MDC 2026 will begin with an Open House on January 6, 2026, from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM.
A Zoom link will be sent to registered users one day before the event. Please RSVP for the Info Session, Open House Information, and Registration Session.
The Winter 2026 CTF125 Metagenomics Challenge course will meet from January 8, 2026, to February 26, 2026, from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm on Tuesdays & Thursdays. MDC Open House via Zoom on 1/6 from 1-3 pm.
The MDC Informational Session will be held on January 6, 2026, from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm via Zoom. (A link to the Zoom meeting will be provided to the registered participants via e-mail one day prior to the event. Please RSVP for the Informational Session via the link below.
Please RSVP here for the Info Session, Open House Information, and registration session.
The Metagenomics Discovery Challenge (MDC) is a certificate-based course. The independent study course aims to prepare students for entry into the Biomedical and Biotechnology workforce after graduation. The online course will use Team-Based Learning (TBL) and Open Educational Resources (OER). It has no prerequisites, but a background in biological sciences or computer science would be helpful. Students will learn to do bio-surveillance on metagenomic datasets*, identifying fungal (and other micro-eukaryotic), bacterial, archaeal, and viral sequences, including the COVID-19 data within these datasets. This will reinforce the fundamentals of computational biology, utilizing the Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology and computational tools necessary in determining metagenomics data sets. At the end of the semester, students are encouraged to submit a publication in AMRD format indicating their findings and create a 3-5 minute video using available resources to explain the tools they’ve learned, the importance of viral discovery, antibiotic resistance, and their discoveries.
MDC Undergraduate Student Sign-up page: Click to access
MDC Graduate Student Sign-up page: Click to access
Additional Biotech Courses and Information (click here to access)
