Course Title: Bioinformatics

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Bioinformatics

Credit Points: 12

Course Coordinator: Dr Peter Smooker

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 7129

Course Coordinator Email:peter.smooker@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Location: Building 223, Bundoora West

Course Coordinator Availability: By Appointment

Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

Advanced Molecular Biology (or equivalent)

Course Description

Bioinformatics is the computational management and use of biological information to solve biological problems. This course will deliver descriptions of this rapidly evolving field, and facilitate user access to and manipulation of the biological data. Topics will include descriptions of genetic and biological databases and relevant tools available to retrieve and analyse the information within these. Descriptions of various techniques, such as evolutionary analysis, data mining, protein structure/function and computational drug discovery will be given. RMIT staff and external scientists working in the field will deliver topics. This course is designed to enable students to evaluate data using bioinformatics, and to better identify potential uses and opportunities of this data within their industry context. Students will gain an appreciation of the potential of new technologies to their industry sector.

Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

Understand the theoretical basis behind bioinformatics.

Search databases accessible on the WWW for literature relating to molecular biology and biotechnology.

Manipulate DNA and protein sequences using stand-alone PC programs and programs available on the WWW.

Find homologues, analyse sequences, construct and interpret evolutionary trees.

Analyse protein sequences, identify proteins, and retrieve protein structures from databases. View and interpret these structures. Understand homology modelling and computational drug design.

Students will be able to query biological data, interpret and model biological information and apply this to the solution of biological problems in any arena involving molecular data.

Overview of Learning Activities

Students attend a formal program of lectures and computer workshops. There will also be independent learning.

Students are recommended to attend and participate in all scheduled teaching sessions and complete formal items of assessment to achieve satisfactory completion of the course. Formal teaching sessions are available only at the times specified and cannot be repeated. Students are expected to spend an appropriate amount of time out of classes reviewing theoretical and practical material in textbooks, journals and on the Internet, preparing self directed leaning exercises and writing reports.

Oral and written student evaluation of the course will be formally solicited and considered annually by the Program Team in course and program review.

Overview of Learning Resources

Most of the literature and documentation will be accessible via the internet. For a general introduction to Bioinformatics, the following texts are useful:

Xiong, J. Essential Bioinformatics. Cambridge University Press. 2006.

Baxevanis, A. D. & B. F. F. Ouellette. Bioinformatics: A Practical Guide to the Analysis of Genes and Proteins. Third Edition John Wiley and Sons. 2005.

Lesk, AM. An Introduction to Bioinformatics. Second Edition. Oxford University Press. 2005.

Westhead, D. et al. Instant Notes- Bioinformatics. BIOS, 2002.

Overview of Assessment

Assessment will be by a combination of computer assignments, a written report and an examination.

Data analysis (2 x 2 h) - 30%
Project report- 30%
Theory examination (1 x 2 h) - 40%