18 & 19 May 2022 – Bioinformatic Workshop: Application on COVID-19 is a collaboration programme between the School of Health Science and Institute for Research in Molecular Medicine (INFORMM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) intended for people who have a basic understanding of biology, but no prior familiarity with methodologies and tools that are utilised in genomic analysis. The programme began with prayer and was followed by a welcome speech by the Dean of the School of Health Sciences, Prof. Dr. Wan Rosli Wan Ishak. The chairperson, Dr. Shuhaila Mat Sharani, then gave a brief introduction about the programme.

The two-day programme was organised via the online platform Webex, with 12 committees in charge. The programme attracted 30 participants from Malaysia and abroad. Dr. Shuhaila Mat Sharani, Dr. Ezzeddin Kamil Mohamed Hashim, and Dr. Nur Waliyuddin Hanis Zainal Abidin from the School of Health Sciences, and Dr. Nik Yusnoraini Yusof from the Institute for Research in Molecular Medicine, led the programme sessions. The lecture and practical topics covered the introduction on bioinformatics, database and information resources, basic Linux command, pre-processing raw reads data, genome assembly, gene prediction, annotation, SNP, and phylogenetic tree, followed by a Quiz session at the end of the programme.

Three quiz winners were chosen. Special thanks to Codon Genomics, our generous sponsor for sponsoring the prizes for the winners. The programme ended with a photo session. As a result of the enthusiastic response from participants, the programme was deemed a great success.