Workshop Objectives - Expected Outcome

This training workshop is designed for graduate students and early career scientists in the BecA Hub countries who want to increase their efficiency in searching, navigating and analyzing their results. Participants will learn the tips and tricks to analyse NGS data in a Linux environment. The scope of this workshop is to inspire collaboration between bench scientists and bioinformatics communities while the aim of this intense one week workshop was to provide hands-on training in bioinformatics techniques for analysis of Next generation sequencing (NGS) and metagenomics data. The training will also facilitate discussions on applications of NGS technology for pathogen discovery, genome evolution and other applications relevant to improving global health and increasing agricultural productivity. The event is a good example of technology transfer in the field of genomics and bioinformatics and training of students and scientists involved in Bioinformatics research and teaching in Africa. This model will serve to further strengthen BecA-ILRI Hub - JCVI/NIAID collaboration.

Learning objectives

• Describe the applications of the different NGS technologies, including the weakness and strengths of the approaches.
• Explain the steps involved in a general NGS data analysis.
• Explain key theoretical concepts of alignment and de novo assembly.
• Apply programs in Unix for analysis of NGS data.
• Synthesize and formulate a project and relevant question within the field.
• Independently perform a basic NGS data analysis.
• Apply analytical and reflective skills in analyzing results from individual steps and the final project.