Molecular-Biology-Bioinformatics-and-Biostatistics-Unit-Internship-MBBU-Internship-

A description of what I hope to achieve during and after my MBBU Internship Program

Hello, and Welcome:

My name is Bryan Abuchery, an intern at the Molecular Biology Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Unit hosted at ICIPE. I graduated from Moi University with a degree in Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. My training at school and subsequent student attachement and internship at KEMRI laboratories and BSL at USAMRU-K in Kisumu respectively convinced me that there was more to Microbiology. This opened up the Molecular Biology world for me and I became engrossed ever since. Not long after, I discovered yet an interesting field of Bioinformatics and became very enthused. I feel that my path building on up to this point has led me to ICIPE, a hub that trains and mentors aspiring Molecular Biologists and Bioinformaticians.

Vision:

It is my vision that at the end of my training/internship at ICIPE, I shall have acquired new skills and knowledge that will continue to season me into the Bioinformatician that I want to be. I want to be able to contribute academically into the science and research communities in so far as Bioinformatics is concerned. I have a lot to learn from my trainers, mentors and other collaborators who I know have a lot to teach and offer other assistance in so far as guidance is concerned. Therefore, I have developed the following goals to help guide myself into achieving my 3-month-internship expectations;

Goals:

a) Go through the contents of the provided Bioinformatics Internship Curriculum as outlined here; https://github.com/mbbu/Bioinformatics_Internship_2020 This involves strictly adhering to the following guideline:

Introduction to Collaborative tools (1 day)

• Git and GitHub

• Slack for communications

• Introduction to genomics (3 days)

• Project organisation

• Introduction to Linux

• The unix shell

• Introduction to HPC and cloud computing

Open Science (1-day workshop)

• Reproducible genomic data analysis

• Genomics Data Management Plan

Introduction to Bioinformatics (for this part, use the H3ABioNet programs) —One Week Self-paced Quick Introduction to these concepts.

• Introduction to Biological Databases

• Introduction to sequence alignment

• Introduction to genomics

• Introduction to Phylogenetics

Complete a Mini-project.

b) Create and assign a to-do list that contnually adds tasks and checklist for the contents of the Internship curriculum.

c) Network with my colleagues, trainers and mentors for future Bioinformatics collaborations, research contributions and opportunities.

d) Use knowledge and skills acquired throughout the internship propel me into pursuing further Bioinformatics post graduate studies.

Shortterm goals from the Bioinformatics Internship

*Understand the use of programming languages used in Bioinformatics.

*Learn and understand how to use biostatistics as an analysis tool.

Longterm goals from the Bioinformatics Internship

*Define a career path in Bioinformatics according to the ISCB Curriculum

*Advance further studies in Bioinformatics, starting with an MSC in the same path.