Welcome to the world of next generation sequencing!

Project description

During BIP - International project 3, you will perform a Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) experiment in teams. Every team consists of 3/4 students from the different participating institutes.

In this project we will look for the difference of the microbiome of human and animal faeces samples and oral samples using 16S NGS with the Nanopore ® technology. To perform DNA analysis, students first isolate DNA from the samples, followed by library preparation needed for sequencing. Afterwards, the samples are sequenced with NGS Nanopore ® technology at the Centre of Medical Genetics at UZ Brussel. Finally, data analysis is performed by the students to investigate the composition of the microbiomes.

Schedule

Online sessions: before the start of the physical mobility
- Guest lectures on NGS by experts in the field
  - October 13th: 11 am - 1 pm
  - October 16th: 4 pm - 6.30 pm
    - Students who can attend the online class due to overlap with their course schedule can receive the recording by email.
- Online assignments with team members
Physical mobility:
- Dates: November 3rd - November 7th 2025
- Location: Erasmus University of Applied Sciences & Arts - School of Health & Environment - Laarbeeklaan 121 - 1090 Jette
- Program:

BIPP IP3.png

Observation during the whole project: 40%
- Laboratory skills, commitment, cooperation, professional attitude
Video report of the project week: 20%
- The video must inlcude a short introduction of yourself, an overview of the whole week with a brief explanation of the Nanopore project, and a reflection about what you liked/did not like about the BIP. Make sure to sufficiently explain (orally, in formal English, for example using a voice over) what we see on the footage. The duration of the movie is 3 to 5 minutes. This is an individual assignment.
Presentation group work: 40%

Application & deadlines

Students interested in participating should submit their applications by September 19^th 2025.
To apply, please contact the responsible of your home institution.

Contact information

For any questions or clarifications, feel free to reach out to me at sofie.geeraerts@ehb.be.

Additional information

The lecturer responsible for this project made an introductory movie two year. You can watch it below. The main content and organization of the project remains the same. Dates will be different of course and there might be some minor changes to the program outline (the table with the program on this page is up-to-date).

Some important things that have changed compared to the info in the video:

the time period of the physical mobility will shift with 2 weeks, the BIP will be organized in the week of November 3^rd to November 7^th 2025.
We reduced the number of online sessions on a fixed date before the physical mobility, since it was very difficult with the course schedule of the different schools to find dates that fit all the students at the same time. We do still organize 2 online sessions of 2 hours with guest lectures, but if the students cannot join live, we also record them and they can watch them later on. These 2 sessions will be organized in October, on the 13^th (11-13h) and 16th (16-18h). Furthermore, the students will have to organize an online meeting with their group members to prepare for the practical work, they have to send in a printscreen of this meeting to prove they virtually met, but they can plan this among themselves. After feedback from us on their plan for the experiments, they have to correct it as a group and send it back, but they can organize this the way they want (plan an extra meeting, communicate via mail, divide the work,...).
The institutes that will participate in the BIP will be Avans Hogeschool (Breda) and CESPU (Porto), just like mentioned in the video, but also Hogeschool Amsterdam (Amsterdam), FH Joanneum (Graz) and University College South Denmark (Esjberg) will send some students.