COMP 590(790)-090 Fall 2008
Bioalgorithms

Computational methods are fueling a revolution in the biological sciences. Computers are already nearly as indispensable as microscopes for analyzing and interpreting biological data. As a result, two new multidisciplinary fields, bioinformatics and computational biology, have emerged. This course will explore the computational methods and algorithmic principles driving this revolution. It will cover basic topics in molecular biology, genetics, and proteomics. The course also addresses basic computational theory and algorithms including asymptotic notation, recursion, divide-and-conquer approaches, graph algorithms, dynamic programming, and greedy algorithms. These fundamental concepts from computer science will be taught within the context of motivating problems drawn from contemporary biology. Example biological topics include sequence alignment, motif finding, gene rearrangement, DNA sequencing, protein peptide sequencing, phylogeny, and gene expression analysis.

This course is suitable for both computer science and biology students at both undergraduate and graduate levels, and thus is co-listed as both COMP590-90 and COMP790-90. Students who wish to take this course should have some programming experience in a modern language. Knowledge of data structures, algorithm design, and biology is helpful but not required. There will be homework, a midterm, and a final exam.