Grant: Meetings, Planning and Dissemination Grant: Genetics

The introduction of new high-throughput technologies and large complicated data sets presents many research challenges. Bioinformatics skills and knowledge play an extremely relevant and critical role in today's molecular biology and genetic research landscape. The Canadian Bioinformatics Workshops (CBW) 2011 Series proposal outlines a series of short 2-day workshops in specialized, advanced level topics such as HT-sequencing bioinformatics, determining pathway information, as well as statistical methods to handle large data sets. The proposed workshops include: 1) Pathway and Network Analysis of Gene Lists; 2) Informatics on High Throughput Sequencing Data; 3) Exploratory Data Analysis and Essential Statistics in Biology; 4) Clinical Genomics and Biomarker Discovery; and 5) Informatics for Metabolomics. These intense workshops will be taught by prominent bioinformatics researchers and will be open to all researchers in academia, government and industry requiring such advanced informatics skills. Class sizes will be limited to 30 students per workshop, ensuring individualized training and skill development opportunity. The CBW is a national training program in computational biology established in 1999. Dr. Michelle Brazas, as Manager of Bioinformatic Education, oversees the educational activities of the CBW. Francis Ouellette remains the scientific director of the CBW, which is now situated in Toronto at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR). The CBW has a proven track record in delivering effective bioinformatics training to the Canadian research community, significantly impacting health research in Canada. The CBW is seeking support from the CIHR, Institute of Genetics for the 2011 workshop series. The CBW is requesting $5,900, which constitutes 4% of the total budget for the proposed series of 5 workshops. Registration fees generate 47% and cash/in-kind contributions of 49% have been secured from external sources.