Program overview

The CIBiG team is pleased to welcome applicants for its 2026 cohort.

The course provides comprehensive multidisciplinary training in genome sequencing, advancing computing, programming, data reproducibility, open science, and specialized bioinformatics.

Understanding fundamental bioinformatics concepts
Develop practical skills in sequencing genome and analysis of sequencing data.
Apply bioinformatics to adress agricultural and health challenges in West Africa.
Master Linux and (bio)informatics tools for research projects.
Collaborate on practical projects to apply acquired skills.
Communicate effectively for training and knowledge transfer.
Integrate open science and reproducibility principles.

Who is this course for?

The training is open to students, biologists, researchers, and computer engineers working in either private or public sectors.
Admission Requirements:
- At least a Master’s degree or equivalent in biological sciences, human health sciences, or animal sciences.
- Bachelor’s degree plus at least 5 years of experience for professionals working in research organizations and technical ministries.”

Language

The course will be in French, but the slides and other course material will be in English.

Program structure

40 hours of distance learning
153 hours in the WAVE center

Module	Description	Hours
Course review	Microorganism Biology Overview, Eukaryotic Cell Biology Overview, Mendelian Genetics & Population Genomics, Genome Structure & Variation, AI Learning Roadmap, Sequencing Methods and Application, Bioinformatics Roadmap: Concepts and Applications in Health & Environment -	40h
Sequencing: from library preparation to sequencing	Overview of Sequencing Technologies, RNA/DNA Extraction, Library Preparation for Illumina and ONT, Sequencing and Quality Control	30h
Biological database	Sequence Databases (e.g., NCBI/SWISS-Prot), Blast Alignment, Primer design	12h
Introduction to Algorithmics	Introduction to algorithms, data and control structures, with simplified exercises to acquire the basics, reused later in R and Python.	8h
Linux	Basic Linux Commands, Bioinformatics Tools (e.g., BLAST), Advanced Linux (e.g., sed, awk), VCF, GFF Manipulation, slurm, Containers (Singularity, Conda)	16h
OMICs data analysis	Diversity analysis / metagenomic analysis (ONT and illumina sequencing, Sequence Quality, Mapping, Structural Variant detection, SNP Annotation)	40h
Data analysis and visualization in R	Read Tabular File into DataFrame, DataFrame Manipulation, Data Visualization (Plotting), R Markdown	20h
Python programming	Variables, Display, Lists, Loops and Comparisons, Tests, Files, Modules, Functions, Containers, Dictionaries, Tuples, and Sets	20h
Science reproductibility	Best Practices (Data Management, Code, Licensing), Containers (Docker, Singularity), Conda, Git, Snakemake	10h

Practical sessions

A tutored project will begin in the second week with data identification and bioinformatics strategy definition, followed by workflow design, data analysis, and a final oral presentation.
Two-Month Internship: Following the 4-week course, each student will complete a supervised immersion internship supervised by two teaching tutors and a researcher from the host laboratory.