Program

Automated Annotation, AI tools, and Manual Curation “Embrace AI, but don’t mess with Grandma!”  : Ramy K. Aziz, Professor of Microbiology & Immunology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University and Head of MARC Biolabs, Egypt 
 

For over a decade, The Evergreen Phage Meeting has been offering workshops on phage genomics, metagenomics, and other pertinent topics.  

 Every meeting featured one or more workshops displaying different tools and methods for phage genome annotation and analysis. A famous quote by Andrew Kropinski during these workshops is, “Don’t assign a function unless you can convince your grandma with clear evidence!” While the grandma rule has recently been a subject of debate, it has always been a unique element in phage meetings.  

Does it still hold at the time of AI?  

 This workshop covers phage genome annotation, from sequence reads to publication-quality figures, and features newly developed AI-based tools by various groups. The workshop uses the BV-BRC platform as a starter, but walks you through how to implement other tools, and—more importantly—how to validate and reconcile various annotations. Emphasis is placed on specialty gene detection (e.g., virulence, antimicrobial resistance, lysis, and lysogeny). Even with AI getting smarter, visual inspection and “manual curation” remain crucial. Come and see for yourselves!  

The workshop is suitable for beginner and intermediate users. No programming or command-line knowledge is necessary. 

Overview of Phage Purification Techniques: Tobi Nagel, Founder and President, Phages for Global Health 

This workshop will include experts discussing their experiences using different technologies to purify phages for therapeutic use, such as tangential flow filtration, chromatography, and dialysis. 

Viromics workshop: Evelien Adriaenssens, Group Leader, Quadram Institute of Bioscience, Norwich, Great Britain 

This workshop is for participants who want to learn the principles of viromics (viral metagenomics) bioinformatics analyses, particularly focused on the bacteriophage complement of the microbiome. The workshop will consist of a mixture of lecture and hands-on analyses. Hands-on analyses will be performed using a command-line interface and free software on a publicly available dataset. Experience in operating a command-line environment is ideal but the workshop will be open to interested participants from all backgrounds and levels of expertise. 

Evening: Informal meetup in downtown Knoxville, TBD