On 17. and 18. January 2024 Bioinformatics workshop POLYP BioInfoW: Ocean4Biotech Organisms Repository was held in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Workshop was organized by the Association of Geneticists in BiH (GENuBiH) with the support of the Faculty of Science and Mathematics, the University Accounting Center “SRCE” of the University of Zagreb and the Institute for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology of the University of Sarajevo. The workshop was primarily intended for students of biotechnical sciences, whose participation in the workshop was fully sponsored by funds from the project co-financers.
Theoretical part of the workshop (17.01.2024), in hybrid form, was held at Hotel Holiday, and the practical part on-site (18.01.2024) at the Great Computer Center of UNSA – Faculty of Science and Mathematics, with a focus on processing NGS data (datasets of nucleotide sequences generated by new generation sequencing). Digital resources for the maintenance of the practical part of the workshop were supported by the University Accounting Center “SRCE” of the University of Zagreb by creating a virtual server.
The first day of the workshop had the aim to go over a complex path from field exploration and sampling to isolation and application of bioactive molecules and data storage in biorepository. Lectures were given by:
Dr. Ana Rotter, leader of COST action CA18238 (National Institute of Biology Marine Biology Station Piran, Piran, Slovenia) https://www.nib.si/mbp/en/cv/ana-rotter.
Professor. dr. Ariola Bacu (University of Tirana, Albania) https://fshn.edu.al/…/depa…/Personel/prof-dr-ariola-bacu.
Professor. dr. Oliver P. Thomas (University of Galway, Ireland) https://www.universityofgalway.ie/…/biol…/olivierthomas/.
Professor. dr. Zrinka Ljubešić, Dr. Maja Mucko (University of Zagreb – Faculty of Science and Mathematics) https://www.pmf.unizg.hr/biol/zrinka.ljubesic. https://www.pmf.unizg.hr/biol/maja.mucko.
Professor. dr. Belma Kalamujić Stroil and Prof. dr. Naris Pojskić (University of Sarajevo – Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology) http://www.ingeb.unsa.ba/belma_cv.html http://www.ingeb.unsa.ba/eng/naris_cv.html.
Professor. dr. Lada Lukić Bilela (University of Sarajevo – Faculty of Science and Mathematics) https://pmf.unsa.ba/nastavno-osoblje/.
Practical part was lead by Dr. Maja Mucko from the Faculty of Science and Mathematics of the University of Zagreb, students were taught about basic UNIX commands and manipulating NGS data, quality reports (MULTIQC/FASTQC), sample data analysis/problem solution and examples in tree building and plotting.
Huge thank you goes to local organizers dr. Lada Lukić Bilela, dr. Belma Kalamujić Stroil and prof. dr. Anja Haverić.