Microbiome And Bioinformatics

Introduction to the Microbiome: Theory and Analysis

What you'll learn
Understand importance of the microbiome
Learn basic concepts in microbiome and bioinformatics
Analyze microbiome sequencing data
Use free, online, no-coding bioinformatics software
Requirements
High school level knowledge of biology and ability to use web browser.
No programming experience required.
Description
This course aims to build a foundation for understanding the background and methods involved in microbiome analysis projects.The course kicks off with an introductory practice test intended to gauge the student's background knowledge and set a baseline to estimate progress following course completion. It proceeds to introduce students to the value and relevance of this field of research. It will acquaint students with the basic underlying concepts of related disciplines such as molecular biology and sequencing.Students will also be introduced to the theory of sequencing techniques such as barcoding, multiplexing and demultiplexing. Various analyses methods and metrics commonly encountered in microbiome analysis will be discussed, such as taxonomic abundance and assignment, and diversity analysis. The theory segment wraps up with some helpful tips and suggestions on designing one’s own microbiome experiment.After reviewing the theory, students will then have the opportunity to use a free online tool, EasyMap, to conduct their own microbiome analysis using demo data. The hands-on segment aims to solidify the concepts learnt over the theory lectures and also point students to an easy to use online resource to experiment and learn with.Finally, the course concludes with a comprehensive test that will evaluate the knowledge acquired by the students over the course.

Overview

Section 1: Introductory practice test

Section 2: Theory section

Lecture 1 Microbiome meaning and opportunities in the field

Lecture 2 Studying the microbiome

Lecture 3 Relevant background of molecular biology

Lecture 4 DNA sequencing and barcoding

Lecture 5 Abundance table and taxonomic assignment

Lecture 6 Diversity analysis

Lecture 7 Pointers to design a microbiome experiment

Section 3: Hands-on section

Lecture 8 Hands-on intro

Lecture 9 Hands-on part 1

Lecture 10 Hands-on part 2: Quality Control

Lecture 11 Hands-on part 3: Taxonomic analysis

Lecture 12 Hands-on part 4: Alpha Diversity

Lecture 13 Hands-on part 5: Beta Diversity

Lecture 14 Hands-on part 6: Taxa Differential Abundance and Function Prediction

Section 4: Final practice test

People interested to learn about microbiome and/or interested to analyze microbiome sequencing data using free online software without using any programming.,Beginners looking for a short course that will provide the necessary theory and hands-on tutorial.