The command line interface is one of the most useful and indispensable tools for those who work with large files and for those who want to use command-line programs. A “Crash course” on this subject was developed by GHTM researchers to “improve basic skills in the use of this tool”.
On the 5th of September, the crash course was presented to the GHTM community. The aim was to improve basic skills in using of the command line interface, given the interest motivated by the large amounts of data generated by recent technologies, such as the increasing production of mass sequencing data, including the nanopore sequencing device available at the Centre.
Developed by Sofia Seabra, Ana Abecasis, Patrícia Abrantes and Filipe Lopes, with the support of Bioinformatics infrastructure (DATA Tropical Resources) and WasteWaterVir GHTM internal exploratory project, this initiative was headed to teachers, researchers, students and other GHTM employees who wish to initiate or deepen skills in bioinformatics analysis using command-line programs.
In this course, 12 participants “had the opportunity to learn and practice some basic functions such as server access, file transfer, viewing, editing, and searching for patterns in file content, and using command-line programs”. Most importantly, “the course gives participants the necessary bases to interpret the manuals and tutorials of the bioinformatics programs that they need to use in their work”.
According to Sofia Seabra, one of the course teachers, “we were very pleased with the interest from the GHTM community on this course, showing the growing importance of the bioinformatic skills in different areas of research”. “The positive feedback that we received from the participants, encourage us to think about other practical courses and how we can improve the bioinformatic resources in the Centre”.
This was the first in-person course at IHMT since the COVID-19 pandemic. A second edition of this crash course will be conducted on the 26th of September and the vacancies are almost full.