Bioinformatics

Proposed work

• Through this study we will gain a general understanding of how topics in bioinformatics work and what the discipline has to offer biological researchers. We will each explore one particular area in-depth as an independent project.
• Topics will include: Programming basics (PERL and R), DNA sequences and strings, simulation of DNA mutations and other molecular events, regular expressions and finding motifs in data, arrays and hashes, databases (GenBank, Protein Data Bank, BLAST), among others.

Compliments academic program

• Erika has found over two summers of research that a general understanding of bioinformatics will come in very handy down the road. Through biology courses at Earlham we have briefly skimmed certain aspects of bioinformatics but not at a level that can be attained through in-depth study as we propose to do with this course.
• another item (Damian)
• Charlie is interested in learning more about bioinformatics generally and to see if a lab can be built out of more basic material for the introduction to modeling class.

Evaluation

• We will create a wiki page (wiki.cs.earlham.edu) and update it throughout the course with summaries of the material we have studied together as well as the independent directions we will pursue with each topic.
• We will each pursue an independent topic throughout our study which will culminate at the end of the semester with a paper and colloquium presentation to the department.

Text/ Resources

• Beginning Perl for Bioinformatics. O'Reilly. James D. Tisdall.
• Bioinformatics for Dummies.
• Genetics for Dummies.