The course “R Programming for Statistics and Machine Learning”, organized at LIOS within the TARGETWISE project (February 5, 6, 9, 12 & 13, 2026), provided in-depth training in R programming and computational data analysis. The course was led by Dr. Nikolay Oskolkov, Metabolic Research Group Leader at LIOS, and Dr. Daniel Rivas, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Metabolic Research Group at LIOS, Riga, Latvia.

The main focus of the course was to strengthen participants’ understanding of statistical modeling and machine learning by implementing core algorithms from scratch in base R. The lecturers combined practical coding sessions with clear explanations of the mathematical foundations underlying the methods, enabling participants to connect theory with real-world bioinformatics applications.

Key topics covered included:

• Non-parametric and permutation-based statistical tests
• Linear Mixed Models (LMMs)
• Dimensionality reduction methods (PCA, t-SNE, UMAP)
• Clustering algorithms (k-means)
• Random Forests
• Simple neural networks
• Functional programming and advanced data structures in R

The course provided both theoretical insight and practical skills essential for modern data-driven research in bioinformatics.