Previous NCBI Courses

Course materials were last updated March 2008.

Courses for Researchers

NCBI Field Guide

A Field Guide to GenBank and NCBI Resources provided information for researchers, educators and students as a useful introduction and survey of the available NCBI tools and databases. Even experienced NCBI users found this course to be useful.

Download: Slides, Problem Sets, Handout, Web Presentation (zip format)

Field Guide Plus

The Enhanced Field Guide was an expanded, two-day version of the Field Guide that provided more detailed coverage of NCBI molecular databases and tools. The focus was on effective use of Entrez and sequence similarity searching with BLAST. The BLAST portion covered Web, stand-alone, and client versions. Special emphasis was given to genomic information and molecular structures.

Download: Course Materials

Mini-courses

NCBI also provided focused bioinformatics mini-courses for researchers, teachers, and college students. NCBI mini-courses consisted of problem-based courses such as "Identification of Disease Genes" or NCBI resource-based courses such as "BLAST Quick Start". The courses were 2.5 hours in length with the first hour and a half devoted to an overview that was followed by a one hour hands-on session.

View: Course materials

Courses for Librarians
Introduction to Molecular Biology and Information Resources
Librarians interested in learning an overview of search systems available at NCBI were able to attend the three-day Introduction to Molecular Biology and Information Resources course. This course reviewed many NCBI services and search systems by combining lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on experience.
View: Modules
Advanced Workshop for Bioinformatics Information Specialists
The NCBI Advanced Workshop for Bioinformatics Information Specialists course was a five-day course offered for those providing bioinformatics support to their institutions, especially those in medical libraries. The course provided an overview of a wide range of molecular biology resources about which support staff may receive questions. Divided into ten modules, the course provided lecture, demonstration, and hands-on experience with actual user questions.
View: Modules

Specialized Courses

Exploring 3D Molecular Structures

This course focused on effectively using the NCBI databases, search services, and analysis tools that utilize 3D macromolecular structure data. Course formats were offered for either one or two days consisting of lecture and hands-on workshops.

Download: Lecture Slides, Course Handout, Structure Exercises, Alignment Exercises

From Alignments to Structural Models

This course was a continuation of the Exploring 3D Molecular Structure course where participants learned to build and optimize structure-based multiple sequence alignments with Cn3D. Following that, the alignments were used to generate 3D structural models in UCSF Chimera.

Download: Lecture Slides, Course Handout, Alignment Exercises, Modeling Exercises, Modeling Guide

NCBI PowerScripting

This was a four-day course on effectively using NCBI Entrez Programming Utilities (E-utilities) within scripts to automate search and retrieval operations across the suite of Entrez databases.

Download: Handouts, Slides, Scripts

NCBI QuickScripts

NCBI QuickScripts was a computer workshop on effectively using the NCBI Programming Utilities (E-utilities) within scripts to automate search and retrieval operations across the entire suite of Entrez databases. It was a one-day condensed version of the PowerScripting course.

Download: Slides, Scripts and Handouts, Session I Exercises, Session II Exercises.

Principles of PubChem

Principles of PubChem taught users to effectively use the NCBI PubChem system: a collection of databases, search services, and analysis tools that focus on small chemicals and their biological activities.

Download: Lecture Slides, Course Handout, Essentials Exercises, PowerTools Exercises, PubChem Factsheet

Revised: January 8, 2009.