Foundations in Biomedical Science: Bioinformatics and Quantitative Biology

Prerequisites: Accepted PhD student in the Program in Biomedical Sciences (PiBS) program or Pharmacology PhD program on the BU medical campus. This course is outlined as a core FBS module to replace the current Foundations in Biomedical Science IV: Mechanisms of Cell Communication module (FC714). The time and course credits (3cr) will be similar i.e. 7 weeks of 3 two-hour classes. I topic per week will be covered. Each week will include ~15-30 minutes of lecture that will introduce the biological question addressed, the way that the data is generated, and the general concepts of data analysis. The remainder of the class sessions will be hands-on work on data analysis. We plan to primarily use R for analysis and data visualization but will also use the SCC/bash for some data analysis steps. The use of these programs will be interwoven throughout the classes as we introduce new concepts (no class will be entirely devoted to R or the SCC). The class will also include paper discussions where we pick a paper that uses some of the analysis that we have discussed. We will look at different ways that the same type of data is presented and emphasize an understanding of the methods in papers.