Can people design proteins? Not really, but this is how they try.

Do you think the world is overpopulated? Are humans a blight upon the surface of the earth? Come learn how to solve all of these problems, and many more!

How can individual mutations cause speciation and evolution? Can we model evolution as a mutational flux?

Modern biology is heavily dependent on computer science. Only a computer can process the enormous data sets modern experimental techniques like shotgun sequencing and RNA-seq, and only a computer can mine gigabytes or terabytes of sequence data for motifs, homology, or phylogenetics. In this class, we will explore the bioinformatics algorithms that enable modern biology. We will start with basic string handling and motif discovery, then discuss gene prediction, sequence alignment, genome assembly, and phylogenetic analysis. We will learn how important algorithms like Needleman–Wunsch and BLAST, and we will see how De Bruijn graphs can be used to assemble short sequencing reads into a genome. We will work as much as possible with real data. On the last day of the class, we will use a cluster computer to assemble a (small) genome, de novo.