The school is one of the network-wide events of the MSCA-RISE Project PANGAIA (Pan-genome Graph Algorithms and Data Integration) that is a European effort for guiding the transition from linear genomes to graph-based representations. Classically, Genomes are strings over the letters A,C,G,T, which represent nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA. In view of ultra-large amounts of genome sequence data emerging from ever more and technologically rapidly advancing genome sequencing devices—in the meantime, amounts of sequencing data accrued are reaching into the exabyte scale—the driving, urgent question is: how can we arrange and analyze these data masses in a formally rigorous, computationally efficient and biomedically rewarding manner?
After the success of the Introduction to Pan-Genomics school, this school will instead focus on evolutionary aspects of pangenomics. There are two aspects that will be discussed:
- How tumor, virus, and bacteria populations evolve during time, analyzing the computational aspects of different models of evolution.
- How to analyze a pangenome to identify genetic variants associated with human diseases, distinguishing them from the plethora of neutral variants that arise from “healthy” evolution.
In both cases, we will focus on graph-based frameworks, since one of the main allures of computational pangenomics is to get rid of linear reference genomes and the bias it introduces. In fact, we remind that one of the main goals of the PANGAIA project is to put this shift of paradigm — from sequence- to graph-based representations of genomes — into full effect.
Application
The number of participants is limited to 25. All interested students will have to apply and the school directors will select the participants. ALPACA students and affiliated will have priority.
Key dates
- Application deadline: July 15
- Registration deadline: July 27
- School dates: September 8-12, 2024
Sponsors
School Directors
- Paola Bonizzoni (Univ. Milano-Bicocca, Italy)
- Gianluca Della Vedova (Univ. Milano-Bicocca, Italy)
- Alexander Schönhuth (Univ. Bielefeld, Germany)
Organizers
- Paola Bonizzoni
- Simone Ciccolella
- Gianluca Della Vedova
- Luca Denti