BIOL368/F14
This site is currently under construction. The information below is a copy from the Fall 2011 site. — Kam D. Dahlquist 19:08, 26 August 2014 (EDT)
Announcements
Upcoming Seminars
- Biology Department Seminar: Tuesday, September 2, 12:15 PM, Seaver 202, Dr. Victor Carmona, LMU Biology, The Ecology of Climate Change.
Schedule
Updates to the schedule will be posted here. Readings need to be completed in preparation for class. Readings or slides that cannot be posted here due to copyright restrictions will be posted on MyLMUConnect.
| Week | Date | Reading | Topic | Assignment |
| 1 | Aug 31 |
|
Week 1 Assignment
Due midnight 9/7 | |
| 2 | Sept 7 | Protocols listed on Molecular Genetics Explorer page | Week 2 Assignment
Due midnight 9/14 | |
| 3 | Sept 14 | Bioinformatics for Dummies Introduction, Chapters 1, 2, 3; Exploring HIV Evolution Handout (on MyLMU Connect) |
|
Week 3 Assignment
Due midnight 9/21 |
| 4 | Sept 21 | Markham et al. (1998), Cohen et al. (2008) review, Exploring HIV Evolution Handout |
|
Week 4 Assignment
Due midnight 9/28 |
| 5 | Sept 28 |
|
Week 5 Assignment
Due midnight 10/5 | |
| 6 | Oct 5 | Week 6 Assignment
Due midnight 10/12 | ||
| 7 | Oct 12 | Bioinformatics for Dummies, Ch. 4, 6. Bring book to class. |
|
Week 7 Assignment
Due midnight 10/19 |
| 8 | Oct 19 | Kwong et al. (1998), Stanfield et al. (1999), Stanfield et al. (2003), Bioinformatics for Dummies Ch. 11 |
|
Week 8 Assignment
Due midnight 10/26 |
| 9 | Oct 26 | Week 9 Assignment
Due midnight 11/2 | ||
| 10 | Nov 2 |
|
Week 10 Assignment
Due midnight 11/9 | |
| 11 | Nov 9 | Brown & Botstein (1999)
Campbell & Heyer Chapter 4 (on MyLMUConnect) |
Week 11 Assignment
Due midnight 11/16 | |
| 12 | Nov 16 | Individual Journal Club papers on DNA Microarray Project page |
|
Week 12 Assignment
Due midnight 11/30 |
| 13 | Nov 23 | Thanksgiving Break | No Week 13 Assignment
Happy Thanksgiving! | |
| 14 | Nov 30 | Dahlquist et al. (2002), Doniger et al. (2003), Salomonis et al. (2007) | Week 14 Assignment
Due midnight 12/7 | |
| 15 | Dec 7 |
|
Course Information
Instructor
- Kam D. Dahlquist, Ph.D.
- Phone: (310) 338-7697
- Email Dr. Dahlquist through OpenWetWare
- Office: Seaver 218
- Office hours: Mondays 12:00-2:00 PM, Tuesdays and Thursdays 10:00-11:00 AM and by appointment (send me an e-mail or sign up for a time on the sheet on my office door)
Teaching Assistant
Prerequisites/Recommended Background
Biology 112 (General Biology Laboratory II), Biology 202 (Genetics), Chemistry 220 (Organic Chemistry I)
Class Meetings & Attendance
Wednesdays 1:00 PM – 4:50 PM, Seaver 120
This is a hands-on laboratory course, thus attendance at all class meetings is required. This class meets continuously between 1:00 PM and 4:50 PM and will rarely, if ever, "get out early". An unexcused absence from class will result in a 5% deduction from the overall course grade. The instructor should be notified as soon as possible, electronically or by phone, of the reasons for all absences.
Mutual Responsibilities
This course is designed to foster your development as a scientist and to give you an authentic research experience. We will be engaged together in discovering, examining, and practicing the personal qualities, technical skills, and community standards of the scientific community. While you are ultimately responsible for your own learning, you are not alone. Our class constitutes a team where we will be learning from each other. The role of the instructor is to provide the expert coaching to support and assist you on your journey. All of the laboratory exercises, readings, assignments, and policies detailed below have been designed with this purpose in mind.
Classroom and Laboratory Environment
We are all responsible for maintaining a classroom and laboratory environment that is safe and conducive to learning. As such, we will observe the following:
- As an LMU Lion, by the Lion’s code, you are pledged to join the discourse of the academy with honesty of voice and integrity of scholarship and to show respect for staff, professors, and other students.
- You are responsible for your own learning and for being a good class citizen.
- Class will start promptly on time.
- You are expected to come to class having done the assigned reading and preparatory work so that you are ready to participate in discussions and to perform the laboratory exercises.
- You are expected to bring the required materials to each class session.
- Cell phones, pagers, and other communication or music devices will be turned off and put away out of sight.
Additionally, all students are governed by LMU Community Standards Publication.
Course Web Site
This is the course web site. You will need to register with OpenWetWare.org to be able to edit the wiki and complete coursework. I will post updates to the course schedule and electronic copies of all handouts, assignments, and readings on that site. You will also use the site to keep an electronic lab notebook/journal for the course. In addition, students have been automatically enrolled in BIOL 368 on MyLMUConnect (formerly known as Blackboard). The MyLMUConnect site may be used for materials that cannot be made public on the OpenWetWare.org wiki.
Required Texts
- Claverie, Jean-Michel & Notredame, Cedric (2006) Bioinformatics for Dummies, Wiley, ISBN-10: 0470089857.
- You do not need to purchase this text. A class set of books will be made available to students in the class.
- The LMU library also has this book available electronically. There is only one license so only one person may access it at at time.
- Specific readings are given on the schedule and may be revised. Check back on this page for the latest reading assignments.
- Readings will also be assigned from other sources and will be posted on the course web site or on MyLMU Connect.
Required Materials (must be brought to each class meeting)
- 3-ring binder with all course handouts
- Pen, pencil, extra paper
- USB flash drive to store bioinformatics data (the more memory the better)
Course Description
Bioinformatics is the application of information technology (informatics) to biological data. Informatics is the representation, organization, manipulation, distribution, maintenance, and use of digital information. When applied to biological data, informatics provides databases and analytical tools for answering biological questions. Bioinformatics is inherently interdisciplinary, involving aspects of biology, computer science, mathematics, physics, and chemistry. While computers have been used to analyze biological data since their invention, the need for computational methods has recently exploded due to the huge amounts of data produced by genome sequencing projects and other high-throughput technologies. Bioinformatics techniques are being used to move the field of biology from a “one gene at a time” approach, to the analysis of whole systems. In this course, students will learn current bioinformatics techniques to address systems-level biological questions. Topics include sequence alignment and phylogeny, protein structural biology, and the analysis of DNA microarray data.
Course Objectives and Learning Outcomes
- To gain foundational knowledge about molecular evolution, protein structure, and gene expression.
- To gain computer and data literacy skills.
- To ask your own biological questions and answer them with the appropriate bioinformatics tools and techniques.
- To read and critically evaluate the primary scientific literature.
- To give effective scientific presentations.
- To be confident in "leaving your comfort zone", flourishing outside of it, and learning more about bioinformatics on your own.
Course Work & Grading
Your work in this course will be assessed in three areas:
Electronic laboratory notebook/journal assignments 140 points Journal club presentations 150 points Oral lab reports 210 points Total 500 points
Grades will be posted on the MyLMU Connect Grade Center for this course.
Final course grading scale
94.0-100% A 90.0-93.9% A- 86.0-89.9% B+ 82.0-85.9% B 78.0-81.9% B- 74.0-77.9% C+ 70.0-73.9% C 67.0-69.9% C- 60.0-66.9% D ≤ 59.9% F
Electronic Laboratory Notebook
One of the most important skills you can develop as a scientist is keeping an excellent laboratory notebook. The bioinformatics equivalent of the biology paper-based lab notebook is documentation of your “workflow”. For this course you will practice the documentation skills needed by users of bioinformatics tools by keeping an electronic lab notebook or journal. The technology we will use is a public MediaWiki site hosted by OpenWetWare.org, that we will create and edit during the semester. You will create an individual user page and make weekly entries that the instructor will read and grade. You will use the OpenWetWare site to complete the assignments as well. The following guidelines apply:
- Your weekly journal entry is due every midnight on Wednesday PDT (Tuesday night/Wednesday morning). Note that the OpenWetWare server records the time as Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). Therefore, midnight will register as 03:00 on the server.
- You will earn 10 points per weekly submission. Late journal entries will be accepted up to one week later for up to half credit.
- The instructor will read and comment on how to improve your journal entries on your User Talk page.
- Depending on the type of assignment for that week, you may be given the opportunity to make improvements to previous journal entries as the semester progresses.
- Generally, your journal entries will consist of:
- Workflow and other documentation for hands-on exercises and projects
- Answers to any specific questions posed in the exercise
- Reflection on your learning
Journal Club Presentations
Each bioinformatics project will begin with a "Journal Club" where students will present and lead discussion of research articles from the primary literature. In addition, we may also discuss ethical case studies relating to the topics in the course. Because that day’s class content is dependent upon each student being ready to present and lead discussion, late journal club presentations and ethics case studies will not be accepted.
Oral Lab Reports
The final step in the scientific method is communication of the results to the scientific community. In bioinformatics, the communication takes place in the form of peer-reviewed papers, presentations and posters at conferences, and through web sites. To build your scientific communication skills, you will give an oral lab report for each of the bioinformatics projects assigned in the course. Because that day’s class content is dependent upon each student being ready to give his or her presentation, late oral lab reports will not be accepted.
Extra Credit
Students may accumulate up to 2.5% of their final grade in extra credit by attending Biology Department seminars and completing the seminar sheets. Each seminar attended is worth 0.5% with up to 5 seminars (2.5%) total. Students arriving late to the seminar will not be granted credit—so don’t be late!
Certain, non-Biology Department seminars may be approved in advance for extra credit at the instructor’s discretion. To receive credit for these non-Biology Department seminars, you must turn in a one-page summary of the seminar within one week of the date of the seminar or they will not count as extra credit.
University Policy on Academic Honesty
Loyola Marymount University expects high standards of honesty and integrity from all members of its community. All students are expected to follow the LMU honor code. As stated in the LMU Undergraduate Bulletin 2008-2010, pp. 58–59,
- "Examples of academic dishonesty include, but are not limited to, the following: all acts of cheating on assignments or examinations, or facilitating other students’ cheating; plagiarism; fabrication of data, including the use of false citations; improper use of non-print media; unauthorized access to computer accounts or files or other privileged information and improper use of Internet sites and resources."
An online version of the LMU honor code is available at:
You are required to sign the Honor Code Agreement for this course.
The Davidson College Department of Biology Statement on Plagiarism has been adopted for this course.
Please also follow these Guidelines for Literature Citations in a Scientific Paper.
Special Accommodations
Students with special needs who need reasonable modifications, special assistance, or accommodations in this course (such as a documented disability [physical, learning, or psychological]) should contact the Disability Services Office (Daum Hall, Room 224, x84535, http://www.lmu.edu/dss) as early in the semester as possible. All discussions will remain confidential. In addition, please schedule an appointment with the instructors early in the semester to discuss any accommodations for this course for which you have been approved.
Revision Notice
If necessary, this syllabus and its contents are subject to revision; students are responsible for any changes or modifications announced in class. The most current version of this information resides on this course web site at http://www.openwetware.org/wiki/BIOL368/F11.
