Course Description

This 2-day course is open to all biological or biomedical PhD and Post-Doc research scientists. Attending the course will boost your understanding of bioinformatics resources and their use. In addition you will have the opportunity to improve the profile of your papers in the world’s leading biological databases, such as EntrezGene, UniProt and GeneCards.

The aim of Gene Ontology (GO) annotation is to ensure that the investment in genome sequencing, along with the accumulated knowledge of a range of biological systems can be exploited to the full, to benefit researchers seeking to understand the complex interactions between multiple gene products. The UCL GO annotation group primarily focuses on the annotation of human proteins associated with specific aspects of human biology. Through our close relationship with research scientists we provide informative and specific protein annotations that support research projects worldwide.

This course aims to provide information about GO and other bioinformatic resources and to encourage your participation in the process of gene annotation. Attendees are required to bring published experimental data (your own or in your area of interest) for annotation. In addition this course will provide practical demonstrations of a number of freely available high-throughput analysis tools that can be used for the analysis of large datasets, such as those derived from proteomic or microarray methodologies. Attendees may bring in their own datasets for analysis.

Annotations created during this course will be added to the GOA database at EBI and will be incorporated, through existing pipelines, into all of the major biological knowledgebases, such as EntrezGene, Ensembl, UniProt and GeneCards. In addition these annotations will be available for use by the majority of high-throughput analysis tools.

Course Format and Details:

2 day workshop, 1 day literature review (completion of the programme will contribute 2 days towards your skills training). 

Two-day course (cluster room)

• Introduction to online bioinformatics resources (1st morning):
  • EntrezGene
  • UniProt
  • QuickGO
• How to create GO annotations from experimental data (1st afternoon)
• Overview and use of freely available high-throughput analysis tools (2nd morning)
• Analysis of your own high-throughput data or data provided (2nd morning)
• Intoduction to Ensembl, BioMart (2nd afternoon)
• Practical annotation of papers brought in by attendees (2nd afternoon)

Preparation:

• Attendees to bring 3-5 experimental papers with them to the workshop (identified through 1 day literature review). More details about the suitability of papers will be provided by email.

Availability:

This course is available free of charge to all attendees.  However, in line with UCL cancellation policy, we will not confirm your place on this course until we have received a grant code (UCL attendees) or a cheque made payable to University College London (external attendees).  Grants will be charged (and cheques cashed) only if you cancel your place within 3 working days of the course start date.

Cancellation policy:

Please contact Kate Henderson (kate.henderson@ucl.ac.uk) before Friday 12th April 2013 if you need to cancel your place. There is a charge of £50 for any cancellation made with less than THREE working days' notice.