Skip to main content

Current Course Schedule

Click on a course title to navigate to its description. Key: ** required for PhD curriculum and BCB certificate program; * required for PhD curriculum only.

Fall 2022

Spring 2023

Fall 2022

BCB 710: Will Valdar – Bioinformatics Colloquium

(Fall – Faculty Seminar Presentations & Computing Workshop)

Curriculum seminar course. Required for First 4 Semesters for BCB PhD Program*. Required for 4 Semesters for BCB Certificate Program. Includes research seminars from BCB faculty, student Q&A session, and a short computing workshop on unix and the computing cluster.

1 Credit Hour
August 22-November 28
Time: Mondays 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Location: 1131 Bioinformatics Building

 

BCB 715: Tim Elston – Mathematical Modeling of Gene Networks and Signaling Pathways

BCB Core Module.

This module provides an introduction to the basic mathematical techniques used to develop and analyze models of biochemical networks.  Both deterministic and stochastic models are discussed.

1 Credit Hour
September 22-October 25
Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays – 11:00 AM -12:15 PM
Location: 2004 Marsico Hall (6004 Marico Hall on 10/6 and 10/13)

 

BCB 716:  Leonard McMillan – Sequence Analysis

BCB Core Module.

This module is designed to introduce students to concepts and methods in the comparative analysis of nucleic acid sequences using state of the art sequencing platforms. Course topics will include sequence alignment, genome assembly, and computational details of contemporary protocols for DNA and RNA sequencing.

1 Credit Hour
October 27-November 29
Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays – 11:00 AM -12:15 PM
Location: 2004 Marsico Hall

 

BCB 720: Will Valdar – Introduction to Statistical Modeling

BCB Core Course.

This module introduces foundational statistical concepts and models that motivate a wide range of analytic methods in bioinformatics, statistical genetics, statistical genomics, and related fields. Students are expected to know single-variable calculus (differentiation and integration in 1 dimension), be familiar with matrix algebra and have some programming experience. The course will include material on partial differentiation of multiparameter functions, and use the statistical package R extensively. Familiarity with these will be an advantage but is not assumed.

3 Credit Hours
August 16-November 29
Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays – 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM
Location: 6004 Marsico Hall

Syllabus    Requirements/Preparatory Reading

 

BCB 722: Daniel Schrider – Topics in Population Genetics

BCB Core Module.

This module will cover methods of inferring/estimating natural selection, including the Dn/Ds ratio, the McDonald-Kreitman test, and the Poisson Random Field model. The course will feature discussions of high-profile publications that describe the application of these methods to yield insights into the forces that have shaped organismal evolution.

1 Credit Hour
August 16-September 20
Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays – 11:00 AM -12:15 PM
Location: 2004 Marsico Hall (6004 Marsico Hall on 8/25 and 9/15)

BCB 722_Fall 2020_Syllabus

 

BCB 725: Yun Li and Danyu Lin – Introduction to Statistical Genetics

BCB Elective Course Option.

This is an introductory course for graduate students in Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, Biostatistics, Genetics, Statistics, Computer Science, Epidemiology, and other related quantitative disciplines. The course will cover statistical methods for the analysis of modern genetic and genomic data. Topics will include basic principles in population genetics, commonly adopted statistical methods in genetic studies (e.g., likelihood based inference, EM algorithm, and hidden Markov models), genetic association analysis, haplotype inference, genotype imputation, meta-analysis, rare variant association analysis, and methods for massively parallel genomic sequencing data. Students will be exposed to the latest statistical methodology and computational tools on gene mapping for complex human disease.

1 Credit Hour
August 15-November 30
Time: Mondays and Wednesdays – 2:40 PM – 3:55 PM
Location: 2304 McGavran-Greenberg PH

BCB725Flyer_2022

 

BCB 870: Jason Stein – Grant Writing for Bioinformaticians and Computational Biologists

Required Course for 2nd Year BCB Students. [Students may defer this to their 3rd year only with written permission from both their advisor(s) and the BCB director.]

This course is designed to teach grant writing to graduate students in bioinformatics and computational biology. The course will start with an introduction to major funding agencies and their organization. Then, there will be lecture on grantsmanship. After that, we will hold multiple mock review panels for example grants or grants written by the students in the course. Students are expected to both write grant applications and to review those grant applications. After taking this course, students should be familiar with skills needed for grant writing and have familiarity with the process of grant review.

1 Credit Hour
August 16-September 29
Time: TTH – 12:15 PM – 1:30 PM
Location: 3104 Mary Ellen Jones Building

 

BCB 899: Katie Hoadley and Jeremy Wang – Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Student Seminars

Required Course for 2nd and 3rd Year BCB Students. Y4+ students are required to present once per semester.

The objective of the class is to give students in Y3+ practice at giving talks on their research to a broad audience of other quantitative students (ie, all BCB students) and to get feedback as to how they can improve. It gives students in Y2 practice introducing speakers. Student talks are generally scheduled so that more senior students speak earlier in the semester. Senior students who are scheduled to defend early in the same semester are given special flexibility: they may opt out of giving a seminar talk entirely, or, in consultation with BCB leadership or the instructor, may give an alternative type of presentation aimed at benefiting the student audience (eg, a retrospective on tips gleaned from their PhD, etc.).

1 Credit Hour
August 18-November 17
Time: TH 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Location: 1131 Bioinformatics Building

BCB 784: Mike Love – Introduction to Computational Biology

BCB Elective Course Option.

Cross-listed as BIOS 784. This course makes extensive use of R and assumes basic familiarity with base R (not packages) as a prerequisite. Pre-requisites: BCB 720 or other course providing background on statistical inference that includes working with the likelihood for parameter inference and conditional probabilities.

3 Credit Hour
August 15-November 30
Time: MW 1:25 PM – 2:40 PM

Location: Gillings SPH Room 2304

Spring 2023 (Updates Coming Soon)

BCB 645: Marty Ferris – Quantitative Genetics of Complex Traits

BCB Elective Module.

1 Credit Hour
Dates: TBA
Time: TR 12:30 PM -1:45 PM *TBA
Recitation: F 1:30-2:45 PM *TBA
Location: TBA

 

BCB 710: Christoph Rau – Bioinformatics Colloquium

(Spring – Journal Club)

Curriculum seminar course. Required for First 4 Semesters for BCB PhD Program*. Required for 4 Semesters for BCB Certificate Program.

1 Credit Hour
January 9-April 24
Time: Mondays 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Location: TBA

BCB 717: Konstantin Popov – Structural Bioinformatics

BCB Core Module.

This module introduces methods and techniques for protein modeling including structure determination, protein architecture, approaches to folding simulations, structure prediction, and structure based drug design.

1 Credit Hour
Dates TBA

Time: TR – 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM *TBA
Lab: W – 2:35 PM – 3:25 PM *TBA
Course Location: TBA
Lab Location: TBA

 

BCB 718: Jeremy Purvis and Adam Palmer – Computational Modeling Laboratory

BCB Elective Module.

This module provides a hands-on, laboratory-style course on computational modeling of biological systems.
Students will develop a model of their own choosing and be responsible for all aspects of its design, construction, simulation, and analysis.

1 Credit Hour
Dates TBA
Time: TR – 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM *TBA
Location: TBA

 

BCB 723: Yun Li and Fei Zou – Topics in Statistical Genetics and Genomics

BCB Elective Module.

The module will cover concepts, techniques, statistical methods for the analysis of genetic and genomic data. Topics covered will include classical linkage analysis, population-based and family‐based association analysis, genome‐wide association studies, basic principles in population genetics, analysis of next-generation or massively parallel sequencing data, and analysis of Hi-C data. Students will be exposed to the latest statistical methodology and computational tools on gene mapping for complex human disease.

1 Credit Hour
Dates TBA
Time: TR – 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM *TBA
Location: TBA

 

BCB 730: Kasia Kedziora and Teresa Ropp – Fundamentals of Quantitative Image Analysis for Light Microscopy

BCB Elective Module.

The module is a practical introduction to quantitative analysis of light microscopy images. During the class students will follow tutorials that will guide them through common tasks in analysis of biological images. They will be introduced to basic concepts of image processing like image registration, filtering, object detection etc.

1 Credit Hour
Dates TBA
Time: TR – 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM *TBA
Location: Dates TBA

 

BCB 888: Various Faculty – Responsible Conduct of Research

Responsible conduct of research is a classroom-based graduate level course covering critical topics for ethical and responsible conduct of experimental research. There are both classroom lecture, workshop-type discussion components, in addition to assigned outside of class readings. Case studies and hypothetical situations involving the most likely scenarios confronting graduate students will be covered, these topics include: mentor and mentee relationships, publication authorship, collaboration, peer review, conflicts of interest, intellectual property, plagiarism, data acquisition and data processing.

1 Credit Hour
Dates: TBA
Time: F – 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM *TBA
Location: TBA

 

BCB 899: Doug Phanstiel, Cavin Ward-Caviness – Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Student Seminars

Required Course for 2nd and 3rd Year BCB Students. Y4+ students are required to present once per semester.

The objective of the class is to give students in Y3+ practice at giving talks on their research to a broad audience of other quantitative students (ie, all BCB students) and to get feedback as to how they can improve. It gives students in Y2 practice introducing speakers. Student talks are generally scheduled so that more senior students speak earlier in the semester. Senior students who are scheduled to defend early in the same semester are given special flexibility: they may opt out of giving a seminar talk entirely, or, in consultation with BCB leadership or the instructor, may give an alternative type of presentation aimed at benefiting the student audience (eg, a retrospective on tips gleaned from their PhD, etc.).

1 Credit Hour
Dates: Normal spring semester dates
Time: Thurs 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Location: 1131 Bioinformatics