Genetics Education

Content

Agenda

Information

Faculty

Click here to see an interview with workshop organizer, Dr. Simon Gregory.

The 2007 DBW was featured on NPR by WUNC's Rose Hoban. C lick here to listen to the report.

Background

The finished sequence of the human genome represents an invaluable resource that will greatly accelerate scientific research. However, the bewildering array of genomic information, analysis tools, and ancillary databases are difficult to navigate without being properly equipped with skills necessary to make optimal use of these data. The purpose of the Duke Bioinformatics Workshop (DBW) is to provide its participants, graduate students and experienced scientific researchers alike, with the expertise to efficiently explore this myriad of information. The DBW is directed at individuals with previous genomics experience and has been designed to give a broad overview of topics relevant to innovative research with examples chosen by six experienced instructors who use these data on a daily basis. The workshops will continue to provide intensive training in an environment that fosters close interaction between studet and instructors.

**   NEW for 2009    **

The 2009 DBW builds upon the success of the five years of Duke Bioinformatics workshops that have trained over 220 researchers in the use of publicly available bioinformatic data, and will include new databases and experimental platforms that reflect advances in technological and scientific fields of research. Responding to feedback from previous classes, the 2009 DBW had adopted a format change in which there will be an introductory 2-day course (August 17-18), followed by a second 2-day course (August 19-20) that explores the applications of the introductory course, introduces new technologies and databases and has in-depth coverage of microarray platforms. This year we will also award two bursaries, one to a 1st year graduate student and a second to a 2nd-6th eyar graduate student or Research Fellow.

Significance

The major factors that will influence the use of the vast amount of data arising from the Human Genome Project will be an awareness of the diversity of data that is publicly available and the development of skills that can make full use of it. The significance of the DBW lays not only in its content,( i.e. utilization of evolving biological databases and the innovative tools with which they are queried) but also the Instructors who present the class. The DBW instructors understand the inherent strengths and weaknesses of the analyses they perform. The DBW will provide scientific researchers with a workshop at which the participants are exposed to, and have use of, biological databases that they will utilize in their respective fields or research.

Instructors

Instructors participating in the 2009 DBW are from Duke University, the Jackson Laboratory or the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (UK) and are acknowledged experts in their field. Each instructor's module is based upon publicly available resources that they use on a daily basis as part of their own specialized fields of research.

Total number of attendees

As with previous years, the class size is limited to 45 students. A class of this size promotes close interaction between the instructors and students in the didactic and exercise components of each module and the free research time at the end of both workshops.

Format

Each topic module contains a short didactic component, together with worked examples and exercises to reinforce the lessons of the module. The workshop is accompanied by a color manual that contains all the worked examples, exercises and additional information pertaining to each module. In addition to the manual, the cost of the workshop includes lunch, as well as morning and afternoon coffee.