In the final week of July, Dr Andi Wilson and Dr Janneke Alyward joined forces to co-host a Genome Assembly Workshop for microbiologists at FABI. After a rigorous process based on research interest and past experience, a group of 23 FABIans, ranging from enthusiastic first-year MSc students to seasoned staff members, were selected to attend. During an action-packed five-day workshop, Andi and Janneke guided the participants through the steps of assembling and fully annotating 12 fungal genomes, all of which had been sequenced as part of the recent FABI-Hexagon Bio collaboration.

For many attendees, this workshop marked their first foray into the world of command line-based genomic analyses. Despite the steep learning curve and the occasional frustration that often accompanies this kind of work, the participants successfully completed the course. This was after troubleshooting their way through difficulties and experiencing the triumph that can only be felt when finally getting one’s commands right! Over the next six weeks, these intrepid genome explorers will finalize their analyses to produce fun-tastic genome assemblies. The final output will be a special edition Genome Announcement targeting the Journal IMA Fungus, which will detail the workshop, the assembly pipeline, and showcase the 12 genomes.