FAB13

We are increasingly aware of the invisible and ubiquitous microbial component of our lives – in and on our bodies, in our environment. But, how do you actually measure that? What if you wanted to find out what bacteria are living around you? Or in you?
In this workshop we will learn the methods for identifying microbial species with DNA sequencing data, and understand what their functions are and how that can inform decisions or urban design. We will explain the file formats used for sequencing data and how to manipulate them, and gain hands-on experience on using both online and high-throughput command-line computational tools to identify bacterial species and their genes with that data, and visualize the results. MATERIALS NEEDED: Laptop with OSX/*NIX. Previous experience using the commandline helpful but not necessary.