With the presence of a multidisciplinary group composed of 17 attendees, students and researchers belonging to areas like biology, computer science and comparative genomics, the course-workshop Informatic Tools for the Analysis of Genomic Data was held, on  November 28 and 29, at the facilities of the Technological Innovation Park (PIT, Parque de Innovación Tecnológica) of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa (UAS, Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa).

The course’s objective was equipping the participants with cutting-edge knowledge for the analysis of massive sequencing technology data, using specialized software to generate genomic assemblies, which are later analyzed for their application with specific purposes of comparative genomics.

Throughout the course-workshop different topics were seen, such as: Unix and Linux generalities, basic principles of Shell, Shell Prompt, Shell environment and its variables, file system, among others. The lectures were given by instructors of the Faculty of Informatics Culiacán and the Faculty of Chemical and Biological Sciences of the UAS, also the Research Centre for Food and Development (CIAD, Centro de Investigación en Alimentación y Desarrollo) and the PIT-UAS (through its Engineering and Data Science Laboratory).

The event was closed and the participation certificates were handed over by the general director of the PIT-UAS, MBA José Ramón López Arellano, the leader of the PIT-UAS’ Engineering and Data Science Laboratory, PhD Inés Fernando Vega López, also PhD Cristobal Chaidez Quiroz, director of the National Laboratory for Alimentary Innocuity Research (Laniia, Laboratorio Nacional para la Investigación en Inocuidad Alimentaria).

PhD Vega said: «… with this collaboration, the PIT-UAS joins Conacyt’s initiative called National Laboratories… Laniia invites us to participate… understanding that to guarantee the innocuity on food it is necessary to understand the biological polluters that affect them». For his part, PhD Chaidez said that this course «… complements an area of knowledge that we hadn’t been able to integrate, which is informatics. We are from the biological area and we form the informatics area to work in the bioinformatics area, applied to agricultural problems that affect Sinaloa».

Lastly, it is important to mention that two previous courses were held (November 2015 and August 2016), with the participations of professors of different institutions, such as UAS and the British University of Bath, as well as the CIAD. This edition is part of the follow-up of the activities dedicated to the integration of the Bioinformatics Laboratory at the PIT-UAS, also for the development of different projects in the area.

Written by Moroni Arellano (Communication and Diffusion, PIT-UAS), translated by Belem Ruiz (Edition and Communication, PIT-UAS).