UCL - Bioinformatics

[GBIO2010]

[30h + 30h] 5 credits

This course is taught in the 2d semester.

Teacher(s): Yves Deville, Michel Ghislain

Language: French

Level: Second

Aims
Main themes
Content and teaching methods
Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Aims

- to understand, design, develop and use computer tools dealing with the management and treatment of biological data
- to be able to make an argued choice between various computer techniques to solve bioinformatic problems
- to understand basic biological concepts needed to design, develop and use bioinformatic tools
- to be able to apply bioinformatic tools to solve fundamental and applied problems related to the life science domain

Main themes

Computational biology, or bioinformatics, deals with the development and the application of theoretical and applied computer science models to study biological systems. This interdisciplinary domain includes concepts related to molecular biology, biochemistry, computer science, mathematics and statistics. From a computer science point of view, it covers the design of specific data structures and algorithms, the optimization of database management systems, the use of techniques related to simulation, computer graphics and WEB interfaces.

Content and teaching methods

First part :
Introduction
Biochemical networks
Search in biological databases
Comparison and alignment of sequences (simple and multiple)
Learning and search of motifs
Phylogenetic trees
DNA microarrays

Second part :
The theoretical part goes together with exercises realized on computers. The practical work aims to apply bioinformatic tools to the study of molecular evolution and to the prediction of biochemical properties of nucleic acids and proteins.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Prerequisite:
(1) FSAB1401: Informatique 1
(2) FSAB1402: Informatique 2
If the student has no prerequisite in biochemistry, the needed concepts will be introduced at the beginning of the theoretical course and all along the practical works.