Computer Science 690U - Computational Bio & Bioinform

This course is designed to provide computer scientists with a comprehensive introduction to the field of computational biology. The course will cover the application of computational techniques to modern research challenges in biology, discussing both foundational algorithms and newly introduced methods. The necessary background on biology will be provided in order to contextualize the methods. The primary focus will be analysis of genomic data, including variant calling, genome annotation, sequence search, sequence alignment, phylogeny construction, mutation effect prediction, population genetics, and genotype-phenotype association studies. We will also cover protein structure analysis and prediction. Throughout the course, we will emphasize the unique challenges to working with biological data. Through lectures and hands-on programming problem sets, students will develop the necessary skills to tackle computational challenges in the field of biology.

Open to graduate Computer Science students only. PROFICIENCY IN PYTHON PROGRAMMING AS WELL AS UNDERGRADUATE-LEVEL UNDERSTANDING OF STATISTICS, MACHINE LEARNING, AND LINEAR ALGEBRA IS ASSUMED. THE COURSE ASSUMES NO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF BIOLOGY. MAY ALSO BE SUITABLE FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS IN BIOLOGY-RELATED DISCIPLINES WHO HAVE STRONG COMPUTATIONAL SKILLS. INTERESTED GRADUATE STUDENTS IN OTHER DISCIPLINES, ESPECIALLY BIOLOGY, SHOULD DESCRIBE THEIR BACKGROUND TO HANDLE COMPUTATIONAL REQUIREMENTS ON THE OVERRIDE FORM FOR INSTRUCTOR REVIEW. SEATS HELD FOR INCOMING GRADUATE STUDENT REGISTRATION. STUDENTS NEEDING INSTRUCTOR PERMISSION MUST REQUEST OVERRIDES VIA THE ON-LINE FORM: https://www.cics.umass.edu/academics/course-overrides