Berlin, 11-15 March 2019
High throughput (HT) techniques such as transcriptomics or metabolomics are of great significance in many areas of biology. However, the path from a boring list of differentially expressed genes to a biological understanding of the results is not straightforward.
This course offers computational techniques that go beyond a simple technical or statistical analysis. It covers techniques for the analysis of gene set enrichments, pathway analysis, gene ontologies, functional analysis of metabolomic profiling and making use of correlations and coexpression networks. A prominent part of the course will be devoted to data visualization and visual data exploration.
The students will gain the ability to independently process and analyse HT data sets, select the appropriate tools, functionally interpret the results as well as learn the paradigms of computational biology and statistics which will allow them to efficiently communicate with computational biologists.
As an incentive, each student will receive a set of gene expression profiles for a different organism, and during the course they will use these to generate species-specific gene expression modules and test their utility. If we are successfull, we will attempt a joint publication.
• Gene set enrichments in R
• Using GSEA for work in your own organism
• Applications of GSEA in:
– transcriptomics / RNASeq
– metabolomics and other platforms
– multivariate analyses
– combining data sets
– single cell RNASeq
In general, the course is aimed at biologists who would like to take their data analysis in their own hands. While an aptitude for computational work is necessary, the main goal of the course is the application of biological and statistical knowledge to HT sets with as little effort as necessary.
• basic computer skills
• basic R skills (very simple R skills are sufficient)
• basic understanding of statistics
• basic understanding of molecular techniques for generating high throughput data
The students should be comfortable with using a computer and have at least a rudimentary understanding of computer programming. The students will have the opportunity to enhance their R programming skills in this course.
Basic skills in statistics are necessary. The students should understand the concepts of statistical hypothesis testing and p-values. However, an in-depth introduction to these concepts will also be provided.
• understanding of computational problems associated with high-throughput data analysis
• statistical problems and solutions in functional analysis of HT data
• overview of commonly used functional analysis techniques (GSEA, gene ontologies, MSigDB, tmod, metabolic profiling)
• multivariate techniques and machine learning
• Communication skills in statistics and computational biology
After the course, the student should be able to prepare, analyse and functionally interpret a HT data set, including multivariate and machine learning techniques.
On each day, the course will consist of four parts:
• Lecture: theoretical introduction to the days focus
• Hands-on guide: guided practical session in R where students replicate the analysis performed by the teacher. While the lecture is general, here specific R techniques and R packages are introduced
• Guided self-study: students are given excercises and problems to solve and work on them individually under the guidance of the teacher
• Individual project work: each student will receive a transcriptomic (RNASeq or microarray) data set to analyse throughout the course
• Lecture: wrap-up and side notes; preparation for the following day
• Day 1: Introduction to statistical reasoning, GSEA and R
– Lecture: "So you have a list of thousand gene names: why do we do HT analyses?"
– Hands-on guide: data preparation for gene set enrichment analysis
– Guided self-study: using R for data loading and basic statistical calculations
– Individual project work: loading data for the individual project
– Lecture: "Statistics gone wrong: basics of statistical problems in HT applications"
Dr. January Weiner studied biology and mathematics at the Jagiellonian Univerity in Cracow, graduating in experimental evolutionary biology in 1996. He then moved to microbiology and transcriptomics, and received his Ph.D. from the University of Heidelberg for work on the transcriptome of Mycoplasma pneumoniae. Later, he worked on evolution of proteins in the bioinformatic group of Erich Bornberg-Bauer, and habilitated in 2009 in the area of evolutionary biology. Since 2009 he works at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology on high-throughput biomarkers in tuberculosis.
Package 1:
Course material and refreshments
Package 2:
Course material, refreshments, lunch and accommodation
450 € (VAT included)
795 € (VAT included)
Please click HERE to get all the information about our packages.
Application deadline is February 22nd, 2019
Cancellation Policy:
> 30 days before the start date = 30% cancellation fee
< 30 days before the start date= No Refund.
Physalia-courses cannot be held responsible for any travel fees, accommodation or other expenses incurred to you as a result of the cancellation.