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Courses

Bioinformatic Strategies for Microbiome Data

June 19 - June 30, 2023
10:00 a.m. - noon
2 credits
Course number: 340.643.79

This is a synchronous online course.  Class will be held on Zoom at the listed dates and time. 

Course InstructorJustine Debelius

Course Description:

Introduces key steps for bioinformatic analysis of microbiome data from preparing the data for analysis to visualizing the results. Provides a foundation in ecological concepts including alpha and beta diversity. Explains different methods for finding microbes that differ between environments. Prepares students to plan their own analyses and interpret the results using lectures and hands-on data interpretation exercises.

Learning Objectives:

Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to:
1)Justify the choice of a sequencing target to profile the human microbiome in different scenarios
2)Explain strategies to maximize the external validity of results when constructing a feature table
3)Compare and contrast the hypotheses tested by different metrics used to measure alpha and beta diversity
4)Intrepret a PCoA plot and accompanying statistical tests
5)Define compositional data in the context of the microbiome analysis and describe pros and cons of 3 ways to handle compositional data
6)Identify and utilize tools and norms for reproducible analysis of microbiome data

Methods of Assessment:

 

Homework 30%; Lab Assignments 20%; Interim Assessment 10%; Final Project 40%