16.04.2025
Focus on tuberculosis: Interdisciplinary workshop at the FZB with participants from all over Europe
From 31.3-12.4.2025 the 14-day course “Interdisciplinary training in genomic epidemiology and public health bioinformatics (5th Edition TB)” took place at the Research Center Borstel, Leibniz Lung Center.
10 teams of bioinformaticians, microbiologists and epidemiologists with a total of 30 participants from various European countries came to Borstel to take part in this interdisciplinary workshop focusing on tuberculosis.
The interdisciplinary program, which has been funded by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) for the past three years, combines lectures and practical experience in order to enhance surveillance, preparedness and the ability to respond to outbreaks.
Six teaching institutes are participating in this program: The Institut Pasteur (France), the Technical University of Denmark (Denmark), the Statens Serum Institute (Denmark), the Karolinska University Hospital and Institutet (Sweden), the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (Finland) and the Research Center Borstel, Leibniz Lung Center (Germany).
The training program is aimed at professionals from various fields and fields of study related to public health microbiology who wish to deepen their understanding and skills in public health bioinformatics and genomic epidemiology.
During the course at the FZB, the participants listened to lectures on the theory of next generation sequencing, epidemiology, and “Integrated Genomic Surveillance” of tuberculosis in Germany, among others. They learned various methods to determine and recognize transmissions and outbreaks as well as resistance profiles from genomic data. This knowledge was applied in case studies.
The course, which was supervised on site by Dr. Christian Utpatel, Dr. Viola Dreyer and Ivan Barilar from the “Molecular & Experimental Mycobacteriology” research group, was a complete success and was very well received by the participants. The varied program and the excellent communication of the content were particularly praised.
