RNA-seq Workshop

Lead trainer: Luke Gandolfo

(Melbourne Bioinformatics, The University of Melbourne)

Workshop Description

Comparing gene expression, i.e. the amount of RNA transcript, in different experimental conditions provides important biological insights. While there's many ways of measuring gene expression, the focus of this workshop will be (bulk) RNA-seq, a technology which measures gene expression across the whole transcriptome, i.e. all RNA transcripts, in a sample.

The target audience & pre-requisites for this training includes

Anyone who,

Has heard of RNA-seq and roughly knows what the idea is
Is interested in learning some basic skills for analysing RNA-seq data (starting from a table of counts)
Who knows the basics of R
Who knows basic statistics (e.g. what a hypothesis test is)

Learning objectives

The aim is to show you how to go from a “counts table” of RNA-seq data to a list of differentially expressed (DE) genes, using R and statistical software packages from Bioconductor. Our approach will be to carefully discuss each step along the way. By the end you'll have (1) some understanding and thus confidence in what you’re doing, and (2) some skills to judge whether the DE results you obtain are likely to be trustworthy (or rubbish).

Eligibility

This Free workshop is available to staff and students at The University if Melbourne and its affiliated institutes.

You must register for this event using an affiliated institutional email address or your registration may be cancelled.

Prerequisites and Requirements

This is an in person hands-on workshop and attendees must bring their own computers (laptop chargers also recommended). The following is required:

R and R-Studio installed
Additionally, please install and test Seurat, SeuratData, DESeq2, and pheatmap. Instructions for this are included at the beginning of the workshop material(available soon).
Access to internet via uniwireless or Eduroam
Web browser (Firefox or Chrome recommended)

Access

If you require any further information, or have any access requirements in order to participate in this workshop, please contact us as soon as possible to discuss your requirements:

We recommend that following our eventbrite page if you wish to be alerted when we release new workshops for registrations. If you require any further information, please contact Melbourne Bioinformatics at:

bioinformatics-training@unimelb.edu.au

Important Policy Update

Starting 1 August 2025, participants who miss two or more workshops without proper notice (less than 48 hours or attending under 50%) within 12 months will be placed on a 6-month waitlist for full workshops. To avoid being marked as a no-show, cancellations must be made at least 24 hours in advance, with exceptions allowed for emergencies.Please read the full policy here: https://mbite.org/guides/policy/

This workshop was made possible through the support of the Graduate Researcher Development Grant from the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences (MDHS) at the University of Melbourne.

RNA-seq Analysis: Counts to Differentially Expressed Genes in R