Syllabus
1) Introduction to bioinformatics, overview of available methods
2) Data - how are they generated? (genomics, X-ray crystallography, cryo-em)
3) Data - where to find them? (databases)
4) Sequence alignment - algorithms, how to use it?
5) Looking for similar sequences - BLAST, PSI-BLAST
6) Structural alignment - algorithms, how to use it?
7) Analysis of protein structures
8) Prediction of structures of proteins
9) Homology modelling
10)Tools for complex analysis of biological data
11) Phylogeny
Annotation
Laboratories around the world produce massive amount of new nucleotide and protein sequences, gene expression profiles, 3-D structures and other data of biological character. With an ever-increasing amount of data available, grows even the significance of bioinformatics. Bioinformatics collects, archives and most importantly analyses and attempt to find a meaning and useful information in this explosively growing sea of data. Bioinformatics is one of the most dynamically developing areas of biomedical research and basic knowledge of bioinformatics methods becomes quickly indispensable for anyone with a serious interest in doing biomedical research.
The aim of this course is to introduce students with basic, but also modern promising bioinformatics methods. These methods will be shown and explained in lectures and later used in a series of practicals. These "hands-on" practicals are designed to show how to take an advantage of bioinformatics in every day life in a laboratory. This course is suitable for the second- or higher year students of biology or chemistry who want to specialize within the biomedical field of research. A basic knowledge of structure of biomacromolecules (nucleic acids, proteins) is an advantage, but it is not required to have it. To successfully finish the course, one has to attend the practicals and pass the final written exam.
The course has been modified to reflect a new study programme Parasitology and Infection Biology.
The course is taught with the support of the project ESF pro VŠ II na UK, Reg. num.: CZ.02.2.69/0.0/0.0/18_056/0013322