July 22-26, 2024
Monday - Friday
Germantown, MD
The Bioscience Education Center
9:00am-5:00pm
1 Hour Lunch Break
This 5-Day workshop combines a unique mix of hands-on wet bench and electronic laboratory experiences together with a series of lectures spanning an introduction to the concepts of RNA sequencing and the analysis of the data generated to the applications of these approaches to understand important biological and/or biomedical processes and problems. Attendees will have had hands-on experience with RNA sample preparation and differences in sample integrity, a deep understanding of RNA library creation and optimization, upstream processing of RNA sequences, and the hands-on application of the most current programs to analyze developing mouse brain and human knockout cell lines.
![]() | Lecture and Hands-on Interactive Training |
![]() | Team taught by active researchers |
![]() | Thumbnail drive with Lectures and Workshop material |
![]() | Space limited to 24 participants |
![]() | Registration Fee: $1,095 |
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"As always, Bio-Trac not only met my expectations, but exceeded them! I will absolutely be taking more classes with BioTrac - their classes should be required for all graduates entering the field of science. Easy to understand & follow, yet the classes get to the core of the discussed principle."
Jennie Rowell PhD, RN
Assistant Professor, The Ohio State University
CRISPR 7/16
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"By nature it was short and intense, yet it proved comprehensive and satisfying. Provided valuable hands-on lab experiences as well. Highly recommend and I look forward to other course offerings."
Jeffrey Stinson
Uniformed Services University for the Health Sciences (USUHS)
iPSC: Reprogramming, Differentiation and Gene Editing with CRISPR 8/16
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"It was my first experience with professional development workshop in the USA. I liked it a lot. It was well organized, flexible and friendly. It helped to put in order my preceding knowledge and gain more."
Larisa Ryzhara, MD, PhD
Staff Scientist II, Maine Medical Center Research Institute
CRISPR 7/16
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"This is a very well organized program. Lectures always convey the most advanced knowledge and technologies. Hands-on practice is also very helpful. Highly recommend to colleagues in or out of NIH community."
Guangpu Shi, M.D.
Research Fellow, NEI/NIH
iPSC: Reprogramming, Differentiation and Gene Editing with CRISPR 8/16
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"Great investment. Took material that would have taken months to compile and perfect on my own, and packed it into 3 days."
Richard Barrett
PHD Student, University of Central Florida
CRISPR 7/16
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"Bio-Trac offers wonderful workshops that provide up-to-date, useful technological information and knowledge important for my research applications."
Thuy Phung, MD, PhD
Baylor College of Medicine
NGS 10/16
Course Director

Frank Castora, Ph.D.
Professor
Eastern Virginia Medical School
This 5-Day workshop combines a unique mix of hands-on wet bench and electronic laboratory experiences together with a series of lectures spanning an introduction to the concepts of RNA sequencing and the analysis of the data generated to the applications of these approaches to understand important biological and/or biomedical processes and problems. Attendees will have had hands-on experience with RNA sample preparation and differences in sample integrity, a deep understanding of RNA library creation and optimization, upstream processing of RNA sequences, and the hands-on application of the most current programs to analyze developing mouse brain and human knockout cell lines.
- Introduction to Sequencing and Course Overview
- Review of NGS and Illumina Technologies
- Library Prep and quantification
- RNA Library Preparation and Quantification
- Introduction to QC, Trimming, alignment, and quantification
- Introduction to Differential Expression and Splicing Tools
- Experiment Zoo: Experience across over 100 RNAseq experiments
- Introduction to variant calling, Enrichment analysis
- Spatially-resolved Transcriptomics
- Advanced Topics in RNA-Seq
- Sample Preparation and QC using the Bioanalyzer
- PC Based: Using Sequence Analysis Programs to Analyze RNA-Seq Data
- QC, Trimming, Alignment and Quantification, Differential Expression, and Splicing Tools, Variant Calling Introduction to Tools
Dr. Frank Castora is a Professor of Biochemistry in the Department of Physiological Sciences at the Eastern Virginia Medical School. Dr. Castora has been involved with teaching in or directing a variety of Bio-Trac training programs at the National Institutes of Health as well as other institutions nationally for over thirty years, including workshops in mitochondrial biogenesis and pathology, recombinant DNA technology, PCR, microarray analysis, and RNA-seq. Currently his research interests include mitochondrial DNA mutations and gene expression in AD as well as mitochondrial function in human reproduction and fertility
Guest Speakers and Laboratory Instructors
![]() | Kory Johnson, Ph.D. Dr. Kory Johnson is a bioinformatics working professional with >20 years work experience in biotech and government. Currently, Dr. Johnson works at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a Staff Scientist in the Bioinformatics Section, serving the Institute as the intramural resident bioinformatics subject matter expert and mentor; performing omics-based research, training, and support since 2006. |
James Li, Ph.D. Dr. James Li is an assistant professor in the department of Biostatics, Bioinformatics, and Biomathematics at Georgetown University. Research focuses on predictive data science, novel computing methods and a variety of their applications, such as natural language processing (NLP) & text mining, ultra-high dimensional "Omics" data analytics, data mining on wearable devices for health, privacy-preserving data mining in healthcare informatics, and big data infrastructure on bioinformatics. Besides his independent research and teaching, Dr. Li also collaborates with biomedical investigators, specifically, applying bioinformatic machine learning to analyze NGS and other high-throughput biomedical research data. |
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![]() | Somiranjan Ghosh, Ph.D. Dr. Somiranjan Ghosh is an exposure biologist in the capacity of Sr. Research associate at the Department of Biology, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health in the College of Medicine, Howard University in Washington DC, with 20+ years of research and teaching experience in academia. Current research focus is on the development of early disease biomarkers through molecular transcriptomics and by integrating the prospective pathways, to create a foundation that will advance the identification and understanding of the role of environment on human health and disease (Gene Environment Interactions, GxE). |
![]() | Brian J. Schmidt, Ph.D. For the past nine years, Dr. Schmidt has served the Technology Integration Manager and Production Team Leader for a high volume intramural sequencing center, providing contract DNA Sequencing Services, utilizing Illumina, 454, SOLiD and Ion Torrent platforms. Dr. Schmidt brings over twenty five years of Molecular Biology R&D staff scientist experience with Life Technologies, Inc., GeneChoice, Inc. and Genex Corp. |
![]() | Niraj Trivedi, Ph.D. Dr. Trivedi is a branch statistician for Columbus Technologies as a contractor for the Social Behavioral Research Branch at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Trivedi provides statistical, computational, and bioinformatic support to scientists of the institute for their data analysis needs. This includes microarray analysis, statistical analysis, and general analysis in biomedical "big data" |