Educators:
Paul Zierep (RBC), Daniel Wibberg (CAU), Nils Kleinbölting, Tom Tubbesing (BiGi)

Date:
5th-6th March 2025
10:00 - 14:00 CET

Location:
Online

Contents:
The aim of this two-day workshop is to offer participants a clear and comprehensive introduction to the bioinformatics tools and techniques used for analyzing next-generation sequencing (NGS) data from microbial communities. Blending informative lectures with practical, hands-on tutorials, the course enables participants to work with real datasets in real time using the intuitive usegalaxy.eu platform.

To ensure everyone has a consistent starting point, the first day begins with a focused introduction to the Galaxy environment. Following this, students will learn the theoretical principles of amplicon sequencing and analysis, as well as gaining experience with essential steps such as data pre-processing, quality control, and error handling within Galaxy.

The second day shifts the focus to whole metagenome sequencing (WGS). After highlighting the unique advantages and limitations of WGS metagenomics, participants will explore key methods, including assembly, binning, as well as taxonomic and functional analyses using a range of bioinformatics tools. A brief demonstration of the Metagenomics Toolkit will be provided, after which participants will carry out the standard WGS metagenomics workflow in Galaxy themselves. The workshop concludes with an introduction to metagenomics data submission

Learning goals:

Confidently use the Galaxy platform for computational analyses
Understand the principles and workflows of metagenomics and amplicon sequencing
Gain practical experience in processing, analyzing, and interpreting microbial community NGS data
Perform assembly, binning, and functional annotation of metagenomic datasets
Understand how metagenomics data is submitted into public repositories
Prerequisites:
This course is for beginners with some knowledge of microbiology or NGS data but no prior experience in computational analysis. There will be no participation fee.

Keywords:
Metagenomics, Galaxy, Amplicon

Tools:
Galaxy, Metagenomics Toolkit, Dada2