Introduction to Bioinformatics Tools is a hands-on, beginner-level practical course designed to complement the theoretical Foundations course. Students will gain step-by-step, guided experience with essential bioinformatics software and computational platforms in a supportive learning environment.
The course begins with orientation to the computing environment, including basic navigation of the Linux/Unix command line, file and directory management, and use of institutional virtual machines or cloud-based platforms. Students will learn essential commands for file manipulation, text processing, and basic scripting.
Practical sessions cover the use of key bioinformatics tools, including BLAST for sequence searching, genome browsers (UCSC Genome Browser, IGV - Integrative Genomics Viewer) for data visualization, and quality control tools such as FastQC for assessing sequencing data. Students will be introduced to scripting in R and/or Python at an absolute beginner level, focusing on loading datasets, generating basic plots, and executing pre-written analysis scripts rather than programming from scratch.
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