Digital Biology: A survey of topics in bioinformatics and functional genomics

BIOL-L 388 Spring 2018


Course description

BIOL L388 DB

Class times and locations

Tues, Thur 11:15a - 12:30p (Credits: 3.0); Sycamore Hall (SY) 004

Tentative schedule

HTML version of this schedule

DAYDATELECTURETOPICLECTURER
Tues Jan 9 0.1 Orientation
What is Digital Biology?

MIT video: Introduction to Computational and Systems Biology
Volker Brendel
Thur Jan 11 1.1 Review: Nucleic Acids and Proteins Volker Brendel
Tues Jan 16 1.2 Bioinformatics Databases and Computing Resources

National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), a great starting point for "anything" bioinformatics

Current Topics in Genome Analysis 2016, a National Human Genome Research Institute lecture series:

The Genomic Landscape circa 2016 (Lecturer: Dr. Andy Green)
Biological Sequence Analysis I (Lecturer: Dr. Andy Baxevanis
Biological Sequence Analysis II (Lecturer: Dr. Andy Baxevanis)
Volker Brendel
Thur Jan 18 1.3 Quiz 1 Students
Tues Jan 23 2.1 Sequence Alignments 1

How Do We Compare Biological Sequences?
from Bioinformatics Algorithms: An Active Learning Approach
Volker Brendel
Thur Jan 25 2.2 Sequence Alignments 2
MIT video: Local Alignment (BLAST) and Statistics
Volker Brendel
Tues Jan 30 2.3 Sequence Alignments 3
MIT video: Global Alignment of Protein Sequences (NW,SW, PAM, BLOSUM)
Volker Brendel
Thur Feb 1 2.4 Quiz 2 Students
Tues Feb 6 3.1 Evolutionary Processes 1

Introduction to Molecular Evolution
The Fastest Outbreak
Transforming Distance Matrices into Evolutionary Trees
Toward an Algorithm for Distance-Based Phylogeny Construction
Additive Phylogeny
Using Least-Squares To Construct Distance-Based Phylogenies
Ultrametric Trees
The Neighbor-Joining Algorithm

The powers and pitfalls of parsimony


General science/engineering interest: SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch today
Volker Brendel
Thur Feb 8 3.2 Evolutionary Processes 2

Character-based Tree Reconstruction
The Small Parsimony Problem
The Large Parsimony Problem
Evolutionary Tree Reconstruction in the Modern Era
Volker Brendel
Tues Feb 13 3.3 Evolutionary Processes 3

EBI MSA Tools
EBI MP Tools
Volker Brendel
Thur Feb 15 3.4 Quiz 3 Students
Tues Feb 20 4.1 Genome Characteristics 1 (Motivation)

The Genomic Landscape circa 2016 (Lecturer: Dr. Andy Green)
Volker Brendel
Thur Feb 22 4.2 Genome Characteristics 2 (Assembly)

Introduction to genome sequencing
How do we assemble genomes?
from Bioinformatics Algorithms: An Active Learning Approach
Volker Brendel
Tues Feb 27 4.3 Genome Characteristics 3 (Assembly, continued) Volker Brendel
Thur March 1 4.4 Quiz 4 Students
Tues March 6 5.1 Genome Annotation: Introduction

NCBI Genome: Deinococcus radiodurans
GFF3 standard
GeneMark.hmm prokaryotic

GeneMark article
Volker Brendel
Thur March 8 5.2 Genome Annotation: Practice

GeneMark
AUGUSTUS
GENSCAN

paper wasp genome browser
Volker Brendel
Tues March 13 Spring Break
Thur March 15 Spring Break
Tues March 20 5.3 Hidden Markov Models: Concepts and Algorithms

Hidden Markov Models
(from Bioinformatics: An Active Learning Approach)
Volker Brendel
Thur March 22 5.4 Quiz 5 Students
Tues March 27 6.1 Protein Structures 1
PDB: What is a protein?
PDB: How enzymes work
HIV I
HIV II

Guide to PDB

PDB Molecule of the Month
NCBI Protein

MIT Lecture: Introduction to Protein Structure; Structure Comparison and Classification
Volker Brendel
Thur March 29 6.2 Protein Structures 2: Secondary Structure

2struct server

Jpred - secondary structure prediction
Stride
SPIDER2
Dr. Thomas McCarthy
Tues April 3 6.3 Protein Structures 3

MIT Lecture: Predicting Protein Structure
Volker Brendel
Thur April 5 6.4 Quiz 6 Students
Tues April 10 6.5 Protein Structures 4

MIT Lecture: Predicting Protein Interactions
Volker Brendel
Thur April 12 6.6 Protein Structures 5

foldit
Volker Brendel
Tues April 17 7.1 Cells and Organisms 1
MIT Lecture: Gene Regulatory Networks
Volker Brendel
Thur April 19 7.2 Cells and Organisms 2

Course Questionnaire
Volker Brendel
Mon April 23 11:59am Homework Assignment due Students
Tues April 24 8.1 Review Volker Brendel
Thur April 26 8.2 Review
Gene Expression Analyses
from Bioinformatics Algorithms: An Active Learning Approach
Volker Brendel
Thur May 3 12:30pm - 2:30pm Final Examination Students