Slika 2

STREAMLINE Bioinformatics Workshop “RNA-seq data analysis”

December 11. – 15. 2023.

Over four decades ago, Frederick Sanger and his colleagues developed a method to decode the genetic information stored in DNA. The first human chromosome to be sequenced was chromosome 22 in 1999, and the first human genome was mapped in 2001 as part of the Human Genome Project. Over the past two decades, technologies for DNA sequencing have progressed rapidly. Nowadays, next-generation sequencing technologies allow rapid sequencing of millions of DNA fragments simultaneously, providing information about the structure of genomes, gene expression profiles, genetic variations, and epigenetic modifications. These technologies enable the development of targeted therapies and precision medicine approaches and facilitate studies on genetic diseases, cancer genomics, and microbiome composition. Consequently, there is a growing demand for bioinformatics approaches to analyze the big data obtained by next-generation sequencing technologies.

Thanks to the STREAMLINE project and our partner from the Maastricht University, over 50 participants from the Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, University of Belgrade (IMGGE) had great opportunity to learn about new bioinformatics tools for RNA-seq data analysis. On December 11 to 15, 2023, Maastricht University and IMGGE organized online STREAMLINE Bioinformatics Workshop “RNA-seq data analysis” that included interesting topics and hands-on training. The lecturers were Dr. Friederike Ehrhart, Dr. Florian Caiment, Dr. Marcha Verheijen, Dr. Tooba Abbassi-Daloii, Dr. Martina Summer-Kutmon, and Dr. Susan Steinbusch-Coort (Maastricht University), and instructors for hands-on training were Dr. Friederike Ehrhart and Aishwarya Iyer from the Maastricht University, and Dr. Danijela Drakulic, Dr. Natasa Kovacevic Grujicic, and Stefan Lazic from the IMGGE. Academician Milena Stevanovic, STREAMLINE project PI, gave a warm welcome to participants, introducing them to the importance of the STREAMLINE project, and Prof. David Linden gave an overview of the workshop at the end of the training.

Topics covered during this workshop were: how to obtain raw counts from FASTQ files, how to obtain a list of differentially expressed genes from raw counts, and which tools to use for functional analysis and visualization of the results (WGCNA, WikiPathways, Pathvisio, and Cytoscape).

Thanks to all for joining us in the first kind of this workshop in Serbia.

Successfully completed STREAMLINE „RNA-seq data analysis“

On Wednesday, January 24th, we awarded the certificates to the participants of the STREAMLINE Bioinformatics Workshop „RNA-seq data analysis“ held from December 11 – 15 2023. We also announced STREAMLINE Bioinformatics Summer School that will be held in Thessaloniki in June 2024.
Once again, we want to thank everyone who participated in the workshop.

viber_image_2023-12-14_17-22-33-886

Overview of the staff exchanges at Maastricht University

Welcome back Dr. Danijela Drakulić, Dr. Nataša Kovačević Grujičić and Stefan Lazić! After almost two and a half months, members of the STREAMLINE team returned to Belgrade from their staff exchange at the Maastricht University, Netherlands. Their staff exchanges were dedicated to mastering the RNA-sequencing and bioinformatics data analysis and digitalized repository formation. They learned how to adequately isolate RNA for RNA-seq, perform library preparation and sequencing and how to check the quality of samples for RNA-seq. Staff exchange dedicated to bioinformatics data analysis covered the following topics: how to obtain „raw counts“ from FASTQ files and identify differentially expressed genes, how to perform gene set enrichment/overexpression analysis, Weighted gene coexpression analysis, data visualisation in pathways, and how to create pathway models with PathVisio, and network analysis using Cytoscape. They came back full of impressions and ready to implement acquired knowledge in our institute.