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BIF701 - Bioinformatics I

Bioinformatics is the application of computer technology to the management of biological information, and is used to address biological problems. Bioinformatics is essential in examining how raw sequence data from genome sequencing projects can be used to generate information about gene function, protein structure, molecular evolution, drug targets, and disease mechanisms. Students will gain an appreciation of the basic problems facing bioinformatics scientists, the roles that bioinformatics plays in the solution of these problems, a basic understanding of bioinformatics methodologies, and skills using available bioinformatics analysis tools.

BIF712 - Concepts of Programming with Perl

The aim of this course is to introduce students to the basic concepts of computer science, and to provide students with a practical ability in scientific programming. The course will teach programming in C covering the standard elements of the language. Various biological examples will be treated throughout the course.

The ability to write computer programs enables a bioinformatics researcher to
apply the power and speed of a computer to the solution of research programs such as
management and use of large data sets, and extraction of biological meaning and
relationships from experimental data.
This course will introduce the student to the basic aspects of computer
programming, with an emphasis on developing good programming habits.
The course will be taught using the Perl programming language. The Perl
programming language plays a key role in the field of bioinformatics, due to its powerful
pattern processing features and easy-to-learn structure. This course will provide the
student with a thorough understanding of the basics of the Perl language, with a focus on using Perl to solve bioinformatics problems. Students will learn to create both standalone
and Internet-based Perl programs, and will learn to accelerate the development process by making use of existing code libraries.

BIF713 - Operating Systems and Project Management

The aim of this course is to provide the students with hands-on analysis experience required in the workforce. The students will begin learning the linux operating system and learn to complete tasks using basic linux commands and utilities. They will gain access to a high-performance compute cluster and learn how to install tools and submit and monitor jobs. Students will be introduced to the basics of project management including writing project proposals. Students will then be introduced to high throughput sequencing data. They will learn how to align this data and run basic quality control metrics. They will use open source tools that are commonly used in the field.

BIF804 - Molecular Biology and Biotechnology

This course covers current and relevant topics in molecular biology and their direct application to modern
biotechnology and its direct association to bioinformatics. It is offered by the Bioinformatics (BIF) Ontario College Graduate Certificate Program. The course offers both lecture and laboratory components. The lecture component applies the core principles of biology, biochemistry, genetics, and molecular biology to real world biotechnology challenges and solutions. The laboratory component complements the theoretical principles garnered in lecture to strengthen the practical aspects of biomolecule amplification, detection and characterization. This course will enable the students to design more effective biotechnological experiments to create relevant and meaningful data, as well as leading the students towards a better understanding of the relationship of the methods used to generate data to the resulting data and subsequent analyses performed on the data to help solve current biological problems.

BIF805 - Biological Data Systems

This course describes relational data models and database management systems; teaches the theories and techniques of constructing relational databases to store various biological data, including sequences, structures, genetic linkages and maps, and signal pathways. Students are provided with an introduction to the relational database query language SQL and the ORACLE database management system, with an emphasis on answering biologically important questions. This course provides an overview of currently existing biological databases, and describes web based programming tools to make databases accessible. Questions in data integration and security will also be addressed. Future directions for biological database development will be explored.