This course will provide participants with an introduction to a range of bioinformatics resources and approaches applicable to immunological research. Participants will gain experience in analysis pipelines for NGS experiments relevant to immunology including immune receptor sequencing, RNA sequencing, single-cell RNA sequencing, and flow cytometry data analysis.

Additionally, participants will be introduced to how data from several sources can be integrated to provide a wider view of their research, thereby enabling them to be more confident users of their own data and that from public sources.

Who is this course for?

The course is aimed at individuals working in immunology research who have minimal experience in bioinformatics. Applicants are expected to be at an early stage of using bioinformatics in their research with the need to develop their skills and knowledge further. Participants will need a basic knowledge of the Unix command line, and R programming language.

We recommend these free tutorials:

• Introduction to the Unix environment – https://swcarpentry.github.io/shell-novice/index.html 
• Introduction to R – https://swcarpentry.github.io/r-novice-inflammation/ 

What will I learn?

Learning outcomes

After this course participants should be able to:

• Locate and search publicly available bioinformatics data of interest
• Use software and tools to manipulate and analyse immunological data
• Apply appropriate bioinformatics methodologies to their research
• Combine different types of data to gain further immunological insights

Course content

The course will explore several bioinformatics resources relevant to immunology including:

• Computation approaches for flow cytometry
• Bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing and databases of regulatory information
• Tools to extract mechanism relevant for immunology from ‘omics’ data
• Approaches to analysing adaptive immune receptor repertoire
• Immunology resources
• EMBL-EBI data resources: Ensembl, Expression Atlases, IntAct, and Reactome

Trainers

Please read our support page before starting your application. To be considered for a place on this course, you must do the following:

• Complete the online application form.
• Ensure you add relevant information to the ‘submission details’ section where you are asked to provide information on your:
  • pre-requisite skills and knowledge
  • current work and course expectations
  • data availability
• Upload one letter of support from your supervisor or a senior colleague detailing reasons why you should be selected for the course.

Please submit all documents during the application process by 23:59 on 17 March 2024. Items marked * in the application are mandatory. Incomplete registrations will not be processed. 

All applicants will be informed of the status of their application (successful, waiting list, unsuccessful) by 3 April 2024. If you have any questions regarding the application process please contact Juanita Riveros.

Accommodation 

Hotel rooms will be provided at Hinxton Hall Conference Centre. Please contact them directly if you wish to arrange to stay additional nights around the course dates.

Catering

The course includes catering as detailed on the programme tab. Successful applicants will be asked for any dietary requirements and allergies upon registration. 

Course materials

The course materials from the 2022 edition of the course are now live and available for you to use. They provide a mixture of pre-recorded lectures, presentations, and practicals from the course, and will give you a snapshot of what to expect in the 2024 edition.

Posters

All participants are expected to present a poster that will be displayed during the course outside the training room. Successful applicants will be asked to submit their posters upon registration. We will print these for you and have them available when you arrive on-site.

All posters should:

•          be A2 in size – 420mm x 594 mm
•          be in a portrait orientation
•          include your photograph and contact information

We expect the posters to act as a talking point between you, other participants and the trainers on the course. The posters will be displayed throughout the week so people can view them during breaks and lunch. They should give the reader an idea of the work you are engaged in, what you are planning to do next, and anything of interest that might be useful for sharing with the gathered participants.