Genetics 885

• Fall 2022, 3 credits
• Instructors: Nicole Perna & Audrey Gasch
• Lectures:  Monday/Wednesday 2:25 – 3:15 pm (room 1408, Genetics-Biotech Center)
• Computer Lab: 3:30 – 5:30 pm (location to be determined)
• *** COURSE LIMITED TO 20 STUDENTS, see below about how to register

COURSE DESCRIPTION:  

With the availability of genome sequences and high-throughput techniques, organismal physiology can now be examined on a global scale by monitoring the behavior of all genes, proteins, metabolites, and molecules as well as how those components interact to form a functioning cell. This course will present modern techniques in genomics, proteomics, and systems biology with particular focus on analyzing the data generated by these techniques.

Course material will cover genomic sequencing, comparative sequence analysis, phylogenomics, single-cell and bulk RNA sequencing, sequence motif discovery, high- throughput screens, techniques in mass spectrometry, and network analysis. The course is designed for biologists who are motivated to understand underlying computational and statistical methods, with the goal of analyzing their own or published datasets.

In addition to lecture time, the course includes a weekly computer lab where students get hands-on experience analyzing genomic and proteomic datasets. An introduction to R and

Python is included in the labs. Students also conduct a semester-long computational project of their choice that uses multiple computational methods discussed in class.

** Class enrollment is limited to 20 students due to computer-lab space and is restricted to graduate students. Prerequisites include: Genetics 466 or equivalent, basic statistics knowledge, & experience with Excel or R or other programming language.

Enrollment requires consent of instructor – please email Nicole Perna (ntperna@wisc.edu) or Audrey Gasch (agasch@wisc.edu) to enroll.