Arthropod Genomics Symposium: Pre-Symposium Workshop

These workshops provide hands-on training on how to effectively use VectorBase to mine the available data and to analyze your own data.
Since VectorBase is part of the VEuPathDB Bioinformatics Resource Center (BRC), all learned knowledge can be applied to its other components such as those supporting vector-transmitted pathogens Plasmodium (PlasmoDB), Leishmania, Trypanosoma (TriTrypDB), Babesia, and Theileria (PiroplasmaDB).

Expected learning objectives:

• Site Search: use keywords (e.g., gene metadata and gene IDs), filter and explore results, export to strategies
• Organism preferences: enable and disable to explore data sets 
• Gene pages: become familiar with the information on it, navigate to and from it, use the table of contents to navigate 
• Search strategies: how to construct and combine the more than 100 available searches to produce multi-step strategies, results can be in the format of gene IDs 
• RNAseq and microarrays data searches: use differential expression, fold change, and percentile searches to explore gene expression
• Proteomics data searches: use mass spec data to identify genes based on expression evidence
• Genome browser: use menu and navigation options, add and configure data tracks, interpret data (e.g. RNAseq)
• Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment: run and analyze a GO enrichment analysis 
• Apollo: learn how to manually annotate a gene, which involves both structural changes (intron/exon boundaries) and metadata (gene name and symbol)
• Galaxy: perform your own bioinformatic analysis using our servers, e.g. RNAseq transcript differential expression or SNP calling  

*Handouts of the AGS 2022 workshop available here 
*Handouts of the AGS 2024 workshop available here