[RCAC Workshop] Genome annotation in practice: A one-day hands-on workshop on RCAC systems
📅 Date: Thursday, March 12, 2026 ⏰ Time: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM (ET) 💻 Location: TBD [in-person] 🏫 Instructors: Arun Seetharam
Please register using the link below to receive email reminders and workshop instructions; the “I’m interested” button does not provide access.
Description
This one-day, hands-on workshop introduces participants to genome annotation on RCAC HPC systems, covering both structural and functional annotation workflows. The workshop focuses on practical annotation strategies using modern tools such as BRAKER3, Helixer, Easel, and EnTAP, with an emphasis on reproducible execution on shared compute resources.
Participants will learn how to generate and evaluate gene models using transcriptomic and homology-based evidence, interpret annotation outputs, and assess annotation quality using standard metrics. The workshop emphasizes real-world considerations, common pitfalls, and troubleshooting strategies encountered in genome annotation projects.
Who should attend
- Researchers and students working with newly assembled genomes
- Bioinformaticians interested in gene prediction and annotation workflows
- Users planning to annotate genomes using RNA-seq or protein evidence
- Anyone seeking hands-on experience with annotation pipelines on RCAC
What you’ll learn
- Core concepts of structural and functional genome annotation
- How to run gene prediction workflows using BRAKER3 and Helixer on RCAC clusters
- Interpreting and refining gene model predictions
- Functional annotation using EnTAP
- Basics of annotation quality assessment and troubleshooting
Level
Intermediate. Participants should have basic familiarity with genomics concepts, command-line tools, and bioinformatics workflows.
Registration: Register here (opens 02/26/2026)