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Welcome to the Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 Bioinformatics (BFX) Workshop! It can be taken for credit under the WUSTL course titles: Applied Bioinformatics for Genomics I and II.

This workshop series is designed for people who want to:

• learn the fundamentals of computational genomics
• use this information to improve and expedite their research
• expand their knowledge by hearing from experts in other subject areas

By the end of this series, participants will be able to:

• Demonstrate basic competency in running key bioinformatics software
• Analyze sequencing data, going from raw data to biologically interpretable results
• Draw upon a diverse set of genomic technologies to answer specific research questions
• Apply critical thinking and analytic competencies to genomics research

You are welcome to join at any time byregistering on this form. After registering, you'll be added to an email distribution list and slack channel for the course. See theCommunications section below for details. There is no obligation to complete the course if you register, but it helps us with planning and securing appropriate resources.

Weekly workshops are held on Mondays @ 10am inMid-Campus Center (MCC) 11th floor Main Conference Room (Room #11504)

The BFX Workshop schedule,subject to change, is available below. Previous years' course materials can still be accessed in thearchive folder. Westrongly encourage in-person participation, but a Zoom recording of each Workshop session will also be made available shortly after each session. SeeParticipation for more details about external or remote participation.

Time will be set aside before and after lectures for "office hours", where you can get help with assignments, or ask for advice about your own projects.

There are no requirements or qualifications to participate in the BFX Workshop. However, this course ramps up quickly and you will need to have basic competency at the unix command line within the first three weeks. We will cover some of these skills in the first two weeks of class, but if you are new to working at a terminal, westrongly recommend that you work through the command-line exercises listed on the prerequisites page ahead of the course, and/or block out some substantial time to work through them in the first two weeks.

If you are not taking the course for credit, there are no attendance requirements. There will be "assignments" given during most lectures and we strongly encourage you to complete them in order to get the most out of the course - lectures are no substitute for hands-on learning!

For external or remote asyncronous participation, we suggest watching each weekly Zoom recording (available shortly after each in-person session) and strongly encourage interaction viaSlack. The #bfx_workshop Slack channel is the primary form of interaction between workshop attendees, external participants, organizers, and presenters.

This workshop is a collaborative effort between the Institute for Clinical and Translational Sciences (ICTS), the Department of Medicine, McDonnell Genome Institute (MGI), the Division of Hematology & Oncology, and the Department of Pediatrics with faculty, staff, and student representation and participation from many other Institutes, Departments, and Divisions at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

The course director isChris Miller (c.a.miller@wustl dot edu) and John Garza (johnegarza@wustl dot edu) is our dedicated teaching assistant.

Folks giving lectures in this workshop have multi-disciplinary backgrounds in Bioinformatics, Medicine, Computational Biology, Genetics, Computer Science, Oncology, Virology, Information Systems, Microbiology, Immunology, and many other combinations of both Data and Biological Sciences. They share best practices, technology, and knowledge from decades of experience working in these fields of study. Each year, the course evolves to match the rapidly evolving landscape of tools and techniques.

The organizers would like to specifically thank theICTS Precision Health function for supporting the Bioinformatics Workshop. (NIH CTSA Grant Number UL1TR002345)

Announcements, discussion, and homework help all take place primarily via Slack. For members of the ICTS Precision Health Slack organizationictsprecisionhealth.slack.com, please use the#bfx-workshop channel. If you do not have access to the ICTS Precision Health Slack, please email [johnegarza at wustl.edu]

An Office 365 email group will be created for general announcements, schedule changes, etc from those thatregister.

If you'd like to look back at past sessions, course info and lectures from previous academic years are available in the archives:

• 2020-2021
• 2021-2022
• 2022-2023
• 2023-2024

_{Banner image adapted fromNHGRI (public domain)}