When: February 13, 2025 – March 13, 2025

This course series provides hands-on experience in analyzing bulk RNA sequencing data. Participants will be guided through exercises using student accounts furnished by Biowulf, the NIH Unix-based high performance computing system, which has approximately 1,000 scientific softwares installed including those for RNA sequencing analysis. At the end of the series, participants will have a foundational understanding of bulk RNA sequencing analysis including QC, data cleanup, alignment, gene expression estimation, finding differentially expressed genes between conditions, and extraction of biological insight. Experience with bioinformatics or RNA sequencing analysis is not needed to attend. Participants do not need personal Biowulf accounts.

All classes will take place between 2 PM – 3 PM with an optional 1-hour practice session afterwards. Registering for one class in this series will sign participants up for all sessions.

Course Description

Bioinformatics integrates biology, statistics, and computer science to develop and apply theory, methods, and tools for the collection, storage, and analysis of biological and related data. Some key application areas in bioinformatics include genomic and molecular analysis, drug discovery and development, medical diagnosis and treatment, agricultural biotechnology, and environmental monitoring. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) uses bioinformatics extensively in its research efforts to combat cancer, including research on the origin, evolution, progression, and treatment of cancer.

This course was designed to teach the basic skills needed for bioinformatics, including working on the Unix command line. This course primarily focuses on RNA-Seq analysis. All steps of the RNA-Seq workflow, from raw data to differential expression and gene ontology analysis, are covered. However, many of the skills learned are foundational to most bioinformatics analyses and can be applied to the analysis of other types of next generation sequencing experiments.