This course is an introduction to the application of computational methods to biological data for analysis and for discovery. The focus will be on computational methods in genomics and proteins.
 
 
 
 

At the conclusion of the course the student should understand:

• How  DNA sequences can be analyzed to identify genes
• How sequences may be aligned to other similar, but not identical sequences
• How the elements in the sequences may have evolved, and what methods are useful to analyze that evolution
• How 3 dimensional structure and function might be predicted from the sequences.
• How the human genome DNA is being sequenced
• How technologies can exploit the uniqueness of the genetic sequence in order to build gene detection arrays
• How to apply both classical and modern techniques to detect/discover patterns / motifs in sequence data.

There are no rigid prerequisites. It is assumed that the student will have some familiarity with concepts of algorithms and computer basics, elementary biology ( particularly DNA, proteins and genes), and rudiments of probability theory. No tools other than access to the Worldwide Web and a spreadsheet program such as Excel are required. Any other tools will be provided by the computer laboratory.