Making sense of gene and proteins lists with functional enrichment analysis

2 Overview

2.1 Functional Analysis of -Omics Data

2.1.1 General Information

The workshop covers the bioinformatics concepts and tools for interpreting a gene list using Gene Ontology and pathway information. The workshop focuses on the principles and concepts required for analysing and conducting functional and pathway analyses on a gene list from any organism, although the focus will be on human and model eukaryotic organisms.

2.1.2 Course Objectives

Participants will gain practical experience and skills to be able to:

  • Understand basic concepts of functional enrichment analysis;
  • Interpret enrichment analysis results;
  • Gain systems perspective of gene functions;
  • Obtain more information about a gene list;
  • Discover which pathways are enriched in a gene list (and use this information for hypothesis generation);
  • Predict gene function and extend a gene list;
  • Follow the workflow after the workshop to conduct their own analyses.

2.1.3 Target Audience

This workshop is intended for biologists working with ‘-Omics data’ (e.g., RNA-seq, protein expression), who are interested in interpreting large gene/protein lists resulting from their experiments.

2.1.4 Setup Requirements

The workshop will be held in person. Participants are encouraged to bring a laptop; however, no software installation is necessary.

Workshop materials and relevant links can be found on the Resources page.

BYO coffee :)

2.1.5 Schedule - Day 1

Instructor Activity Time (mins) Start End
LP Welcome and housekeeping 10 09:00 AM 09:10 AM
HK Introduction to functional enrichment analysis 45 09:10 AM 09:55 AM
HK Interactive Calculator 15 09:55 AM 10:10 AM
Morning break 10 10:10 AM 10:20 AM
HK g:Profiler (web) + gprofiler2 60 10:20 AM 11:20 AM
SA GSEA (web) + fgsea 60 11:20 AM 12:20 PM
Lunch break 40 12:20 PM 01:00 PM
PH STRING (web) + STRINGdb 50 01:00 PM 01:50 PM
SA Reactome (web) + ReactomePA 60 01:50 PM 02:50 PM
Wrap-up / Q&A / preview Day 2 10 02:50 PM 03:00 PM

2.1.6 Schedule - Day 2

Instructor Activity Time (mins) Start End
Recap of Day 1 & Day 2 overview 10 09:00 AM 09:10 AM
GI clusterProfiler and enrichplot 65 09:10 AM 10:15 AM
Morning break 15 10:15 AM 10:30 AM
HK Novel species FEA 80 10:30 AM 11:50 AM
Wrap-up: Uncertainties, Reporting & Resources (self-paced) + Q&A 10 11:50 AM 12:00 PM

2.1.7 Abbreviations

  • LP: Laura Perlaza-Jiménez
  • HK: Hossein Valipour Kahrood
  • GI: Giulia Iacono
  • SA: Stuart Archer
  • PH: Paul Harrison