From 14 to 17 July 2025, the Earlham Institute in Norwich hosted the LongTREC Bioinformatics Summer School in Long-Read Transcriptomics: four intense days of training delivered by our Doctoral Candidates. And what a week it was!
The school opened with Ana Conesa, Coordinator of LongTREC, presenting the network and its trainers, followed by a round of introductions in which participants shared their backgrounds. From then on, the Doctoral Candidates took the lead. They prepared all the training materials, planned every session and organised each day, combining lectures with hands-on practice.
Four days, one programme
- Day 1 · Foundations: Carolina Monzó (LongTREC Counselor), Satrio Wibowo, Mahmud Sami Aydin and Tianyuan Liu introduced long-read sequencing technologies, experimental design and library preparation for lrRNA-seq, mapping to reference genomes and transcriptomes, and QC metrics, followed by an afternoon hands-on session.
- Day 2 · Transcript identification: Fabian Jetzinger and Yalan Bi covered the challenges of identifying known and novel isoforms and transcriptome quality control, with hands-on practice using IsoTools and SQANTI3. Fabio Zanarello showed how long reads are integrated into the genome annotation of non-model organisms.
- Day 3 · From isoforms to function: after presentations by Fabian Jetzinger and Ana Conesa, participants explored differential isoform usage and functional analysis with tappAS. Nadja Nolte and Pablo Angulo Lara led a session on allele-specific expression (haplotype assembly, haplotype-specific quantification and ASE testing). Leda Katopodi closed the day with epitranscriptomics and the detection of RNA modifications.
- Day 4 · Single cells and communities: Eamon McAndrew and Juan Francisco Cervilla MartĂnez covered single-cell transcriptomics with long reads, and Carmen Lafuente Sanz closed the school with metatranscriptomics.
The school also made room for sustainable research. We raised awareness of the impact of travel, and our LongTREC cyclists, who rode from London to Norwich, proved the most sustainable travellers of all.
Ana Conesa presenting the carbon footprint of travel to the Summer School.
Sustainability level of participants’ travel, by country of origin.
Recognition for the two most sustainable participants, right after our LongTREC cyclists!
Thank you!
A huge thank you to the Earlham Institute for hosting us. Its excellent facilities ensured a smooth and enjoyable week and made it easy for everyone to take part. Thank you also to all participants for their enthusiasm, curiosity and eagerness to learn: your questions and discussions made every session richer.
And, of course, the networking! Coffee breaks, conversations and spontaneous brainstorming turned trainers and participants into a community. Scientific progress doesn’t happen in isolation: it is built through collaboration, shared knowledge and open dialogue.
Congratulations to our Doctoral Candidates on an outstanding training week! đź‘Ź
