Gain knowledge of the tools, processes and analysis approaches used in the field of metagenomics.

This course will cover the metagenomics data analysis workflow from the point of newly generated sequence data. Participants will explore the use of publicly available resources and tools to manage, share, analyse and interpret metagenomics data. The content will include issues of data quality control and how to submit to public repositories. While sessions will detail marker-gene and whole-genome shotgun (WGS) approaches; the primary focus will be on assembly-based approaches. Discussions will also explore considerations when assembling genome data, the analysis that can be carried out by MGnify on such datasets, and what downstream analysis options and tools are available.

Virtual course

The course content will involve participants learning via pre-recorded lectures, live presentations and trainer Q&A sessions. Practical experience will be developed through group activities and computational exercises. Sessions will be delivered over Zoom with additional text communication over Slack. Trainers will be available to assist, answer questions and further explain the analysis during these times. Computational practicals will be run in Docker containers operating on EMBL-EBI's virtual training infrastructure; this means there is no need to have a powerful computer to run exercises or a requirement to install complex software before the course.

Participants will need to be available between the hours of 09:00-17:00 GMT each day of the course.