NESCent offers course in Computational Phyloinformatics

 

click for full-zise image
Phylogenetics is key to studying evolution, systematics, comparative genomics, and bioinformatics; phylogenies are now ubiquitous in the biological literature. However, with the growth in computational power and DNA sequencing, and with ever more complex substitution models and analytical methods, it is less and less practical to run simple, one-shot analyses on a personal computer with an off-the-shelf program. As a result, we increasingly rely on custom-scripted analyses or custom-designed computational pipelines, and often on large compute machines or clusters. While books and courses on phylogenetics are common, it is harder to find information on how to script large-scale and complex analyses, or how to write your own scripts and programs. This course aims to address this gap by introducing these skills in a practical, hands-on course at NESCent (National Evolutionary Synthesis Center).

When: July 9 - July 19, 2007
Where: The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center 2024 W. Main Street, Suite A200, Durham, NC 27705
Application Deadline: April 15, 2007

Target Students: The course is intended for graduate students, post-docs, and researchers in biology who are interested in developing skills in phyloinformatics

Prerequisites: Biology: A solid understanding of phylogenetics — for example, having already taken the Workshop on Molecular Evolution or equivalent coursework or experience. Computing: Prior experience with either Perl or Java; or, having read and studied, cover-to-cover, the books we recommend on either language; and, prior experience with basic operations in unix. Students will be using Mac OSX computers in the course.

Image by Derrick Zwickl and David Hillis.

[ more ]