Program Basics in Bioinformatics
In this introduction to bioinformatics, you will get a behind-the-scenes look at the work of a bioinformatician and learn the basic concepts that are used. You will actively work on answering biological questions using the computational power of computers.
Learning outcomes
After completing the course, you will:
- Understand the basic concepts used in bioinformatics;
- Have an overview of the types of research that can be done with bioinformatics;
- Know how to find and use online tools for performing an initial analysis;
- Understand the basics of translating biology into databases and back again;
- Understand the core principles of applying information technology to answer biological questions.
Program per day
Day 1: Basics of biological and computational concepts relevant to bioinformatics
- How do we translate cellular biology into data points, and what does that data look like?
- Where do you obtain biological data? How do you extract relevant information? And how can you combine data and information to build knowledge? (NCBI, SRA, EMBL-EBI, OMIM)
Day 2: Basics of programming for bioinformaticians (Bash/Python/R)
- Why choose a particular programming language?
- What can a programming language accomplish in a biological context?
- Fundamentals of programming concepts (What are variables, data structures, loops, conditional statements and functions?)
- What is a pipeline, and how do we connect multiple programs into a workflow?
Day 3: Basics of sequence analysis of DNA, RNA and proteins and alignment tools (needle, Clustal Omega, MUSCLE, MAFFT)
- What do Multiple Sequence Alignments reveal about sequences?
- How do we translate data points back to the biology of a cell?
Day 4: Basics of genomics, transcriptomics and overall data visualization
- How do we identify the cause of a genetic disease such as cancer?
- How do we explore the influence of different conditions on gene expression?
- How do we view and interpret genetic information?
Program details
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Admission
What are the admission requirements? And how do I apply?
