Centre for Research Informatics Training
Managing Bioinformatics Software and Pipelines
Event details
Sessions
- 17 November 2026 — 09:30 to 17:30 — eLearning (CCRIT)
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About the course
Setting up a computer environment for bioinformatics analysis can be challenging. Most bioinformatics applications rely on multiple software packages and involve complex data processing pipelines. This course introduces the computational tools that simplify software management and enable reproducible, automated analyses.
Participants will learn how to use package managers, software containers, and workflow management systems to install, configure, and run bioinformatics pipelines. Examples are drawn from a range of applications, including RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, variant calling, and viral genomics.
The focus of the course is on using existing computational tools and community-developed workflows rather than on the details of specific bioinformatics analyses or developing new pipelines and containers.
By the end of the course, participants should be able to confidently manage software environments and execute bioinformatics workflows on both local computers and High Performance Computing (HPC) systems.
Teaching is primarily hands-on, with short presentations and demonstrations introducing the concepts and tools needed to manage and automate bioinformatics analyses.
Intended audience
This course is suitable for:
- researchers who are starting to run bioinformatics analyses independently
- participants attending training courses on specific bioinformatics applications, such as RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, and variant calling
- HPC users who want to learn how to manage software and automate and parallelise analyses using existing pipelines
Prerequisites
Participants should have:
- a working knowledge of the UNIX command line
- a basic understanding of high-throughput sequencing technologies
The following experience is recommended:
- working on High Performance Computing (HPC) systems using SLURM
- familiarity with the data processing steps for at least one omics application, such as RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, variant calling, bacterial genomics, or metagenomics
Course fees
All fees are per full training day.
| Category | Fee |
|---|---|
| Industry full charge | £130.00 |
| Academic / Government / charity concessionary | £65.00 |
| Cambridge University staff members / postdocs / visitors | £65.00 |
| Cambridge University registered students | Free |
| Cambridge University registered students non-attendance | £22.00 |
| Special events | Per event |
Payment options will be provided in booking confirmation emails sent after registration.
General information
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