Welcome to RADcamp 2026 - The Latin America Edition
Wet lab (3RAD protocol) & Bioinformatics (ipyrad)
July 20-27, 2026
Tecnológico de Monterrey
Monterrey, Mexico
Application/Registration
Please visit this form if you want to apply: RADCamp Latin America 2026 Application
Decisions on workshop participation will be communicated to all applicants January 2026.
Fees: There will be a nomial registration fee due upon acceptance. Need-based fee waivers will be considered, and well qualified applicants will not be turned away for lack of funds.
Partial, need-based support for travel and accommodations will also available! Please indicate your request for travel/lodging support in the online application. We will provide coffee and snacks during breaks.
Summary
This workshop is designed to guide participants through a full RADseq pilot study. Although it will take place over eight days, it is structured into two parts.
Part I of the workshop is an interactive 3-day wet-lab workshop where attendees will be guided through a RADseq DNA library preparation (3RAD). Participants will have the option of using ~24 of their own extracted DNA samples that can be used in the workshop to develop pilot data for their research. In addition to demonstrating and generating 3RAD libraries, we will introduce RADseq methods, explain common pitfalls and focus on ways to increase data quality and reduce missing data while reducing costs compared to other protocols. On the fourth and fifth day the libraries will be pooled and sequenced in-house for paired-end Illumina sequencing. The best part is that the sequencing cost will be completely subsidized (free!), and you get to see how the instruments are used.
In Part II of this workshop (days 6-8), we will introduce RADseq assembly, phylogenetic and population genetic methods, high-performance computing, basic unix command line and Python programming, and jupyter notebooks to promote reproducible science. We will introduce ipyrad, a unified and self-contained RAD-seq assembly and analysis framework, which emphasizes simplicity, performance, and reproducibility. We will proceed through all the steps necessary to assemble the RAD-seq data generated in Part I of the workshop. We will introduce both the command line interface, as this is typically used in high-performance computing settings, and the ipython/jupyter notebook API, which allows researchers to generate documented and easily reproducible workflows. Additionally, we will mentor participants in using the ipyrad.analysis API which provides a powerful, simple, and reproducible interface to several widely used methods for inferring phylogenetic relationships, population structure, and admixture. Participants are invited to give a short research talk on the last day of this session to showcase their project and data.
This workshop is intended as a bootcamp for early career students, post-docs, or faculty to learn best practices that they can then help to disseminate to the broader community. The opportunity to learn while generating and analyzing real data is a bonus that we hope will accelerate the learning process, particularly for early-stage graduate students who can use the pilot data for their thesis research. This workshop is geared toward practicing field biologists without RADseq data for their system and with little or no computational experience. We encourage all scientists to submit an application. We especially welcome women and under-represented minorities and early-stage students, or early-career faculty with the potential to pass on skills to large groups.
This was made possible through generous funding from the American Genetics Association, The International Biogeography Society, The Society for the Study of Evolution International Event Grants, the International Society for Computational Biology and its award for Advancing Bioinformatics, and the CoreLab Genomics from Tecnólogico de Monterrey.
Organizers, Instructors, and Facilitators
- Natalia Bayona Vásquez (Oxford College Emory University)
- Deren Eaton (Columbia University)
- Isaac Overcast (Columbia University)
- Sandra Hoffberg
- Rocio Alejandra Chavez-Santoscoy (Tecnólogico de Monterrey)
- Erika Magallón-Gayón (Tecnólogico de Monterrey)
- Silvia A. Hinojosa Alvarez (Tecnólogico de Monterrey)
- Jesús Hernandez Perez (Tecnólogico de Monterrey)
- Andrea Felix Ceniceros (Tecnólogico de Monterrey)
Please contact us at radcamp.nyc+LatinAmerica@gmail.com with any questions.
Wet Lab (3RAD) Schedule
| Times | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:30-9:00 | Check-in and refreshments | Check-in and refreshments | Check-in and refreshments |
| 9:00-12:30 | Lecture | Library amplification | Pooling (Lecture & Practice |
| 12:30-13:45 | Lunch | Lunch | Lunch |
| 13:45-18:00 | Digestion, Ligation, Clean up | Clean up and Gel | Troubleshooting Session |
| 18:00-20:00 | Casual evening | Size-selection & Quantification | Networking dinner |
3RAD resources
- Inner barcode sequences in ipyrad format
- Adapter Info for ordering
- How to resuspend adapters
- How to resuspend i5 and i7 primers
- Index diversity calculator
- Homemade speedbeads
Additionally these files may be found in the RADCamp Part I Google Drive:
- i7 and inner barcodes used during workshop
- Find the i5/i7 index sequence from the name
- BadDNA order form with index sequences
- Full 3RAD protocol for plates
- Library pooling guide
Sequencing Schedule
| Times | Day 4 | Day 5 |
|---|---|---|
| 8:30-9:00 | Check-in and refreshments | Check-in and refreshments |
| 9:00-12:30 | Lecture on sequencing | While sequencing is running, we will use this day to discuss experiences, science, genomics, bioinformatics, jobs in research, jobs in teaching, etc. |
| 12:30-13:45 | Lunch | Lunch |
| 13:45-18:00 | Set up sequencing run | Optional field trip |
| 18:00-20:00 | Free Time | Optional field trip (cont) |
Sequencing Resources
TBD
Bioinformatics (ipyrad) Schedule
| Times | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:30-9:00 | Check-in and refreshments | Check-in and refreshments | Check-in and refreshments |
| 9:00-12:30 | Introductions and iPyrad Assembly Tutorial | ipyrad API and analysis tools | Symposium |
| 12:30-13:45 | Lunch | Lunch | Lunch |
| 13:45-18:00 | Toy Data QC and 3RAD Assembly | Empirical Data QC, Troubleshooting & 3RAD Assembly Part I & Part II | Q&As Genomics Core-Instructors- Participants & Farewell Dinner (optional) |
Additional ipyrad analysis cookbooks
- Tetrad - A Quartet-based species tree method
- Phylogenetic inference: RAxML
- Clustering analysis: PCA
- Clustering analysis: STRUCTURE
- BPP - Bayesian inference under a multi-species coalescent model
- Bucky - Phylogenetic concordance analysis
- ABBA-BABA - Admixture analysis
- [Demographic analysis (momi2)
RADCamp Latin America 2026 co-sponsored by:
Core Lab: Genomics, Tecnológico de Monterrey |
Expedition FEMSA |
American Genetics Association through the Special Event Awards program |
International Society for Computational Biology |
The International Biogeography Society |
Society of the Study of Evolution |
Acknowledgements
RADcamp Part I tutorial contributors: Sandra Hoffberg, Natalia Bayona Vasquez, and Travis Glenn. Many things we reference can be found on badDNA.uga.edu
RADCamp Part II tutorial contributors (over the years): Isaac Overcast, Deren Eaton, Sandra Hoffberg, Natalia Bayona-Vasquez, Mariana Vasconcellos, Laura Bertola, Josiah Kuja, Anhubab Kahn, Arianna Kuhn.