Bioinformatics and its Applications

This course introduces the key methods and technologies of bioinformatics as pertinent to genomics. These are the fastest growing fields of biology and perhaps science. Bioinformatics is a rapidly growing scientific discipline at the interface of genomics, statistics and computer science. It has distinct but overlapping aspects: the development of computational infrastructure (e.g. algorithms, programs, databases) and their use to analyse a wide variety of biological data. Among these data, genes, transcripts, and epigenetic features play a central role. Making sense of the rapid and large-scale data acquisition of today's genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and other -omics projects poses the major challenge of modern biology. Analyses of these data relies on advances in bioinformatics and statistics. As computer literacy is central to bioinformatics, it is also central to this course. Accordingly, the course includes a brief review of the Python programming language. We further cover advanced work practices employed during bioinformatics research, including code testing and version control systems. Research topics covered will include techniques for sequence comparison, population and comparative genomics. Note: Graduate students attend joint classes with undergraduates but are assessed separately.