Bioinformatics (MTAT.03.239)

Course info

• The first lecture will take place on February 12.
• Lectures: Mondays 14:15 - 16:00 in Narva street 18-1022 and Zoom ( (log into courses to see link) )
• Practice sessions/Consultations: Mondays 16:15 - 18:00 in TBD (starting February 26) ( (log into courses to see link) )
• Project selection: TBD

Contacts

• Assignment submissions: Moodle
• Course materials: https://github.com/kauralasoo/MTAT.03.239_Bioinformatics
• Lecturers: Kaur Alasoo (kaur.alasoo [at] ut.ee), Erik Abner, Priit Adler
• Projects: link
• Lecutre recordings: link
• Lecture slides: 2022 2024

Pre-requisites

Although the course has no official pre-requisites, basic programming and data analysis skills are required to successfully complete the homework and project assignments.

Learning objectives

• You will learn how to transfer the theoretical skills that you have learned in Data Mining, Neural Networks and Algorithmics courses to practical data analysis problems, with a particular focus on biology.
• You will know how to assess the quality of data via exploratory analysis (clustering, PCA) and know how to detect and when to remove outlier samples.
• You will understand the basic concepts of information flow in biological systems (genetic variant -> TF binding -> gene expression -> protein expression -> cellular phenotypes/imaging -> organismal phenotypes ) and what are the main biological and computational approaches to analyse it.

Grading and requirements

The grade is calculated from the total number of points (max 100). The points can be earned as follows:

• Assignments (50 points): there will be ~10 assignments, each worth ~5 points;
• Group project and presentation at the poster session (50 points);
• Additional points can be earned from bonus tasks within assignments;

In order to pass the course, the student must get at least 50% from assignments (threshold 25 points), at least 50% from the project (threshold 25 points).