Xia Lab
September 1, 2023

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

It has been such a pleasure to serve you over the past decades. I started my bioinformatics journey about 15 years ago, and soon realized that for most data analysis tasks, many excellent methods and algorithms exist. However, properly using them requires substantial statistical knowledge and computer programming - skills that could take years to master by very few experts (elite analytics), and are uninteresting or even distracting to many in life sciences. We felt strongly that omics data analysis should be unintimidating, pleasant and inspiring to the majority who design their experiments and generate their data.

Analytics 1.0

Manual Effort
Data→Expert→Code→Result
The web and cloud technologies have played major roles to make data analytics accessible to broad audience. Leveraging these technologies, we have implemented a series of tools integrating visualization and statistics (visual analytics) to lower the barriers to omics data analysis. These tools have been used by ~1 million researchers worldwide. However, long-term sustainabilities and supporting advanced needs have become our growing concerns due to the inherent instability of funding and personnel as an academic lab.

Analytics 2.0

Cloud + Web
Data → Tool → Result
We are at the dawn of revolution on data analytics. The generative AI technologies (such as ChatGPT) allow us to chat with our data (conversational analytics). An AI chatbot, grounded on our omics data analysis framework (OmicsBot), can not only answer questions, but also help create workflows and generate reports. Data analysis can be greatly simplified (drop your data, leave a message, and pick up the live report). You can review, refine (using Live links within the report), and edit this report (including both text and figures) to develop your manuscript with OmicsBot as co-pilot.

Analytics 3.0

AI + Cloud
Data ↔ Live Report
To help sustain our tools, the community and to smoothly transition into AI-augmented, conversational analytics, we now offer a comprehensive training and support package (see below), and invite you to join us on this exciting journey. Please sign up to indicate your interest and support. The scheduled launch date is 01/01/2024.
Overview
Training Omics Data Science course
Single omics & multi-omics analysis
Online lectures + demos + hands-on practices Details
OmicsTools Pro Many enhanced features
Batch processing & larger data upload
OmicsBot support & personalized live report Details
Enterprise Solution Self-hosted solution
Dedicated training & support
Private database & custom workflows Details
Training: Omics Data Science course
  • Course objectives: underlying the diverse "-omics" technologies, there is a stable core of omics data analysis. After taking the course, you will
    1. Develop a good knowledge of the core concepts and approaches in omics data analysis;
    2. Understand the subtleties or uniqueness of common omics data analysis workflows;
    3. Perform effective omics data analysis using
      • user-friendly Omics Tools (community or pro) through web interface
      • intelligent (and fun) OmicsBot through conversation!
      • the underlying R packages (only if you are familiar with R and want to get hands dirty)
  • Target audience: senior undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, PIs, researchers and clinicians who are interested in omics data analysis
  • Date: January - March, 2024
  • Delivery
    • Format: online (Zoom) and in English
    • Live: every Saturday morning 9:00 - 11:30 AM (New York / Montreal Time)*.
    *The live session will be based on the main time zone of the attendees. All slides and recordings including lectures, lab demos, as well as short videos will be available.
  • Support: OmicsForum, OmicsBot, Email
  • Course outline: see below (click a title to see more, details will be added soon)
OmicsTools Pro

The Pro versions address the key needs that are difficult to meet by the Community versions due to limited resources. Main differences are listed below:

Key FeaturesCommunity VersionPro VersionNotes
Batch processing--✓
Workflow creation--✓
Project management--✓
Resumable analysis--✓
Enhanced graphics--✓
Default data filteringAlways onOptional
Troubleshooting supportCommunity-basedWithin 48 hours
New feature requestCommunityPrioritized
Databases optionsCommunity / publicMore optionsBased on user requests and costs of commercial databases
OmicsBot support--✓Continuously updated using public documents, slides, transcripts, forum Q/As, and manual tuning
Large file uploadDefault2 X default + manual supportPro users come with manual upload support (max 3 times or 300 samples)
Analysis report+/- (static)+++++ (live)A live document (within 1-yr), supporting interaction, updating, and creating publication figures
Enterprise Solution
We are aware of the important needs from companies or large research groups with large data generation or privacy concerns. They are best addressed using on premise or private cloud solution. We provide support for local installation of Pro versions of our OmicsTools. It is also possible to implement custom workflows or use private / commercial databases. Please contact us.
Pre-registration Form

* Prices are estimated yearly fee in US dollar. They may be subjected to change based on the cost estimation after the first year. Lower prices are available for students or people from developing countries. Please indicate this in the Background section below.

I would like to request a discount (please provide details above)
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Last updated: 12-01-2023