Bioinformatics Course at the Cyprus School of Molecular Medicine

BMI101: Bioinformatics

COORDINATOR: Dr. George Spyrou, Bioinformatics ERA Chair

Link to the Cyprus School of Molecular Medicine

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Bioinformatics is a new multidisciplinary field that includes the development and implementation of computational methods and tools suitable to handle, decipher and interpret the plethora of biomolecular data derived nowadays, acting as a bridge between bio-information and biological knowledge extraction. It is recognized that bioinformatics are fueling the rise of translational research and the success of molecular medicine. The aim of the course is to enable students to get familiar with a significant number of bioinformatics tools and databases, understand the computational methods behind them, be able to exploit in-depth the capabilities of the tools, implement and competently interpretand present the results of a wide range of bioinformatics analyses, critically discuss the current limitations and design the next generation of tools. The course will consist of lectures, tutorials, workshops and literature studies. Each lecture will be focused on one major bioinformatics method or a group of methods with relevant application examples. Methodology and applications to be covered include: Databases and Web Servers, Elements of Computational Intelligence and Programming, Sequence/Structural/Functional Analysis, Omics Data Analysis, Biological Network Reconstruction and Analysis, Modeling and Simulation in Biology, Computational Biomarker Discovery, In Silico Drug Discovery, Integromics and Personalized Medicine, BioBank Informatics, Ethics in Bioinformatics and Informatics inspired by Biology.

LEARNING OUTCOMES (LO)

Upon completion of the course students will be able to:

LO1. Understand and choose appropriate bioinformatics tools and databases for their investigation.

LO2. Understand the computational part behind the bioinformatics tools.

LO3. Perform sequence/structural/functional analysis of biomolecules.

LO4. Analyseand interpret omics data.

LO5. Perform Biological Network Reconstruction and Analysis.

LO6. Get familiar with modelling and simulations in Biology.

LO7. Get familiar with computational biomarker and drug discovery.

LO8. Describe and discuss various aspects of personalized medicine, biobanks and ethics related to bioinformatics.

LO9. Present scientific work.

EMPLOYMENT OBJECTIVES (EO)

EO1. Ability to choose appropriate tools and databases for specific bioinformatics analysis.

EO2. Ability to computationally analyze and interpret biomolecular properties.

EO3. Ability to perform high throughput omics analysis.

EO4. Ability to design new bioinformatics pipelines for specific needs.

EO5. Ability to report results.

BOOKS/READINGS

1. Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics, Jonathan Pevsner, 3rd Edition, 2015, ISBN:  978-1118581780
2. Introduction to Bioinformatics, Arthur Lesk, 4th Edition, 2014, ISBN: 978-0199651566
3. Original journal publicationsto be announced during the course.
4. Recommended journals list for regular reading:

Nature Communications

Scientific Reports

PLoS Computational Biology

Bioinformatics

Briefings in Bioinformatics

Briefings in Functional Genomics and Proteomics

Journal of Computational Biology

npj Systems Biology and Applications

IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics

Nucleic Acids Research (Web Server and DataBase Issues)

Genome Research

Molecular Systems Biology

BMC Bioinformatics

BMC Systems Biology