HSL Bioinformatics Series - BLAST (Workshop 1 of 3)

Instructor: Diane C. Rein, PhD, MLS BLAST, the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at NIH, has become the major bioinformatics search tool to locate similar sequences to DNA or protein sequences. Proper analysis of BLAST results simultaneously provides insights into gene/protein structure and functions for unknown sequences while aiding in defining future experiments. A combination handout/workbook will be given to workshop participants that will cover the workshop material.

Following this workshop you will be able to:

• Search with BLAST.
• Decipher and analyze search results, including E values.
• Understand BLAST algorithmic interface options.
• Know the strengths and limitations of BLAST.
• Know how to choose between:
• Basic BLAST options (blastp, blastn, tblastn, blastx, etc.).
• Genomic BLAST.
• Specialized BLAST options (microarray, immunoglobulin, high-throughput sequencing, etc.).
• Use BLAST to align and compare sequences of your choice.
• Run mutation BLAST with either protein or nucleotide sequences.
• Edit, limit, and re-format both BLAST searches and results.
• Link-out from BLAST results to other related NCBI information for a given sequence.
• Manage BLAST search results.