Preface

Preface#

About This Course#

This course is developed by Talal Al-Yazeedi, currently working as a research assistant professor at the Khalifa Center for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology (KCGEB) at United Arab Emirates University (UAEU). This bioinformatics course is delivered in dual language (Arabic and English). While the course materials are provided in English, sessions will be delivered using both Arabic and English languages. It is designed to provide students and researchers with a solid foundation in genomics and bioinformatics, bridging the gap between biological concepts and computational analysis. This course assumes trainees do not have any prior knowledge of command-line interfaces. The course will start by introducing basic concepts and will move towards handling real-life data for the most common bioinformatics analyses.

Who Is This Course For?#

This course is intended for:

  • Graduate students in biology, biotechnology, or related fields who want to add computational skills to their toolkit

  • Researchers transitioning into genomics who need practical bioinformatics training

  • Biologists interested in analysing their own sequencing data

  • Anyone curious about how computational methods are applied to biological problems

Learning Philosophy#

Our approach emphasises:

  1. Hands-on learning - Every concept is accompanied by practical exercises using real data

  2. Reproducibility - All analyses are designed to be reproducible and well-documented

  3. Building blocks - Skills are introduced incrementally, with each session building on previous ones

Additional sessions will be added as the course develops.

Prerequisites#

Before starting this course, you should have:

  • Basic molecular biology knowledge - Understanding of DNA, RNA, genes, and proteins

  • Command-line familiarity - Comfortable navigating directories and running commands

New to the command line?

Don’t worry if you’re not comfortable with the command line yet. We recommend completing a basic Unix/Linux tutorial. However, we will take you through the basics of Unix commands in the first few sessions. Resources like GeeksforGeeks Unix introduction are helpful.

How to Use This Course#

  1. Read the theory sections to understand the concepts

  2. Run the code examples in your own environment

  3. Complete the exercises at the end of each session

  4. Experiment — modify the code and see what happens

Acknowledgments#

This course was made possible through the support of:

  • Khalifa Center for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology

  • United Arab Emirates University

  • The open-source bioinformatics community

Contact#

For questions, suggestions, or feedback about this course, please:

  • Open an issue on GitHub

  • Contact the course instructor directly

Let’s begin your journey into bioinformatics!

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