The
Complex Genome
Tutors: Professor Ian Day and Dr Philip Guthrie (organisers), Dr Santiago Rodriguez, Dr Tom Gaunt, Dr Ruth Newbury-Ecob, Dr Anne Gardner and others.
Duration: Two days.
Dates: 27 - 28 May 2010.
Course fee: £360.
Course aims and objectives: The aim of this course is to cover aspects of genomic complexity other than SNPs addressing the wider structure and function of the genome relevant to genetic epidemiology.
By the end of the course participants should:
- Have a wide knowledge of the full spectrum of genetic diversity and categories of genomic variation beyond single base polymorphisms
- Have an appreciation of the relevance of such loci to genomic function, to genetic epidemiology and genetic analysis
- Have insight into the different information resources and statistical approaches to handling such regions in genetic epidemiology
Who the course is intended for: The course is designed for medical researchers who wish to advance their understanding of the genomic, molecular and functional side of genetic epidemiology. It is open to anyone but participants are strongly recommended already to have a basic knowledge of genomic and molecular genetics at least to the level of our Introduction to Human Genetics Short Course and our Genetic Association Studies course and this level is assumed in the pitch of the course content.
Course content: Topics to be covered include:segemental duplication and copy number variations, minisatellites, microsatellites, rarer sequence variants, Y chromosome, mitochondrial genome, imprinting, somatic changes in cancers and ageing, telomeres, centromeres, repetitive elements such as LINEs and SINEs, microRNA genes, all the new aspects coming from ENCODE studies, chromatin and scaffold, non-genic GWAS hits etc and their contributions to function and disease risks, mutation both in clinical genetic and other contexts, and to ancestry evaluation. Heterogeneity at molecular and statistical levels (locus heterogeneity, allelic heterogeneity, gene-gene-environment complexities) will also be considered.
Suggested pre-course reading: Human Molecular Genetics 3rd Edition. Tom Strachan, Andrew Read ISBN: 0-8153-4182-2 / ISBN-13: 978-0-8153-4182-6 - Hardback ISBN 0815341849 - Paperback . Taylor and Francis. (This could be considered an MSc level book in human genetics, which is far more than you will need before the course, but it would be a very suitable book to own in the longer term for anyone wanting to go to a full depth of genomic and genetic knowledge in conjunction with genetic epidemiological research and the level at which this course is pitched. It would also be a good text into which to dip to get an idea of the wide range of aspects to the human genome and genetic variation relevant to diseases, rare and common).
Teaching time: Two days of teaching, discussion and exercises.
For further information please contact short-course@bristol.ac.uk