BIOINF-528: Structural Bioinformatics

Credits: 3
Category: Advanced Bioinformatics and Computational Biology

Offered in Fall

Fridays, 9:00 am - 12:00 noon
Rm. 2036 Palmer Commons Bldg.
Syllabus (PDF)

This course introduces fundamental concepts and methods of bioinformatics and structural bioinformatics. Topics covered include sequence, structure and function databases of DNA and protein molecules, advanced sequence and structure alignment methods, principle and application of machine learning and deep neural-network learning, basics of molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations, methods of protein folding and protein structure prediction (homologous modeling, threading and ab initio folding), and techniques of protein structure determination (X-ray crystallography, NMR and cryo-EM). Emphasis of the classes is on the understanding of bioinformatics concepts and the practical utilization, with the objective to help students to use the cutting-edge bioinformatics tools/methods to solve problems in their own research. For this term, three world’s top experts are invited to give lectures on NMR spectroscopy (Prof. Tomek Cierpicki), Cryo-electron microscopy (Prof. Melanie Ohi), and X-ray crystallography (Prof. Zhaohui Xu).