Types of Workshop

Browser Workshops

The Ensembl project at www.ensembl.org provides a comprehensive and integrated source of annotation of mainly vertebrate genome sequences. This 1-day workshop offers participants the possibility of gaining hands-on experience in the use of the Ensembl genome browser but also provides them with the necessary background information. Our sister project at www.ensemblgenomes.org can also be covered if participants are working with bacteria, plants, fungi, protists or (invertebrate) metazoa.

The workshop is primarily targeted at wetlab researchers, and we customise the course for species of interest and to include total beginners to our browser up through frequent users.

Feedback from previous courses: “There are probably quite few people out there who all assume that Ensembl today is the same as it was years ago. It is not. With many new features and datasets incorporated/interlinked, it offers data exploration like never before. This course was a very useful update on what Ensembl has become” Browser workshop, CRUK, April 2016

“Very useful workshop, certainly one of the most informative and useful I have attended. Delivered by someone who was extremely familiar with the website and its capabilities, not someone who had used it a couple of times and proclaimed themselves to be an expert.” Browser workshop, Cardiff, March 2014

API Workshops

This workshop is aimed at researchers and developers interested in exploring Ensembl beyond the website. The workshop covers the core, compara, variation and functional genomics (regulation) databases and APIs.

For each of these the database schema and the API design as well as the most important objects and their methods will be presented. This will be followed by practical sessions in which the participants can put theoretical learning into practice by writing their own Perl scripts.

Note: Some basic object-oriented Perl experience is a prerequisite for the course. Beginner and regular users of the Ensembl APIs are welcome.

Feedback from previous courses: “Wish I had taken the course long time ago. Didn’t know before how good and powerful APIs are!” API workshop, EMBL-EBI, January 2016

“I really enjoyed the course, and the ENSEMBL API will become a very relevant part of my toolset.” API workshop, Cambridge, December 2013

Upcoming Live Workshops

Upcoming workshops are listed on the EMBL-EBI training pages, where you can also find out information about other bioinformatics training courses hosted by or involving the EMBL-EBI. Ensembl workshops are held at different institutes around the world and the registration for these courses is managed by these institutes, meaning that the registration processes will be different depending on what course you attend.

Online Workshops

If you can’t make one of our live courses, you can attend the same courses online. EMBL-EBI Train Online hosts a free filmed version of our Browser workshop and our API course, as well as many other free exciting bioinformatics courses.