CRASH COURSE BLAST

General info

Date 

18 Apr 2011 - 18 Apr 2011 

Location

Hanze University of Applied Scineces, Groningen

Website

http://www.hanze.nl/lstposthbo

Keywords

blast programs, scoring matrices, databases

Organiser

Hanze University of Applied Scineces, Groningen

Teacher(s)

Dr. M.A.Noback

Contact(s)

Dr. M.A.Noback

Description

This course is designed to get you beyond the simple “copy, paste & go” approach that is usually employed by life science researchers when they want to find sequences with similarity to their own sequence of interest. This course will deal with the theory and practice of BLAST in all its varieties. After attending this course you will be able to intelligently choose a blast program and search strategy that is most likely to answer your questions.

The subjects that will be dealt with are:

• All blast program varieties (blastp, blastn, blastx, tblastn, tblastx)
• Scoring matrices
• Blast statistics
• Blast databases
• Use of blast settings to increase speed, sensitivity or specificity
• Special blast(-like) applications: PSI-blast, PHI-blast, RPS-blast
• Designing (blast) search strategies for a wide range of research questions

The course will be given in both Dutch and English.