candidates will be informed by: 21/02/2005

Organisers

• Wolfgang Huber
  EMBL Outstation – Hinxton, the European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, CB10 1SD, UK
• Alvis Brazma
  EMBL Outstation – Hinxton, the European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, CB10 1SD, UK
• John Quackenbush
  The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), 9712 Medical Center Drive Rockville, MD 20850, USA
• Misha Kapushesky
  EMBL Outstation – Hinxton, the European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, CB10 1SD, UK

Description

The main objective of the course is to introduce the participants to bioinformatics methodologies and software tools for coping with data floods generated by DNA-array technology. More general objective will be to discuss various ways of making biological sense out of DNA-array data, and give the participants experience in using relevant software tools in conjunctions with other available bioinformatics resources (databases and data analysis tools).

The course is aimed at advanced PhD students and postdoctoral researchers who are applying DNA-array technologies and bioinformatics methods in their research. Familiarity with DNA-arrays and basic knowledge in bioinformatics (such as use of bioinformatics databases) will be required. Ideally the participants should have performed some microarray based experiments and should bring their own data for analysis during the practical sessions of the course.

Content

The proposed course will consist of:

1. Lectures from distinguished speakers;
2. Presentations from the participants describing their research (in particular microarray based experiments that they have performed or are planning to perform);
3. Demonstration of DNA-array data analysis software and other relevant bioinformatics resources;
4. Practical work in using the demonstrated software and resources to analyse either the participants own DNA-array data (preferably) or DNA-array data provided by the organisers;
5. Final presentations from the participants discussing the data analysis results obtained during the practical session.

It is expected that there will be 12-15 lectures, each around 1 hour long (~25% of the total time of the course). The lectures will give insight into how biological knowledge can be generated from DNA-array experiments and ways of analysing such data. Each participant will be given 15 min for presenting their research (for 24 participants). The software demonstrations will be given at the beginning of practical sessions and may continue during the practical sessions. The practical work will start in the afternoon of the first day and will finish a day before the end of the course, together with demonstrations taking around 50% of the time of the course. The last day will be devoted to the final presentations.

List of speakers

• Mahesan Niranjan, Shefield University
• Christian Schwager, EMBL
• Misha Kapushesky, EBI
• Aedin Culhane, Dublin
• Wolfgang Huber, EBI
• Jurg Bahler, Sanger
• Natalie Thorne, Cambridge
• Helen Parkinson, EBI
• Nigel Carter, Sanger
• Robert Gentleman, FHCRC
• John Quackenbush, TIGR
• Wilhelm Ansorge, EMBL
• Dave Vetrie, Sanger
• Frank Holstege, Utrecht

Target Audience

EMBO Courses are primarily open to applicants from member states of the EMBC. Applicants from outside the EMBC countries will only be given low priority. The student selection will be done by the co-organisers of the course in consultation with the EMBO. The student selection criteria will be

• relevance of their current work to the objectives of the course
• scientific excellence of the previous research
• quality of the applications
• geographical distribution
• recommendations from EMBO

Students at early stages of their career will be accepted if they can demonstrate the relevance of their work to the objectives of the course. Students who will have performed DNA-array experiments will be preferred. Ideally the students should have data from their own DNA-array experiments to analyse during the course. Applicants from industry will not be considered for funding from EMBO. Staff from the host institutions will not be taken as students, but will be allowed to participate in the lectures. The students from the UK will not be given any preference.

Financial Support

The costs of participant accommodation and catering is paid by EMBO on room sharing basis (two persons per room). The travel costs have to be covered by the participants (financial support may be possible for participants from the Eastern European countries).