MemPanG23

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 - Thursday, June 1, 2023
The use of a single reference genome in bioinformatics can lead to reference bias and miss important information about genome variability and relationships. New assembly methods have made it easier to generate high-quality complete genome assemblies, and using a pangenome graph that expresses many genomes and their mutual alignment can help address these issues. This course will focus on building such graphs from whole genome assemblies and using them in various downstream applications in comparative genomics, evolution, variation analysis, sequence alignment, and phenotype association.

Participants will learn about pangenome concepts and gain practical experience building and analyzing pangenome graphs. They will apply these methods to complex research questions that require understanding the relationships between multiple genomes or accounting for variability when analyzing new genomes. By the end of the course, participants will have a strong understanding of pangenome methods based on whole genome assemblies.

Friday, June 2, 2023
We will gather for a hybrid in-person and virtual conference on the last day of the week. This will bring together course participants and virtual and in-person speakers who are actively working on diverse aspects of pangenome research. The virtual meeting will be open to the public. Speakers will cover topics at the intersection of pangenome methods and biology, including a focus on basic methods, data structures, genome assembly, data visualization, and public collaborative pangenome projects. We expect to draw speakers from a diverse set of species contexts.

Registration includes access to: all lectures and practical sessions, all course materials.