Dr Alicia Oshlack

Murdoch Childrens Research Institute

Alicia completed a PhD in Astrophysics at the University of Melbourne in 2003. Later that year she joined the Bioinformatics Division at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. She is now Head of Bioinformatics at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and an NHMRC Career Development Fellow. Her research interests include analysis methodology for genome wide expression profiling using RNA seq and microarrays, ChIP seq and epigenetic analysis and DNA mutation detection using next generation sequencing. She also has numerous collaborations that use genome wide techniques to understand mechanisms and treatments of disease.

RNA-seq reads to differential expression results

High-throughput sequencing of the transcriptome leads to the production of millions of short reads which need to be analysed in order to make biological inference. RNA-seq data are complex and the analysis involves a series of steps for which research is ongoing. However the choice of analysis methodology can have a major impact on the findings of an experiment. In this talk I will outline the major steps involved in analysing an RNA-seq dataset for the purpose of detecting differential expression. I will discuss and compare the available strategies for each stage of the pipeline. I will also point out several areas in RNA-seq data analysis which require further research in order for the full potential of the technology to be Realised.