All Graduate School of Life Sciences courses

The Ensembl Plants project offers a single and integrative collection of interfaces for accessing and comparing genome-scale data for 38 species (release 24, November 2014). Our Genome Browser allows visualization and analysis of plant genomic sequences including gene annotation, genetic variation and comparative genomics. Tools for downstream genomic analyses such as VEP (Variant Effect Predictor) and BioMart (data export) will be also covered in this workshop. In addition to our Browser and web tools, the publicly available data in Ensembl Plants can be accessed programmatically via our Perl and REST APIs, downloaded FTP or accessed through MySQL queries. Users can view their own data in the context of the reference sequence and datasets.

This course covers state-of-the-art tools and methods for NGS RNA-seq and exome variant data analysis, which are of major relevance in today's genomic and gene expression studies. Further information is available here.

Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book by linking here.

How do you make your research palatable to the press? Do you stumble and fumble when in front of a camera? Are you protective about your research, wary of handing over all your hard work to a journalist? Join Dr Eliza Filby, founder of GradTrain and lecturer at King's College London for this one-day media training course especially designed for researchers interested in engaging with the media at all levels.

Many basic numeric messages are inadequately communicated because of poor presentation. This course illustrates some of the problems and demonstrates ways to improve the reception of messages by different target audience. This one-day course is the foundation to all presentations of statistical information. The basic principles of presenting information in tables, charts, maps and text are explained. These are illustrated and then reinforced through practical exercises.

The course is for anyone who is involved in communicating statistics to non-statisticians, or who reports on data within organisations, to specific communities and to the general public where a message is being delivered.

Download the poster at http://www.gradschl.lifesci.cam.ac.uk/GRASP/clear-vision-poster/view

This day-long training course consists of a mixture of taught and interactive practical elements intended to show participants how to get the best out of Twitter for research purposes.

Please note that this course requires you to have an existing working knowledge of Twitter. In order to apply you must fill in an application form available at the following address

https://cambridge.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/come-fly-with-me-application

You own your own research right? Well it depends...

This session will explore the sometimes complicated world of copyright and what can happen when publishing work through formal routes such as journals or through more informal routes such as pre-print servers. The session will also introduce concepts such as third party copyright and rights retention, as well as how licensing tools such as Creative Commons can be used to not only help maximise the reach of research but also navigating reusing other people's work.

PLEASE NOTE that this course will be taught live online, with demonstrators available to help you throughout if have any questions. All lecture components will be recorded and uploaded to the course Moodle page so that you will be able to access that information even if technical or time zone restrictions means that you aren't able to join us for the live sessions.

This virtually delivered course is intended to provide a strong foundation in practical statistics and data analysis using the R or Python software environments. The underlying philosophy of the course is to treat statistics as a practical skill rather than as a theoretical subject and as such the course focuses on methods for addressing real-life issues in the biological sciences.

There are three core goals for this course:

1. Use R or Python confidently for statistics and data analysis
2. Be able to analyse datasets using standard statistical techniques
3. Know which tests are and are not appropriate

Both R and Python are free software environments that are suitable for statistical and data analysis.

In this course, we explore classical statistical analysis techniques starting with simple hypothesis testing and building up to linear models and power analyses. The focus of the course is on practical implementation of these techniques and developing robust statistical analysis skills rather than on the underlying statistical theory

After the course you should feel confident to be able to select and implement common statistical techniques using R or Python and moreover know when, and when not, to apply these techniques.

This series of lectures provides a basic introduction to neurobiology. If you are a new graduate student working in another area but think your research might benefit from some understanding of neurobiology, this is for you. If you have done an undergraduate course in neuroscience of any kind, this is NOT for you.

As scientists, your skills of critical thinking are well developed in hypothesis testing, observation and empirical experiment. This workshop will incorporate other modes of logic and reason into your scientific thinking. The focus of discussion will be social and ethical issues in biotechnology.

You will develop:

• Knowledge of critical thinking, with respect to logic and argument development
• Skills in application of critical thinking using case studies and debate involving bioethics

Developing your critical thinking and recognising how human elements impact on scientific enquiry will support you in making more appropriate decisions in the direction of your scientific projects.

PLEASE NOTE

This course compromises of two compulsory sessions. In the first session you will learn the skills and in the second you will apply them. There is also an optional follow-up session where you can meet with members of your group to discuss how you have applied the skills in your research.

Trainer:

Caroline Broad is a Philosophy graduate, with seven years experience working in the bio science industry and 15 years delivering skills development workshops.

As scientists, skills of critical thinking are well developed in hypothesis testing, observation and scientific projects. This workshop will incorporate other modes of logic and reason into scientific thinking.

This workshop will consist of a set of debates on current bioethical issues. We will then analyse and evaluate the presence and impact of critical thinking within those debates

PLEASE NOTE: This course consists of two half day sessions, with a week between sessions.