Introduction to
Bioinformatics
(BSC 4434/BSC 5459)
Fall 2006
Friday mornings: 8-10:45 am, Bldg. 32, Room 519
WWW: http://uwf.edu/msutton/bsc4434
WWW: http://uwf.edu/msutton/bsc5459
Current Catalog Description:
A molecular renaissance in biology has produced a wealth of sequence and
three-dimensional structure databases. "Mining" of these data with various
computational methods to obtain useful information is an emerging interdisciplinary
area of study. Students will review structure, function and evolution of proteins and
nucleic acids as well as the latest computational methods for retrieval and
interpretation of this bioinformation. Offered concurrently with BSC 5459;
graduate students will be assigned additional work. Permission is required.
Course Overview:
In order to keep pace with recent developments in genomics and proteomics,
biology must develop and teach new tools so our students will have the
skills to enter this burgeoning job market.
Central to these new technologies is bioinformatics, a field that did not
exist 10 years ago. No one predicted the collision of two fundamental
technologies: molecular biology and small fast computers.
Biology is now publishing more than 50,000 pages of literature per
day. Over 125,000 different genomic sequences have been submitted
to the North American GenBank (the world wide repository of genetic
sequence information database) IN A SINGLE DAY.
10 years ago there were only two bacteria fully sequenced.
Now there are 820 fully sequenced life forms, including 152
eukaryotes (one of which is Homo sapiens), 109 bacteria and more than
550 viruses. We now have full sequences for the mouse, the fruit fly
and brewers yeast.
Biologists are literally in danger of drowning in their own success.
This absolutely necessitates the creation of new tools that allow us
to move through all this information and make some sense of it.
This requires very fast computers, very clever programming and well
educated operators. The field is now known as bioinformatics, and some
universities now have whole Bioinformatics Departments offering Ph.D.
programs in this area. It has become one of the most sought after
degrees by the pharmaceutical industry where all molecular research
groups now include one bioinformaticist. Most NIH and NSF grants to
universities dealing with sequence information have a similar bias.
At UWF, this course is based on a hands-on approach that
I hope will develop your interests in scientific discovery.
For Spring 2006, the course is also structured to
involve you in meaningful ways with practical (and exciting)
aspects of real research in imaging methods in bioinformatics.
Upon completion of this course, you should acquire the
following skills:
-
Be able to find and use bioinformatics resources, including
software, database search engines, and other
Internet tools.
-
Be able to understand the theoretical background
and implement computational procedures
and algorithms to analyze structures and functions of biological
systems.
-
Be able to understand basic methods for digitizing, storing, processing
and displaying information related to biomedical applications
(e.g., data mining and data visualization tools).
University
Biology Department
UWF Image Analysis/Robotics Lab
World Computer Vision Home Page
EARTH'S CURRENT TEMPERATURES & CLOUDS
CREDIT / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
This course was inspired in part by the
Global Change Project
at the University of Michigan. In addition, the College of
Arts and Sciences at the University of West Florida
provided a Curriculum Development
Grant in 2000 to support Dr. Sutton's research into interdisciplinary
research.
It is hoped that the success of this course will lead to other
interdisciplinary courses at UWF, perhaps in areas such as
Biomedical Engineering and Global Change.
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Melanie A. Sutton, Ph.D.
(msutton@uwf.edu)
All rights reserved.
University of West Florida, Pensacola, FL 32514