The last Ensembl events of 2010:

1 Dec: Browser workshop at the Institute of Cancer Research: Royal Cancer Hospital, London
1-3 Dec: Developers workshop at the University of Cambridge, UK
6-7 Dec: Browser workshop at MRC Harwell, UK
7-8 Dec: Browser workshop at the University of Tampere, Finland
7-8 Dec: Ensembl module in the Open Door Workshop – Working with the Human Genome Sequence, Hinxton, UK
9-10 Dec: Browser workshop at the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn of Naples, Italy
14 Dec: Browser workshop at University College London, UK

For details about these and other upcoming events, please have a look at the complete list of Ensembl training events.

As usual November is a busy month for the Ensembl outreach team:

2 Nov: Ensembl demo at the EBI Open Day, Hinxton, UK
5 Nov: Browser workshop at the American Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting 2010, Washington DC, US
3-9 Nov: Ensembl module in the Computational & Comparative Genomics course at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY, US
10 Nov: Browser workshop at the Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME, US
11 Nov: Demo for EBI / EMBL PhD students, Hinxton, UK
12 Nov: Browser workshop at Middlebury College, VT, US
16-17 Nov: Ensembl module in The Genome Access Course at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY, US
16-17 Nov: Ensembl browser workshop at MRC Harwell, UK
18 Nov: Ensembl module in the The Bioinformatics Roadshow at the MRC – National Institute for Medical Research, London, UK
22-24 Nov: Developers workshop for EBI and Sanger Institute employees, Hinxton, UK
23 Nov: Browser workshop at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas, Madrid, Spain
25 Nov: Browser workshop at University College Dublin, Ireland

For details about these and other upcoming events, please have a look at the complete list of Ensembl training events.

In October we have the following Ensembl events:

12 Oct: Ensembl module in the EBI Bioinformatics Roadshow, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey
13 Oct: Tutorial for The National Genetics Reference Lab, Manchester, UK
14 Oct: Ensembl module in the EBI Bioinformatics Roadshow, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey
19 Oct: Tutorial for The National Genetics Reference Lab, Manchester, UK
19 Oct: Browser workshop at the Royal Veterinary College, Potters Bar, UK *postponed to 26 Oct*
22 Oct: Browser workshop at the Free University Brussels, Belgium

For details about these and other upcoming events, please have a look at the complete list of Ensembl training events.

The Summer seems to have gone (at least here in Britain), so Ensembl outreach activities are picking up again:

7 & 8 Sep: Browser workshops at the University of Toronto, Canada
13-15 Sep: Developers workshop at the Genome Informatics Meeting 2010, Hinxton, UK
16-17 Sep: Browser workshop at the Erasmus MC Molecular Medicine Postgraduate School, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
17 Sep: Demo at the Erasmus MC Molecular Medicine Postgraduate School, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
27-28 Sep: Browser workshop at the University of Cambridge, UK

For details about these and other upcoming events, please have a look at the complete list of Ensembl training events.

The Ensembl Outreach team is currently looking into the possibility of giving some 1-day Ensembl browser workshops in the Western US in the period directly before or after the Plant and Animal Genome Conference in San Diego, which takes place from 15-19 January 2011. Hosting institutions would only have to pay the instructor’s expenses (accommodation and subsistence) and would share the domestic travel costs, but we would not otherwise charge for the workshops.

For more information about our browser workshops, please have a look here.

Interested? Please contact me for more details at bert@ebi.ac.uk.

Although it’s Summer vacation time, there are still a few Ensembl events scheduled the coming month:

18 Aug: Ensembl module in the EURASNET Workshop on Structural Bioinformatics of RNA & RNP at the Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland
29 Aug: Ensembl module at the ESF European Meeting on Next Generation Sequencing at Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands

For details about these and other upcoming events, please have a look at the complete list of Ensembl training events.

The Ensembl project has focused on vertebrate organisms for the past ten years. Since Jan 2009, a sister project has formed, Ensembl Genomes, extending analysis to invertebrates, protists, plants, fungi and bacteria.

We do now offer separate workshops on both Ensembl and Ensembl Genomes. Though the browsing is similar, specifics can vary. For example, the genes in most non-vertebrate genomes are determined using different rules than in vertebrate genomes.

So, if you are thinking of hosting a browser workshop and you know your audience will mainly consist of researchers working on non-vertebrate genomes, the Ensembl Genomes browser is the right choice for you!

For more detailed information on the Ensembl Genomes browser workshops please have a look here.

Ensembl announces a workshop for developers that will take place at the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK. The workshop runs in the week of the Genome Informatics conference, from Monday 13 September until midday Wednesday 15 September 2010, and will cover the same content as in previous years.

Ensembl developers will present sessions on how to create your own core database, including the loading of a genome assembly into a database and the running of simple analyses using the Ensembl genebuild pipeline.

As this workshop is aimed at developers, we will be exploring the underlying code-base of the Ensembl Software System. The workshop comprises presentations around Ensembl as well as practical sessions. We would like to point out that this is not a ‘learning how to program in Perl’ workshop.

For the successful completion of the workshop exercises, participants will be expected to have comprehensive experience in PERL programming and a background in object oriented programming techniques. Familiarity with Perl, a Unix/Linux environment, databases and structured query languages (MySQL) are needed to follow the workshop and the programming examples. Knowledge of the Ensembl core API is essential. The workshop is suitable for people who have access to small- to large scale compute resources, and who plan to run genome-wide analyses on large-scale data sets.

The workshop will be given by:

• Bronwen Aken (Ensembl Genome Annotation team)
• Jan-Hinnerk Vogel (Ensembl Genome Annotation team)

Additional presenters will attend depending on the number of participants registering.

At the end of this course, attendees will

• have a good understanding of Ensembl’s annotation pipeline
• have hands-on experience with loading a genome assembly
• have hands-on experience with the annotation pipeline

There is no registration fee to attend this course for non-industry participants, but we ask you to register in advance because the number of attendees is limited by the size of the training venue.

Please note that the workshop runs before the conference, so don’t forget to arrange additional accommodation for the workshop days.

The aim of the Ensembl Developers Workshop is to promote the academic use of the Ensembl Analysis and Ensembl pipeline system used by the Ensembl Genome Annotation Group.

To register your interest to attend, please send an email to Bert Overduin (bert@ebi.ac.uk), together with a brief outline of the relevance of this workshop to your work and your details.

The registration deadline for this workshop is August, 15th. Notification of places will be as soon as possible.

We will circulate an agenda amongst participants in due time.

As usually July is one of the quietest months of the year, but we still have a few workshops:

1-2 July: Ensembl module in the EBI Bioinformatics Roadshow at the Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine (TIGEM), Naples, Italy
13 July: Browser workshop at the University of Glasgow, Scotland

For details about these and other upcoming events, please have a look at the complete list of Ensembl training events.

In June we will have the following Ensembl events:

2-4 June: Ensembl module in the EBI Bioinformatics Roadshow at Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
10 June: Browser workshop at Gothenburg University, Sweden
11 June: Browser workshop at Gothenburg University, Sweden (satellite of the European Human Genetics Conference 2010)
12-15 June: Presentation at the European Human Genetics Conference 2010
14-18 June: Ensembl module in the Joint EBI – Wellcome Trust Bioinformatics Summer School, Hinxton, UK
22-23 June: Browser workshops at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
23 June: Browser workshop at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
25 June: Browser workshop at the Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany
30 June – 1 July: Browser workshop at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

For details about these and other upcoming events, please have a look at the complete list of Ensembl training events.