The Open Door Workshops

The Open Door Workshop provides an introduction to bioinformatics tools freely available on the internet, focussing primarily on the Human Genome data. The workshops provide hands-on training in the use of public databases and web-based sequence analysis tools, and are taught by experienced instructors.

The workshops are aimed at research scientists with a minimum of a degree in a biological discipline, including laboratory and clinical staff as well as specialists in related fields. Acceptance will be subject to selection process. The workshops run over three days and are without exception residential on the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus.

The Open Door Workshops were conceived jointly by The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, and are being developed further by staff at these centres with assistance from staff at the European Bioinformatics Institute and the University of Cambridge.

The workshop is split into modules, each of which gives an overview of a given topic followed by a worked example and participant tasks.

The course is subsidised by the Wellcome Trust for scientists based in academic institutions anywhere in the world.

Workshops

Previous workshops

Working with the human genome sequence

The human genome is accessible to everyone who is involved in the present and future study of the human genome, including lab biologists, clinical staff, teachers, and other members of the general public, as well as other specialists in related disciplines. The purpose of the 'Open Door' Workshops is to enable participants to explore human genomic information that is freely available on the internet, and to understand both the strengths and the limitations of the underlying data. Our intention is that these courses will be run on a regular basis at the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, in order to reach as wide an audience as possible.

Each workshop is broken into modules designed to give a broad overview of a given topic with examples chosen by the trainers. The modular structure will ideally have a tripartite structure, consisting of a discussion of theory and methods, coverage of software and web resources, and a series of 'hands on' worked examples. Time is provided in the last session for participants to carry out their own research in the presence of the trainers, and participants are encouraged to bring their own problems (e.g sequence for analysis) with them. A pre-course questionnaire will be used to give trainers an idea of participants' interests and the modules covered in each course can be geared towards the particular group attending the workshop. All materials used during the workshop series will be available on the WWW, in the form of manuals and information.

The workshops are not intended to be specialised sequence analysis or programming courses, but they will provide a valuable introduction to other existing courses which address these more specialised training needs. The present workshop series will also provide important feedback directly to the leading data providers (at the public databases) to assist them in extending and improving the data display and analysis tools that are currently available.

The 'Open Door' Workshops were conceived jointly by The Sanger Institute and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, and are being developed further by staff at these centres with assistance from staff at the Wellcome Trust and the University of Cambridge.

Travelling workshops - held at local venues - will also be considered if there is a need. Participants will be expected to pay their own travel, accommodation and meals, and a modest registration fee.

* quick link - http://q.sanger.ac.uk/uma07pyq