Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@martenson
Last active March 25, 2026 10:12
Show Gist options
  • Select an option

  • Save martenson/2cd9825bb29e1a185f333cae8df1ba09 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.

Select an option

Save martenson/2cd9825bb29e1a185f333cae8df1ba09 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.

ces.net/galaxy

Advanced Galaxy Topics

Martin Čech -- 25.3.26 -- UPOL:Bioinformatika v Galaxy -- UOCHB / ELIXIR CZ / CESNET martin.cech@cesnet.cz

What is the purpose of Galaxy for you?

  • For Galaxy's web interface the target audience is a bench scientist.
  • The assumption is that in the future it could also be your audience as bioinformaticians.
  • We'll look into what Galaxy provides you with in order to make your job easier.

Galaxy 101

Key Concepts

Concept Why It Matters
Provenance & Reproducibility The History automatically records tool version, parameters, and input dataset IDs.
FAIR & Open Science Galaxy encourages sharing datasets, workflows, and results with DOIs, satisfying journal & funder mandates.
Scalability Jobs can be dispatched to local clusters, cloud nodes, or a Galaxy “worker” queue – transparent to the user.
ToolShed & Community‑built Wrappers Thousands of tools are already available; you never have to reinvent a bowtie2 wrapper.
Interactive Environments Jupyter & RStudio inside Galaxy give you the best of both worlds (code + UI).
Automation via API Python client (bioblend) can drive Galaxy from scripts – essential for large batch processing.
Containerisation (Docker/Singularity) All Galaxy tools run inside conda environments; Galaxy also supports Docker images for reproducible deployment.
Workflow Editing & Sub‑workflows Complex pipelines can be modularised (e.g., separate QC sub‑workflow).
Versioning & Continuous Integration Galaxy tools are tested automatically on the ToolShed CI – ensures reliability.
Teaching & Collaboration Use Galaxy as a “lab notebook” for courses; students can share histories and comment on analyses.

Galaxy Tools

Galaxy Workflow Development

Galaxy Advanced Usage Concepts

Galaxy Architecture

Galaxy Deployment

  • Ansible for Infrastructure As A Code
  • Gravity: supervisor for Galaxy process management (wrapper for systemd/supervisor)

Take Home Message

If you take one thing from here be it that all the things are at training.galaxyproject.org

Homework

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment