392144 Privacy in Pangenomics
Seminar (Winter 2026/2027)
Genome Data Science group, Faculty of Technology.
About
Genomic data must be shared to advance research and medicine, while protecting the privacy of the people it comes from. This seminar covers privacy in genomics in general, with pangenomics as its newest frontier. Each student presents and writes about one research paper. Scientific presentation and writing are learning goals alongside the subject matter.
Four introductory lectures, then four weeks of preparation, then student presents (up to three per session).
Attendance is compulsory. If you cannot attend, email me with a reason.
Papers are chosen from a list we provide: one student per paper, first come, first served. Afterwards, each student picks one other presented paper to act as its discussant.
Your tasks
Talk: 20 minutes on your paper, followed by discussion and Q&A that you lead.
Discussant: read one other student's paper and open the discussion of that talk (e.g. two questions and/or one critical point).
Report: 4,000–5,000 words of main text (about 8–10 pages) on your paper. Any tool may be used; LaTeX is recommended and a template will be provided. You submit a first version, get feedback, and then have two weeks to revise. The revised version is graded.
Alternative to the report: a research proposal (2,000–3,000 words of main text, about 4–6 pages) around your paper: identify a problem, review related work, and discuss a possible direction. Same template, deadline and grading criteria as the report; novelty is not graded. Details to follow. Everything else said about the report applies to both.
Upload your slides to Moodle by the evening before your talk.
Grading
| Component | Weight |
| Talk | 40 % |
| Revised report or proposal | 60 % |
The discussant role counts as 1 of the 4 points in the talk's Q&A criterion. Report and proposal are graded on the same criteria (to follow). Classmates give anonymous peer feedback on each talk; it goes only to the presenter and is not graded.
Schedule
| Date | Session |
| 14.10.2026 | Lecture 1: Organisation, motivation and AI policy |
| 21.10.2026 | No session |
| 28.10.2026 | Lecture 2: Introduction to Pangenomics |
| 04.11.2026 | Lecture 3: Introduction to Privacy in (Pan)genomics |
| 11.11.2026 | Lecture 4: Introduction to Scientific Writing and Presentation (room E1-148); paper list published by this date at the latest |
| 18.11 – 09.12 | No sessions (preparation) |
| from 16.12 | Student talks (dates to follow) |
| 14.02.2027 | Report, first version due |
AI policy
This seminar follows the yellow tier of the Faculty of Technology's traffic-light policy on AI use. In short:
Allowed: help with understanding concepts and terminology, translation, suggesting papers to look at, slide layout and design, language editing of your own text, feedback on your own draft, LaTeX and formatting.
Not allowed: generating slide content, report or proposal text, arguments or the outline; generating your discussant questions; citing anything you have not read and verified.
Declare your AI use in one short statement on your last slide and at the end of your report. Permitted, declared use costs no points.
Details are given in the first session and on Moodle.
Communication
This page: schedule, rules, paper list, templates.
eKVV mailing list: announcements.
Moodle: materials, optional forum, submission of slides and reports.
Email: individual questions to the lecturer.