The microbiome, a complex community of microorganisms, plays a crucial role in the life of the environment it inhabits, including the human body. For example, patients with Alzheimer's disease have substantially different gut microbiomes compared to healthy individuals. The recent biotechnology advances enabled the generation of large amounts of microbiome-related data across different omics levels, such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. However, effectively analyzing and interpreting this data to fully realize its promise and shed light on the role of microbiome requires the development and application of specialized computational methods.

This course will cover cutting-edge bioinformatics tools and techniques for analyzing microbiome data. Students will get hands-on experience by applying these tools to sample datasets. They will also explore the computational principles that underlie these methods and implement some basic algorithms on their own.