e-learning

To facilitate access to bioinformatics training and introduce some basic principles to life scientists, clinicians and future bioinformaticians, SIB has developed several e-learning modules, which are freely accessible to all.

ISMARA: A tool to infer genome-wide regulatory interactions

ISMARA is a resource developed at SIB that allows researchers to easily analyze their own or public expression data. In this e-learning course, you will learn what ISMARA does, its scope, how to use and interpret its output. Several examples of the typical use of ISMARA are presented to provide ideas for how this system could be used in your own research.

Cellosaurus : A resource on cell lines

Cellosaurus is a resource developed at SIB that helps researchers navigate the world of cell lines. In this e-learning course, you will learn what type of information on cell lines is found in the Cellosaurus, where it comes from and how it is organized. Several typical examples of uses of the Cellosaurus will provide ideas on how to use the Cellosaurus in your own research.

SARS-CoV-2 : Studying a new virus

In December 2019, a new type of virus of the family Coronaviridae called SARS-CoV-2 (formerly 2019-nCoV) was identified as the cause of an outbreak. In this e-learning course, you will learn to find, use or interpret information about a new virus. Knowledge of the basic molecular biology of viruses is presumed.

Explore and visualize your data with Python

Data analysis is an integral part of scientific research, and in particular of life sciences that heavily rely on quantitative methodologies. In this e-learning course, you will reproduce a typical analysis pipeline using Python, an open-source and general-purpose scripting language which runs on all major operating systems. Basic knowledge of Python programming is required. You will follow a step-by-step procedure that will provide you with the necessary tools, skills and knowledge to import and analyze the data you have acquired and turn it into an accessible visual representation ready to be published.

neXtProt: Exploring human proteins

neXtProt is a platform developed at SIB that helps researchers answer questions relevant to human proteins. In this e-learning course, you will learn what type of information on human proteins is found in neXtProt, where it comes from and how it is organized in topic-specific entry views. Several typical examples of uses of neXtProt will provide ideas on how to use neXtProt for your own research.

Querying SIB resources with SPARQL

SIB has been publishing data using Resource Description Framework (RDF) since 2007, with the UniProt knowledgebase as the first SIB resource to provide its data on the semantic web. Since then, more and more SIB resources are modelling their knowledge with RDF and made them queryable and accessible through their own SPARQL endpoints. In this tutorial, we explain how you can use the data from nine independent SIB resources (GlyConnect, UniProt, Rhea, OrthoDB, OMA, Bgee, HAMAP, MetaNetX and neXtProt) to answer interesting biological questions.

SPHN/BioMedIT Data Privacy and IT Security Training

Within the Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN) and related national initiatives researchers use patient data (i.e., confidential human data) in their research projects. Dealing with confidential human data requires awareness of data privacy, respective laws and information security. This course explains what should be done in practice to protect the patients’ privacy when performing biomedical research on human data. More information on the course website.

High Performance Computing (HPC) in Life Sciences

High-throughput sequencing data analysis requires new technical competencies and HPC is one of them. SIB has developed an e-learning module in HPC, as part of the ELIXIR-EXCELERATE project. e-learning has the potential to reach a wider audience, in any location and any time, and can be used either as the electronic component of a blended training format or as a self-running learning product. If you have an HPC facility, you are welcome to integrate it in your training too. More information on the course website.

UNIX Fundamentals

This tutorial presents the UNIX environment and its most basic commands to users with very little or no UNIX knowledge. The examples are taken from various biological fields and have been carefully chosen to be easily accessible to a wide audience.

Phylogenetics of animal viral pathogens, BLAST and multiple sequence alignment (MSA)

SIB was commissioned by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) joint programme to produce two e-learning modules, which are accessible via the dedicated website Viral Zone. These modules can be obtained on physical devices such as CD-ROMs or USB-keys upon This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Phylogenetics of animal viral pathogens and applications: This e-learning module aims at training primarily the veterinarians and molecular epidemiologists from diagnostic and research laboratories of developing FAO and IAEA member states.
BLAST and multiple sequence alignment (MSA) programs: This e-learning module focuses on sequence analysis, mainly sequence similarity (BLAST) and Multiple Sequence Alignment programs.