Ateneo - UPO

The course will provide an introduction to examples of concepts and instruments at the foundation of bioinformatics and genomics, in the framework of human health and pharmacogenomics in particular.

Scientific papers and slides, provided during the lessons, will represent the main teaching materials.

Further suggested books:

Arthur Lesk, “Introduction to Bioinformatics”, Oxford University Press
Arthur Lesk, “Introduction to Genomics”, Oxford University Press
Deonier et al., “Computational Genome Analysis – An introduction”, ed Springer
Andreas D. Baxevanis, Gary D. Bader, David S. Wishart, “Bioinformatics – fourth edition”, ed. John Wiley & Sons

Provide a basic view of the most commonly used bioinformatics and systems biology tools for the study of human health, with a focus in pharmacogenomics. Provide basic skills for reading and interpreting articles including bioinformatics content.

Basic knowledge in molecular biology and genetics

Lectures in classroom and computer classroom.

For further informations, please refer to the course page on D.I.R. at: http://www.dir.uniupo.it
Students with physical disabilities, Learning Disabilities or Special Education Needs can request specific services and tools via the Staff Sviluppo e Coordinamento Carriere e Servizi alle Studentesse e agli Studenti, consulting the University webpage: https://www.uniupo.it/en/services/services-students-physical-or-learning-disabilities
Students with disabilities, learning disabilities or special education needs, once they have contacted the University Staff, can refer to the tutor in charge of the course to define the examination modalities, concerning academic aspects.

In-itinere written reports for a series of assignments (computer homeworks) and a final written exam. The final written exam will consist of a series of multiple-choice and open questions concerning all the topics covered during the course, including selected research articles.

Review of basic concepts on the structure, organization and functioning of the human genome.

The Ensembl database, description and operation. Structure of a human gene in Ensembl, sequence information retrieval, protein structure, functional and clinical annotations.

The UCSC browser genome, description and operation. UCSC structure and annotation of a human gene, retrieval of functional and expression information.

Introduction to NGS Sequencing. Illumina sequencing methodology. Introduction to RNA-seq methodology. Design of an RNA-seq experiment and related bioinformatics data analysis.

Introduction to systems biology and network theory. Examples of networks in biology and genomics. Pharmacogenomics. Protein-protein and protein-drug interaction databases. Basic usage of the Cytoscape software and the R statistical programming language.

Examples of research articles available on Pubmed discussing topics related to arguments related to the course.

It is expected an increased knowledge-based and personalized judgement capability on basic applied bioinformatics, in particular concerning the human genome and its biomedical applications, including pharmacogenomics. Being able to understand independently and critically the content of research articles concerning bioinformatics and systems biology topics and results.