In January 2021, we ran a bioinformatics workshop for 20 Australian Science Extension students for the SciX program at the University of New South Wales, Sydney.

The research project tasked the students with comparing RNA-seq data from neurodegenerative disease patients against healthy controls. First, we guided the students through a standard bioinformatics pipeline, then encouraged the students to explore their results in great detail. This analysis was performed entirely on the Galaxy TIaaS queue using generous dedicated server space and computational resources. We found that TIaaS performed incredibly efficiently despite six total RNA-seq samples analysed simultaneously per student.

Additionally, the ability to monitor the progress of each job was a welcome feature as this allowed us to check in with the students throughout the workshop. I would highly recommend trying the TIaaS for your next bioinformatics workshop.