BIOS 264: Answering biological questions with Metagenomic Data

Course Description

Metagenomic datasets capture the full genomic complement of microbial communities within a sample and thus have broad applications in environmental microbiology, human health, and evolutionary biology. In this three-week minicourse, students will learn both the principles and practice of metagenomics, implementing a standard computational workflow that begins with sequencing reads and concludes with basic genome analysis. Students will also gain hands-on experience with the command line, high-performance computing, and common bioinformatic tools/data types. Overall, the course will teach students how to interrogate metagenomic data to answer questions about microbial diversity, abundance, and gene content. It is open to those with any level of programming experience.