14/9/2010

ICG10 Integrative Cancer Genomics Training Course

We are pleased to announce the NEW Bioinformatics training courseICG10 Integrative Cancer Genomicsorganized by Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (Oeiras, Portugal) with Nuria Lopez-Bigas and Gunes Gundem (Head and Predoctoral student respectively of Biomedical Genomics Laboratory of GRIB - UPF/ IMIM) as invited professors. The course will be held on November 8th-10th 2010. Application deadline until October 13th.

Course description:
In the last few years, the study of the genetic basis of cancer has undergone a profound transformation. High-throughput techniques, such as microarrays and next generation sequencing technologies, allow scientists to identify genetic alterations at genome-wide level in many tumour types. The application of these technologies to the study of cancer is very powerful to understand the mechanism of disease pathogenesis, and it has a high potential to identify possible targets for therapy, discover molecular biomarkers that allow an early detection of cancer, improve the diagnosis and prognosis or certain tumours, and predict the response to therapies. The application of these technologies yields complex, multidimensional genomic data sets that describe in detail the myriad changes that occur within individual tumours and how these changes differ between individual tumours. As a consequence, modern cancer research has become a hybrid of molecular and bioinformatic methods. The course will provide the students with theoretical and practical expertise in the field of integrative cancer genomics. We will introduce the large oncogenomic projects that are active, such as The Cancer Genome Atlas and the International Cancer Genome Consortium. And we will learn how to use tools to access, manipulate and take advantage of the large amount of available cancer genomics data. Some tools we will use are IntOGen, Oncomine, COSMIC, ICGC-DCC and MEV, among others.

Target Audience
The course is directed to researchers in biology and medicine. Background knowledge in bioinformatics is not necessary. Attendees will be updated on the state of the art in the field of cancer genomics and they will become capable of handling and analyzing cancer genomics data. Upon completion, the atendees will be able to perform integrative analysis and interpret the results, in order to answer specific biological questions.
More information, including application details at
http://gtpb.igc.gulbenkian.pt/bicourses/ICG10