The first NORBIS course, An introduction to sequence comparison and database search, is soon about to take place, from 16th – 20th November, in Bergen. We still have some seats free, please sign up here by Monday 9th November: https://goo.gl/XN6zhl.
Why should you follow this course? First of all, sequence comparison is a fundamental aspect in bioinformatics, and forms the basis for a wide range of bioinformatics applications – from evolutionary analysis of protein domains to short read alignment in next–generation sequencing.
Secondly, the course is taught by two of the most prominent scientists in this field, Professor Cedric Notredame and Professor Desmond Higgins. Notredame is a group leader at the Center for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona in Spain, and his group focuses on the development of novel algorithms for the comparison of multiple biological sequences. He has further produced a number of methods and tools within this area, including the programs T-Coffee and SAGA. Cedric Notredame has also co-authored the book Bioinformatics for Dummies. Professor Des (Desmond) Higgins has a full professorship at the Conway Institute at the University College Dublin in Ireland. Des Higgins is probably most well known for the Clustal series of programs for multiple sequence alignment. One of the Clustal papers is on the top-10 list the most highly cited papers of all times. His research also includes multivariate analysis of omics data.
Both lecturers will give a seminar at the end of the course.