Bioinformatics Courses

The program offers a two module course series (Effective Use of NCBI Tools and Databases and Bioinformatics Data Resources and Tools at the European Bioinformatics Institute) co-sponsored by the Center for Cancer Computational Biology, Harvard Catalyst,  the Harvard School of Public Health Bioinformatics Core, and the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine that provides an overview of major US and European bioinformatics database sites. Both courses will enable clinicians and scientists to use a variety of bioinformatics resources, including the basic NCBI Entrez and EBI Ensembl genome databases and more specialized resources. More extensive analytical training in computational biology can be gained by taking the intensive Introduction to Computational Biology short course.

Additional bioinformatics-related courses are available through the Harvard Catalyst C3 Bioinformatics program. Registration for these courses is available through the Countway Library.

Introduction to Computational Biology
The Introduction to Computational Biology course is a one-week introduction aimed at providing students with the tools needed to navigate laboratory datasets and public resources in the context of biology and genome technologies. Students will learn how to use computational biology tools available on the web, via the UNIX command line, and on local files and datasets. By working in small groups, students will develop and present projects to demonstrate an understanding of the vocabulary of computational biology, data management, and analysis of large scale biological datasets.

Faculty:

Winston Hide, PhD, Associate Professor of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health;  John Quackenbush, PhD, Professor of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Harvard School of Public Health and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; David Osterbur, PhD, Access and Public Services Librarian, Countway Library of Medicine; and Cheng Li, PhD, Associate Professor of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health.

This module is offered collaboratively by the Center for Cancer Computational Biology, Harvard Catalyst, the Harvard School of Public Health Bioinformatics Core, and the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine.

This course is not currently open for registration. Look for further announcements when registration information becomes available.

Effective Use of NCBI Tools and Databases
The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) presents "A Field Guide to GenBank and NCBI Molecular Biology Resources, a lecture and hands-on computer workshop on GenBank and related databases covering effective use of the Entrez molecular biology databases and search service, the BLAST similarity search engine, genome data and related resources. Topics will be presented in a morning lecture format followed by a hands-on afternoon session.

Faculty:

Peter S. Cooper, PhD, Public Services, National Center for Biotechnology Information

This module is offered collaboratively by the Center for Cancer Computational Biology, Harvard Catalyst, the Harvard School of Public Health Bioinformatics Core, and the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine.

This course is not currently open for registration. Look for further announcements when registration information becomes available.

Bioinformatics Data Resources and Tools at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI)
The European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) presents a lecture and hands-on workshop introducing their wide range of bioinformatics resources, with a focus on resources and tools for transcriptomics. Participants will learn how to navigate the Ensembl genome databases. Resources to be presented include the ArrayExpress public repository of transcriptomics data, the Gene Expression Atlas (a semantically enriched database of meta-analysis based summary statistics which serves queries for condition-specific gene expression patterns), and Reactome (a curated pathway database). In addition, students will use Ensembl and BioMart data mining tools in the study of SNPs and other variations among strains, breeds, and individuals. Additional topics include standards, ontologies, data management, comparative genomics, proteomics, and genome alignment.

Faculty:

Gabriella Rustici, PhD, Microarray Informatics Team, European Bioinformatics Institute; and Giulletta Spudich, Ensembl Outreach Officer, European Bioinformatics Institute

This module is offered collaboratively by the Center for Cancer Computational Biology, Harvard Catalyst, the Harvard School of Public Health Bioinformatics Core, and the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine.

This course is not currently open for registration. Look for further announcements when registration information becomes available.