C11 Advanced ⏱ 3 Weeks 🎯 15 hours 📡 6 live sessions
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Microbiome Research

Explore the invisible world hiding in every sample.

The microbiome is one of the fastest-growing fields in biology. This course gives you hands-on proficiency with QIIME2 and Metaphlan4 — the tools used in landmark gut microbiome, soil ecology, and infectious disease studies worldwide.

3 WeeksDuration
15hContact Hours
6Live Sessions
3Topic Blocks
9Tools Covered

What you will learn

Every session is hands-on. Every topic comes with practical exercises using real biological datasets.

Week 1

Microbiome Biology & Sequencing Methods

  • Microbiome applications: IBD, obesity, cancer, soil health, aquatic ecology
  • 16S rRNA: hypervariable regions (V3-V4), primer selection, amplicon sequencing
  • Shotgun metagenomics: taxonomic + functional profiling at species resolution
  • QIIME2 architecture: artifacts, visualisations, plugins, provenance tracking
Week 2

QIIME2 16S rRNA Pipeline

  • DADA2 denoising: ASVs vs OTUs — why ASVs are now the standard
  • SILVA 138 / Greengenes2 naive Bayes taxonomic classification
  • Alpha diversity: Shannon, Faith's PD, observed features, rarefaction curves
  • Beta diversity: Bray-Curtis, weighted UniFrac, PCoA, PERMANOVA testing
Week 3

Shotgun Metagenomics & Functional Profiling

  • KRAKEN2 + Bracken: k-mer classification with species-level abundance
  • Metaphlan4: marker-gene profiling, strain tracking, merged profiles
  • HUMAnN3: UniRef90 gene families, MetaCyc pathway abundance
  • Differential abundance: ANCOM-BC and ALDEx2 for compositional data

What you will be able to do

Concrete, measurable skills you will take away and use immediately in your research or career.

QIIME2DADA2Metaphlan4KRAKEN2HUMAnN3BrackenphyloseqMicrobiomeAnalystANCOM-BC

Everything included

One payment — full access to all course materials, live sessions, and community.

What's included

  • 6 live sessions
  • 15 hours content
  • QIIME2 manifest files
  • Metaphlan4 pipeline scripts
  • Course certificate
  • Community access
  • Lifetime recordings

Who this course is for

Microbiologists · Ecologists · Gastroenterologists · Public health researchers · Environmental scientists

Prerequisites

C05 and C06 are essential. R experience required for phyloseq.

Your instructor

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Dr. Ashraf Akintola

PhD Biomedical Convergence Science and Technology | Bioinformatics Researcher & Educator

With close to a decade of research experience in genomics and computational biology, Dr. Noble has trained researchers across 40+ countries. His hands-on teaching philosophy has made noblekinbio one of Africa's leading bioinformatics education platforms.

Trusted by researchers worldwide

Students from 40+ countries have transformed their careers with noblekinbio courses.

"This program changed how I do research. I went from copy-pasting BLAST results to writing my own pipelines. The hands-on approach is unlike any other bioinformatics course I have taken."

CO

Chioma Okonkwo

PhD Student, University of Lagos

"Dr. Noble explains complex algorithms in a way that finally clicks. I completed C04 and C05 and immediately applied them to our malaria genomics project."

EA

Emmanuel Asante

Bioinformatics Analyst, Ghana Health Service

"I was sceptical about an online course being truly hands-on. I was wrong. Every session I was actually running code, not just watching. The Snakemake module alone was worth it."

FA

Fatima Al-Rashidi

Molecular Biology Researcher, Jordan

"C10 gave me the drug discovery computational skills I needed to transition from wet lab to computational research. I have already applied QSAR modelling in my current role."

OA

Oluwaseun Adeyemi

Pharmaceutical Scientist, Nigeria

Common questions

How does this work with Selar? +
After clicking "Enrol Now", you will be taken to our Selar checkout page. Pay securely with card, bank transfer, or Flutterwave. Once payment is confirmed, you immediately receive access to the course content and are added to our private student community.
Do I need to attend live sessions? +
Live sessions are strongly recommended for Q&A and community, but all sessions are recorded and available in your Selar account within 24 hours. You have lifetime access to all recordings.
What if the course is not right for me? +
We offer a 7-day refund policy. If you have attended fewer than 2 sessions and completed fewer than 20% of the course, contact us at support@noblekinbio.com for a full refund.
Can I take courses in any order? +
Some courses have prerequisites (shown above). We recommend following the program sequence, but motivated students can discuss exceptions with the instructor via the community.
Is there a group discount? +
Yes — teams of 3+ receive 20% off. Contact us at enrol@noblekinbio.com with your team details.
Will I receive a certificate? +
Yes. Upon completing all assessments, you receive a digital certificate from noblekinbio.com. Completing all 13 courses earns the full Bioinformatics Certificate Program credential.
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Ready to start C11?

Explore the invisible world hiding in every sample. Enrol today and get instant access to all course materials.

₦25,000 | $30 USD
Enrol on Selar

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