Course - The Genomics of Transposable Elements

This one week workshop is part of a series of winter schools organized by PSL and its Qlife program in quantitative biology and taught at the Ecole normale supérieure.

Description

Genomics has revealed beyond any doubt that transposable element (TE) activity has significantly shaped the structure and function of extant genomes, ranging from bacteria to humans. Indeed, TE sequences are the main constituent of genomic DNA in many eukaryotic species and they have been co-opted at the macroevolutionary timescale to provide new protein functions as well as sequence motifs involved in the rewiring of gene regulatory networks. Ongoing TE mobilization is also an important generator of genetic diversity, with broad implications for health, disease and adaptation. Moreover, thanks to the epigenetic mechanisms that target them, TE sequences can influence the expression of genes in their vicinity in ways that are distinct from the effects of SNPs and other small size sequence polymorphisms. However, because TE sequences are typically present in large number of copies, which complicate their analysis, we still lack a comprehensive understanding and quantitative assessment of their multiple possible impacts in extant genomes.

The course will assemble world-leading experts from diverse fields to present recent advances in genomics and computational science that make it now possible to study at scale TE sequences and their varied effects. It will constitute a venue for cross-disciplinary discussions, with the goal of catalysing collaborations and of offering a novel conceptual basis for addressing questions on the contribution of TE sequences to organismal biology, disease, adaptation and evolution.

The computational workshops will illustrate how robust and quantitative methods based on recently developed computational toolkits can be implemented to unmask and interrogate TE sequences in genomes.

Common lunches and dinners with the speakers and instructors will foster informal discussions.

Application (deadline December 4th, 2022)

The winter school is limited to 24 participants. It is open to Master 2 and PhD students, as well as postdocs, engineers and junior scientists with backgrounds in life science, chemistry, physics, computer science or mathematics.

Registration fees: 150 € for academic participants. It covers food and lodging. Some travel grants will be available.

Basic experience in data handling under Unix/Linux and in Python or R programming is required.

1) Register through the following link: https://forms.office.com/r/fBVAMyLV52
2) and provide a CV, a 1 page motivation letter (including justification for travel grant if requested) and a supporting letter from a supervisor with “Qlife TE Genomics WS 2023_LASTNAME” as subject header to qlife.events@psl.eu

Additional information is available at: https://www.enseignement.biologie.ens.fr/spip.php?article261