In collaboration with Turning the Tide of Antimicrobial Resistance  (TTA), IBA ​invites IBA PhD student members to the TTA Bioinformatics course Level 1.

Wednesday, January 20th 2021 – Oslo, UiO, Domus Medica, L-257

This course will give you basic knowledge on whole genome assembly, including quality assessment of raw data (FastQC), adapter / quality trimming and contig assembly. You will also learn about the differences between De novo assembly and mapping to an annotated reference genome.

Course schedule

13:00 – 13:30 Part I: Introduction to Whole Genome Sequencing

Theoretical introduction and applications in microbial whole genome sequence analysis:

    – Basic whole genome sequence assembly and bioinformatics

    – NGS read-to-reference alignment (contig assembly)

Analysis techniques covered will employ raw data from Illumina platforms (HiSeq/MiSeq).

13:30 – 13:45 Coffee break

13:45 – 15:30 Part II: Hands-on exercises

    – Quick explanation of associated file types

    – Performing quality checks with FastQC (before and after trimming)

    – Adapter and quality trimming

    – Contig assembly and mapping to reference genome

Course facilitator: Timo Lutter

Dear IBA members, 

2020 has been a special, strange and challenging year! We would like to first thank all the participants of our courses and events (creating scientific illustrations, Covid-19 online seminar series, annual meeting, mindfulness and stress management and Nature Masterclass on scientific writing to name a few). Like so many other research schools, IBA had to postpone several courses and events in 2020. The upside is that we gained experience in hosting online events and webinars which will benefit all of us in the future!

In 2020, many research schools (including IBA) were mid-term evaluated by the Research Council. We are happy to announce that IBA was approved for three more years, and that in the process, we have received valuable feedback and guidance. The fruits of this process are an updated course portfolio that will be more thoroughly introduced later. We would briefly note that IBA will hold a core summer course in early June where will offer a thorough introduction to the Principles of Infection Biology. We are also planning courses on zoonotic infectious diseases, host-pathogen interactions, vaccines, microbial symbiosis/host microbiota and antimicrobial resistance (all in summer/autumn 2021). In addition, we will continue to offer workshops and courses on transferable skills (Scientific Illustrations (early March and autumn), Scientific Writing, Career opportunities after completing your PhD ++).

Lastly, we would like to take this opportunity to introduce the three new regional directors of studies! Welcome to Özgün Candan Onarman Umu, Kurt Hanevik and Synnøve Brandt Ræder who will be in charge of organising IBA courses and events at NMBU, UiB and NTNU, respectively. They will also serve as the local IBA contact people. Johanna Ericson Sollid and Mike Koomey will continue to fill these roles at UiT and UiO.

With that, we wish you a peaceful Christmas and a safe new year! 

A big thanks to Catarina Moura for allowing us to share her Christmas stem cell tree with all of you! Read more about the making of it here

More than 25 IBA members presented their research via poster and/or oral presentation on this year´s annual meeting.

Of these, Ragnhild Sætra and Joel Heim took home the prize for best poster and oral presentation, respectively.

Congratulations!

Poster Award Winner: “Mechanisms in human macrophages infected with Mycobacterium Tuberculosis” presented by Ragnhild Sætra from NTNU

Oral Presentation Award Winner: “Bacterial survival in highly acidic environments – study of structure-function relationship of urea channels” presented by Joel Heim from UiO.

Through our sister organisation in Sweden, NDPIA, we are happy to offer a four-day online course on Microbiota and Health from 30th Nov – 3rd Dec for IBA members.

Extended deadline for registration : November 9th

You can find more details on our course page.

This year´s Annual IBA meeting on the 26-27th October goes virtual and all members are welcome!

We can´t meet in person this year, but we will be meeting for local get-together dinners in Oslo, Trondheim, Tromsø and Bergen.

The committee in Trondheim has come up with an exciting program of plenary speakers.

Marc Dionne, Imperial College London. He has extensive experience in the use of the fruit-fly Drosophila melanogasteras a model organism studying how host genotype affects the biology of bacterial infection. In this session we will also have presentations on other animal models, including Zebrafish and mouse, and a panel discussion about animal models.

Dr Fatima AlZaharaa Alatraktchi. She was awarded the PhD thesis of the year award at Denmark Technical University in 2018 for her thesis ‘Micro- and nano-sensors for early diagnosis of bacterial infections’. Forbes business magazine has listed her as one of the 30 most influential people under 30 in Europe within science and health 2019.

Mona Johannessen is professor at Department of medical biology at the UIT Arctic University of Norway. Her research interests are on the interaction between host and microbe, and how microorganisms manage to escape human immune defenses. She has also an interest in extracellular vesicles. She will give a talk on host-pathogen interactions.

IBA PhD students, postdocs and research medical students will also be presenting their research.