BIO 680 DNA Next Generation Sequencing

Next-​generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have revolutionized many fields in biology and are changing the practice of medicine. As a joint state-​of-the-art research and training facility of the ETH and the University of Zurich, the Functional Genomics Center Zurich (FGCZ) offers a five-​day course with hands-​on practicals. The aim is to help scientists interested in NGS technologies, particularly applied to DNA sequencing, to gain a better understanding of the techniques available and their applications. This course is not meant to replace any manufacturers’ training normally supplied with an instrument.
 The practical consists of a library preparation and sequencing starting from genomic DNA, followed by short and a long read sequencing workflows using Illumina and Oxford Nanopore Technologies, respectively. An introduction to the analysis of the resulting data and some exercises will be offered as well. The lectures cover existing and upcoming NGS technologies, their applications and the principles of downstream data analysis. 

The data analysis part starts off from the raw reads, as generated by the instrument, and cover pre-​processing, alignment, variant calling and several quality control checkpoints. The hands-​on sessions for data analysis does neither require a pre-​existing knowledge of Unix nor the command line environment. This course is not intended to be a training course for those solely interested in next-​generation sequencing bioinformatics.
By the end of the course participants should be able to make informed decisions about which technology and workflow to apply to solve specific research questions.