A background in computer science or engineering:
-OR-
A background in biological sciences:
The prerequisites of the course are flexible and are summarized as: a solid background in molecular biology with some exposure to or working with computers, some coding experience in any language would be helpful, OR solid computing skills with extensive coding experience and some basic science background, ideally but not necessarily, an understanding of basic biology.
The course will start with several weeks of intensive review on: molecular biology, genetics, computer programming in Perl, Bio-perl, UNIX, database design, probability and algorithm development. The course will then move into the theory of a particular subset of analyses, such as sequence alignment covering both the theoretical models as well as the applications that employ this strategy, the latter part will usually consist of a hands on demonstrations which will introduce the student to tools that may be useful in their own future research work. This model of instruction will continue with other topics which will include: sequence analysis techniques, gene discovery and prediction, gene expression and microarry analysis, protein structure and domain prediction, gene mapping, linkage analysis, phylogenetics.
The class will meet on Wednesdays 5 pm to 8pm in the Hardin Library Information Commons (West) to facilitate hands on demonstrations.
Your grade in this course will be determined as follows:
These weights are subject to small variation.