The BioData Training School 2025 — Fundamentals of Biological Data Analysis with R - will be an intensive, hands-on training aimed at students, researchers, and early-career professionals who want to start building skills in biological data analysis. The training will combine interactive lectures, guided exercises, and hands-on analysis of real-world datasets. The goal is to teach participants how to manage, visualize, and analyze biological data using the R programming language. In addition to core topics such as data cleaning, exploratory analysis, statistical modeling, and machine learning algorithms, the course will introduce key bioinformatics basics, including working with sequence data, functional annotation, and interpreting findings.
Program highlights
What You'll Learn:
Introduction to R and data manipulation: Gain a solid understanding of R programming and learn how to effectively manage, clean, and preprocess biological datasets.
Biological data visualization: Acquire skills in creating visually informative plots and charts to effectively communicate your findings.
Statistical analysis in R: Explore a range of statistical methods tailored for biological data analysis, including hypothesis testing, linear models, and multivariate analysis.
Machine Learning Techniques: Discover various machine learning algorithms such as regression, random forests, etc, and understand how to apply them to biological data.
Intro to bioinformatics: Foundations and applications, essential bioinformatics tools and databases, hands-on analysis.
Case Studies and Real-World Projects: Work on hands-on projects using actual biological datasets, gaining valuable experience in tackling real-world research problems.
The detailed program is available here.
Trainers
Bioinformatician, Quadram Institute, United Kingdom
Postdoctoral Researcher, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway
Lecturer & Researcher, University of Tirana, Albania
Senior Researcher, Institute for Research and Development (IRD), France
Lecturer and Researcher, University of Tirana, Albania
Doctoral researcher, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
Data Scientist/Computational Biologist, Albania
Senior Researcher, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal
Assistant Trainers
Junior Data Scientist, University of Tirana, Albania
Junior Data Scientist, University of Tirana, Albania
Junior Data Scientist, University of Tirana, Albania
Registration
Onsite participation in this training school is free of charge but limited to 25 participants. Selection will be based on motivation. Lectures will be streamed online via Zoom for those who can not participate onsite.
Onsite participants will receive a certificate of completion and are required to have their own laptops. A virtual environment, which can be accessed through a web browser, will be used during practical sessions.
Applications can be submitted HERE before November 5, 2025. Notification of acceptance will be sent to selected participants by November 15, 2025. Registrations for online participation will stay open until December 5, 2025.
Host & Venue
Department of Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences - University of Tirana
Address: FNS-UT. Bulv Zogu I, 25/1. Tirana, Albania
Organizers
Scientific Organizers
Eliana Ibrahimi - University of Tirana, Albania
Alise Ponsero - Quadram Institute, United Kingdom
Local training facilitators
Fundime Miri - University of Tirana
Vjola Cova - University of Tirana
Megi Dudumi - University of Tirana
Belinda Pashollari - University of Tirana
Ajola Elezi - University of Tirana
Blerta Tabaku - University of Tirana
Contact
Eliana Ibrahimi at eliana.ibrahimi@fshn.edu.al
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