The main topic of the first three lectures will be on bioinformatics
tools, approaches and applications in metagenomics research.
The seminar is streamed lived. Access the live stream via this link.
09:00 - Ass. Prof. Marnix Medema, Wageningen University and Research, Netherlands:
Computational meta-omics approaches to chart biosynthetic diversity in microbial communities
Microorganisms produce a wealth of specialized metabolites, which are of great importance from both ecological and clinical perspectives. Due to the accelerated accumulation of omics data, computational methods have become more and more important to identify these molecules and to assess their biological activities. Here, I will highlight the work performed in my research group on using these approaches to accelerate natural product discovery, as well as to study microbe-microbe and host-microbe interactions in human, plant and animal microbiomes. Specifically, I will discuss advanced methods for metagenomic assembly and identification of biosynthetic gene clusters, as well as methods to profile abundance/expression across metagenomic and metatranscriptomic datasets.
10:00 - Prof. Nils-Peder Willassen, University of Tromsø, Norway:
Metagenomic data life-cycle - best practises
To be able to explore the genetic content in environmental samples there is a need to standardize all steps in the process, ranging from sampling, sequencing and analysis workflows to archiving of sequence and provenance data. In the lecture, the different steps will be explained, and examples are given to highlight the challenges and how these can be overcome.
11:00 - Megan Sandoval-Powers, Auburn University, AL, USA:
Mining and expressing biosynthetic gene clusters from a soil metagenome
In her talk, Megan Sandoval-Powers will highlight her work as a PhD student in the group of Prof. Mark Liles at Auburn University, focused on bioprospecting for natural products produced by environmental microorganisms using function- and sequence-based metagenomic approaches.
Location:
Room A32, Adolf Øien-bygget (Handelshøyskolen) NTNU – Elgeseter Campus, Trondheim, Norway