Tarynn M. Witten, Ph.D., MSW, FGSA, FCSBC
Associate Professor, Biological Complexity
Senior Fellow and Director of Research and Development
Project Leader - Virtual Parasite Laboratory Project

VCU Life Sciences Building Trani Center, Room 102
Phone: 804.827.7371 | Website

Home |  Syllabus | Week-by-Week | Downloads | Links

 

Course Objectives: Upon completion of this course, the student should be able to:

  • Identify a variety of mathematical and computational applications arising in research problems in bioinformatics at a variety of hierarchical levels from molecular through ecosystem.
  • Demonstrate an overall understanding of the basic terminology of the mathematics and computational aspects of these applications.

Course Description: LFSC520: Bioinformatics Technologies . One semester course; 1 lecture hour. 2 credits. Prerequisites: LFSC510 Integrative Life Sciences I: Biological Complexity or permission of instructor. Introduction to the hardware and software used in computational biology, proteomics, genomics, mathematical modeling and simulation, network analysis, image processing, biostatistics, eco-informatics, and other areas of data analysis in the life sciences. The course will also introduce students to data mining, the use of databases, meta-data analysis, and techniques to access information. One of the main missions of this course is to provide a timely orientation to the tools and sources of expertise available to the research students at VCU so that they can develop and carry out their dissertation research projects.

MAJOR COURSE UNITS:

      1) Basics
      2) Biostatistics/Data Mining/Neural Networks
      3) Image Processing
      4) Omic Analysis
      5) Visualization and Graphics
      6) Molecular Modeling and Computational Chemistry
      7) Network and Systems Analysis
      8) Multi-scale Modeling and Simulation
      9) Eco-Informatics, GIS, and Spatial Data Analysis

COURSE MEETING INFORMATION: LFSC 520 is scheduled to meet on Mondays from 2pm – 3:40pm in the BCCL Laboratory, Trani Life Sciences Center, Room 104. Class meeting dates are: 24, 31 January; 7, 14, 21, 28 February; 7, 21, 28 March; 4, 11, 18, 25 April and 2 May. Spring Vacation is 13 – 20 March.