Multi-omics Boot Camp: Analysis of Omics Data for Research Studies

May 28-30, 2025 | Livestream, virtual training

Registration is open! Join us for the next Multi-omics Boot Camp on May 28-30, 2025.

The Multi-omics Boot Camp is a three-day intensive boot camp of seminars and hands-on sessions to provide an overview of concepts and methods used to analyze multiple omics data in observational studies. Specific topics will include integrating germline genetic, gene expression, and exposomic data, gene-environment interaction, mediation, and polygenetic risk scores for assessing risk, estimating subgroups, and selecting relevant features.

Subscribe for updates(link is external and opens in a new window) on scholarship dates, deadlines, and announcements.

Boot Camp Overview

Summer 2025 dates: Livestream, online training May 28-30, 2025; 12pm - ~6:15pm EDT

Many observational studies are now leveraging modern technologies to measure multiple types of omic data. Omic tools can assist in better characterizing risk factors (e.g. germline genetics, exposomics), providing measurements for intermediate variables that may capture the underlying mechanism (e.g. transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and the microbiome), or defining an outcome of interest. In this context, the investigator is often confronted with an analytic decision on a continuum between simplicity and complexity. Simple approaches often treat sets of variables in a pairwise independent manner, sacrificing joint evaluation for benefits in interpretability. At the other extreme, complex methods may more-completely model the joint omics structure, but can sacrifice interpretability. This workshop will cover several different approaches to the analysis of multiple omic data, with a focus on the tradeoffs between simple and complex approaches.

This three-day intensive workshop will provide an overview of multiple approaches to analyze multiple omic data types measured on the same individuals or via the use of summary statistic data. Instructors have experience in developing and applying methods for omic analysis in genetic and environmental epidemiology and are members of an active program project focused on developing statistical methods for integrated analysis. The workshop will include seminar lectures with hands-on computer lab sessions to put concepts into practice. Since the analysis of multi-omic data is broad in scope, the workshop will survey a range of approaches and highlight the appropriate application and interpretation of each approach for specific research questions. The lab sessions will provide an opportunity to work hands-on with different types of omic data.

By the end of the workshop, participants will be familiar with the following topics:

Data reduction, including clustering.
Regression analysis, including regularized regression, hierarchical models, and partial least squares.
Interaction analysis and Genome-wide interaction scans (GWIS).
Mediation analysis.
Polygenic/polyexposure analysis.
Integrative analysis using genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary statistics.

Audience and Requirements

Investigators from any institution and from all career stages are welcome to attend, and we particularly encourage trainees and early-stage investigators to participate. There are three requirements to attend this training:

Each participant must have an introductory background in statistics and epidemiology.
Each participant must be familiar with R.
Each participant is required to have a personal laptop/computer and a free, basic RStudio Cloud account. All lab sessions will be done using RStudio Cloud.

R Tutorials

Knowing basic R platform and commands is required for the Boot Camp as noted in the requirements above. If you are new to R or need a refresher, you can review the below tutorials to be well prepared:

R Programming Tutorial - Learn the Basics(link is external and opens in a new window): A free datalab.cc class on R fundamentals
Once you create your free, basic RStudio Cloud account for the training: Primers on Programming Basics and Visualization Basics(link is external and opens in a new window).
SHARP Program RStudio Cloud Tutorial(link is external and opens in a new window): This self-paced tutorial from the Columbia SHARP Program walks through the Cloud Platform you will use at the training, as well as some basic exercises. We recommend this tutorial if you have not used the Cloud version of RStudio before, or if you are a beginner user of R.

If you have any specific questions about R and R studio in the context of the Multi-omics Boot Camp, please email the Multi-omics Team(link sends e-mail).

Instructors

Training Director: David Conti(link is external and opens in a new window), PhD, Professor of Preventive Medicine, Center for Genetic Epidemiology, Keck School of Medicine of USC.

William Gauderman(link is external and opens in a new window), PhD, Professor of Preventive Medicine, Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Jesse Goodrich(link is external and opens in a new window), PhD, Assistant Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Juan Pablo Lewinger(link is external and opens in a new window), PhD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Nicholas Mancuso(link is external and opens in a new window), PhD, Assistant Professor of Preventive Medicine, Center for Genetic Epidemiology, Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Kimberly Siegmund(link is external and opens in a new window), PhD, Professor of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Scholarships

Training scholarships are available for the Multi-omics Boot Camp.

Locations

Summer 2025: The Multi-omics Boot Camp is a livestream, remote training that takes place over live, online video. With the instructors on the west coast, the Boot Camp will take place on May 28-30, 2025 from 12pm - ~6:15pm EDT (9am - ~3:15pm PDT). Please note this training is not a self-paced, pre-recorded online training.

Testimonials

"The SHARP Multi-omics Boot Camp is very well designed and executed by a group of expert statisticians, covering techniques relevant to genetic epidemiology and using the 'exposome' to introduce different data modalities and dimensionalities to the analysis. Use of posit cloud to organize course documents, datasets and code made participating in labs and annotating code during lectures straightforward and accessible." - Research Associate at University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2024

"The Multi-omics Boot Camp is an intensive, hands-on training program designed to equip participants with comprehensive skills in integrating multiple omics data types from human subject research, including genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and exposomes, using advanced statistical analyses." - Faculty Member at University of Kentucky, 2024

"This was a phenomenal experience as it gave us an hands-on experience of integrating diverse omics data in observational studies and learning how to incorporate interactions/mediations of the exposure and outcomes across and within different modalities." - Faculty Member at University of Minnesota, 2024

"Multi-omics Boot Camp was very helpful for me to imagine what I could accomplish with my data and what data would be needed to answer my questions. I plan to directly implement learned knowledge in my next R01 grant proposal." - Faculty Member at Columbia University, 2024

Additional Testimonials

"It was a fantastic, very well organized and comprehensive bootcamp! The instructors were highly knowledgeable and very responsive to answering all questions. The information and methods covered were state-of-the-art in the field. I would highly recommend it to anyone working with high-dimensional data." - Faculty member at Harvard, 2023

"Multi-omics Boot Camp helps me to understand the integration of omics data in a comprehensive manner. Overall course was neatly organised and very recommended for those that interested/working with multi-omics data." - Postdoc at RadBoud University, 2023

"Excellent workshop that provided a fantastic introduction to multi-omic methods. This helped me better understand foundational concepts in multi-omics analyses that I will definitely use in my own future research."-Faculty member at University of Southern California, 2023

"The information provided was on point and I will definitely be using the concepts in my own research! The instructors and TAs were great and everyone was willing to answer questions and provide more detail." - Staff member at Medical College of Wisconsin, 2022

"The information was organized logically and presented in a clear and concise way. I appreciated the hands-on opportunity with the lab. The faculty were engaging and knowledgeable." - Faculty member at Washington University in Saint Louis, 2022

"Great overview on current literature for multi-omics analyses with amazing instructors and experts in the field." - Postdoc at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 2022

"The boot camp provided a succinct, yet comprehensive, overview of the methods/approaches used in multi-omics research and how to apply them. The instructors were excellent; they taught the information clearly, provided great lecture notes, and efficiently demonstrated how to apply the various R code used in multi-omics research during the lab sessions." - Student at Columbia University, 2022

"It was just the right balance of lecture and labs. Overall very helpful!" - Staff member at Duke University Health System, 2022

"This camp improved my knowledge and abilities to employ cutting-edge statistical principles and modelings to explore the high dimensional omics data and address the scientific hypothesis." - Faculty member at Eastern Virginia Medical School, 2021

"Extremely useful course with a great balance of theoretical concepts and hands-on application using R code. Covered state-of-the-art techniques with experienced and knowledgeable instructors." - Faculty member at Brigham and Women's Hospital, 2021

"This bootcamp was fantastic! The instructors did a great job of clearly explaining complex topics and I feel like I left with the practical skills to be able to apply them to my own research." - Postdoc at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

"Well prepared and organized. All teachers very helpful and patient." - Beata M., Postdoc at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 2021

"A great methods-driven overview of multi-omics, with applications to multiple research areas in observational research. I found the examples and overview of programming to be a great pairing, as it makes the tools learned immediately applicable."- Student at University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, 2021

Registration Fees

	Early-Bird Rate (through 4/15/25)	Regular Rate (4/16/25 - 5/21/25)	Columbia Discount*
Student/Postdoc/Trainee	$1,195	$1,395	10%
Faculty/Academic Staff/Non-Profit Organizations/Government Agencies	$1,395	$1,595	10%
Corporate/For-Profit Organizations	$1,595	$1,795	NA

*Columbia Discount: This discount is valid for any active student, postdoc, staff, or faculty at Columbia University. If paying by credit card, use your Columbia email address during the registration process to automatically have the discount applied. If paying by internal transfer within Columbia, submit this Columbia Internal Transfer Request form(link is external and opens in a new window) to receive further instructions. Please note: filling out this form is not the same as registering for a training and does not guarantee a training seat.

*Mailman Alumni Discount: This discount is valid for any individual who graduated from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. To access the Mailman Alumni discount and receive a registration code, please email sharp_program@cumc.columbia.edu(link sends e-mail) your graduation year and degree.

Invoice Payment: If you would prefer to pay by invoice/check, please submit this Invoice Request form(link is external and opens in a new window) to receive further instructions. Please note: filling out this form is not the same as registering for a training and does not guarantee a training seat.

Registration Fee: This fee includes course material, which will be made available to all participants both during and after the conclusion of the training.

Cancellations: Cancellation notices must be received via email at least 30 days prior to the training start date in order to receive a full refund, minus a $75 administrative fee. Cancellation notices received via email 14-29 days prior to the training will receive a 75% refund, minus a $75 administrative fee. Please email your cancellation notice to ColumbiaSHARP.Multiomics@gmail.com(link sends e-mail). Due to workshop capacity and preparation, we regret that we are unable to refund registration fees for cancellations <14days prior to the training.

If you are unable to attend the training, we encourage you to send a substitute within the same registration category. Please inform us of the substitute via email at least one week prior to the training to include them on attendee communications, updated registration forms, and materials. Should the substitute fall within a different registration category your credit card will be credited/charged respectively. Please email substitute inquiries to ColumbiaSHARP.Multiomics@gmail.com(link sends e-mail). In the event Columbia must cancel the event, your registration fee will be fully refunded.

Additional Information

The Multi-omics Boot Camp is hosted by the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health's SHARP Program.