Traditionally, biological hypothesis testing and discovery are through experiments, while computation plays a minor role in providing predictions and in helping downstream analysis. As the availability of genomic data continues to increase rapidly, there arises a new class of biological questions that can be addressed initially through computation. Insights from the computational results are used to design experiments either to validate the results or to facilitate biological discoveries that are difficult to obtain from experiments alone. The course will investigate these new computational approaches to facilitate the understanding of the changing role of computation in biology. No programming experience is needed and the course will focus on understanding the main ideas behind these computational approaches.
Supplementary readings from research papers.
Towards the end of the semester, each student will give a presentation on a topic of interest.
Graduate standing or approval of instructor.