“The Training school was a great experience and the people involved had very interesting research topics, both the instructors and the participants. The hands-on sessions and lectures were very informative on how to use bioinformatics in the study of the gut microbiota. I also enjoyed the parts that were specific to Blastocystis, as they offered a detailed overview on these protozoa.” – Brigita Venardou
“I would like to thank the entire organizing committee (Mark van der Giezen, Rune Stensvold, Javier Del Campo) and COST for the opportunity they gave us at the Blastocystis and Gut Microbiome – bioinformatics training school held in Barcelona.” – Mehmet Aykur
What was your biggest takeaway?
- to receive scripts and train with them
- meet new people with the same interest
- Reproducibility and standardization of bioinformatics pipelines
- I became familiarized with the bioinformatics aspect of Blastocystis research which was a novel field for me and I am very confident that this knowledge will be very instrumental in my future research.
- The major influence of the microbiome on various physiological factors in both animals and humans
- How to analyse some stuff, Graham Clark’s presentation. Rune’s and Mark’s enthusiasm for Blasto research!
- I liked the hands-on training for bioinformatics and also the concept that goes behind
- The field of “Blastocystis” is relatively immature. There are lots of things can be done. (For example, a meta-analysis)
- The better understanding of Blastocystis and its role in health and disease.