Summer 2020 dates: Live-stream, online training July 23-24, 2020; 10am EDT - 5pm EDT
There are many challenges to capturing the complexity of exposures in an individual across the lifetime and their potential health effects. Traditionally, environmental health studies have focused on assessing risks related to a single exposure at a time, yet in reality we are constantly exposed to multiple exposures at the same time. To advance environmental health research and positively impact human health through recommendations and policy, we need to incorporate omics data that capture all chemical species detectable in human plasma over the life course. The exposome offers this framework and can be viewed as the environmental complement of the genome.
This two-day intensive boot camp integrates the principle concepts of exposomics and the untargeted approaches of measuring endogenous and exogenous chemical exposures on an omic scale as we step through the tools and techniques currently available to analyze the exposome. Led by a team of expert scientists in the rapidly growing field of exposomics, the boot camp will integrate seminar lectures with hands-on computer lab sessions to put concepts into practice. Emphasis will be given to leveraging existing resources from ongoing studies and initiating new investigations. The afternoon lab sessions will provide an opportunity to work hands-on with real data. Participants will learn and practice data handling, cleaning, and basic analysis of exposomics data.
By the end of the workshop, participants will be familiar with the following topics:
-Principles of exposomics
-Concept ideation and study design
-Laboratory methods and instrumentation platforms for analysis
-Data extraction and cleaning with emphasis on peaks and feature tables
-Pathway data analysis and identification databases
-Data visualization and network interpretation
-Study design advantages and pitfalls
-Emerging exposomic topics and laboratory platforms
Investigators at all career stages are welcome to attend, and we particularly encourage trainees and early-stage investigators to participate.
PREREQUISITES AND REQUIREMENTS
This training is designed to accommodate investigators with varying experience levels in R. Both beginner and advanced data manipulation during lab sessions will be available, with all material and additional resources available after the training.
-Each participant must have an introductory background in statistics
-Each participant is required to have a personal laptop with R downloaded and installed prior to the first day of the workshop as all lab sessions will be done on your personal laptop. R is available for free download and installation on Mac, PC, and Linux devices.
-The Boot Camp will use data sets in R, therefore participants must have a basic understanding of this platform prior to attending the Boot Camp.
If you have any specific questions about R and R studio in the context of The Exposome Boot Camp, please email us.