Introduction to Bioinformatics
Matter: BASIC HEALTH INFORMATICS TOOLS
Main language of instruction: Spanish
Other languages of instruction: Catalan, English
Head instructor
Dr. Jordi VILLÀ - jvilla@uic.es
Office hours
Interaction with the lecturer will be done upon request by e-mail: jvilla@uic.cat
As a graduate in Biomedicine, one should be familiar with the techniques that are available in the area of Bioinformatics to obtain information from the sometimes disperse, most of the times huge amount of data in biology and, in particular, molecular and cell biology, that is available for a scientist or a professional to make sense of the connection of nucleic acids and proteins with biological processes and diseases. Nonetheless, the work of a biomedical graduate is going to incorporate more and more the use of computers to analyze biological data. This course will give you a first extremely practical view of this connection, and will provide tools for the initial steps to the fascinating world of analyzing and making sense of biological data.
The course will be strongly based on the use of your personal computer. Familiarity with the use of development tools is a plus, although we will make it sure to allow every student to enter in the subject in a smooth way.
The course will involve basic elements of mathematics, statistics and programming, as well as proficiency with web browsing.
The global objective is to obtain an initial glimpse of the use of computers to analyze biological data within biomedicine. This will be achieved by making extensive use of public biomedical databases as well as by learning the basis of programming with Python and getting familiar with R statistical package for simple analyses through an essentially practical approach and a flipped classroom teaching schema. The specific objectives are:
General:
Specific:
The subject is divided into three modules:
Lectures:
Lab:
PBL:
The subject is divided into three main activities:
The whole subject is based on a flipped classroom schema, in which the students will have to work to prepare the content of the next sessions, and in some cases they will have to expose their learnings to their peers in a collaborative and critical thinking schema.
The evaluation will be based in the following items:
To pass the subject the student must obtain a minimum grade of 5 in each of the mentioned items (Partial, Final, Individual Term Paper and PBL). If the student does not reach 5 points in items 1a and 1b, she can take a final multiple choice Exam in June 25th to improve her grades. There is no second opportunity for items 2 and 3.
The subject is based on strong use of the personal computer. Students are encouraged to get the latest miniconda installation in order to develop the needed tools for the success in the subject. The course will make use of Python and R as the main computational tools in Bioinformatics and public databases for accessing biological data.
Most material will be obtained on-line from public sources that will be made available as the course progresses through the course site.
General introductory texts:
Basic texts in Bioinformatics:
E: exam date | R: revision date | 1: first session | 2: second session: