Some feedback from Gerrit Botha at UCT CBIO:
A hands-on course in 16S microbial composition analysis recently held at
UCT and the HPC cluster was used as a training platform. Participants
received a temporary account and most of the exercises were done using
an interactive qsub session. The QIIME (Quantitative Insights Into
Microbial Ecology) tool set was used for data cleaning and preliminary
analysis while the R phyloseq package was used for final statistical
analysis.
The 200 series was sufficient for processing the small test
datasets, however real datasets are larger and will have memory
requirements in the range of the 400 series. The overall course feedback
was positive and the UCT participants plan to register for permanent
accounts to start processing their own data. The only part that proved
challenging was to get the participants accustomed to the Linux
environment. Many of the them had no or limited exposure to Linux so
future courses will definitely need to keep it in mind and give a
thorough introduction to the environment.