Courses

MICBIO690K, CS691K, Stat697K Bioinformatics Course Wiki
Taught in collaboration with David Kulp (Computer Science) and Erin Conlon (Mathematics and Statistics). Our aim is to provide an introduction to the computational tools, algorithms, and analysis techniques that have emerged in molecular biology. We will specifically focus on sequence analysis and microarrays.

MICBIO590B Bioinformatics Lab Course Wiki
This bioinformatics laboratory course is designed for Life Science students to learn computational approaches analyzing genome sequence and microarray data. During the course you will be expected to become familiar with existing bioinformatic tools, write Perl programs to manipulate biological data and be introduced to a statistical programming language R.

BIOL397A Genes and Genome Analysis Course Wiki
Taught in collaboration with Elsbeth Walker (Biology). Molecular genetics and bioinformatics are powerful approaches to investigate the mechanisms of gene expression. The aim of this course is to provide you with some basic practical knowledge and hands-on experience regarding some of the most common experimental methods used in molecular genetics and genomics research.

MICBIO310 Introduction to Microbiology Course site
Microbes are everywhere: around us, on us and inside us. In fact, it is very difficult to find an environment on Earth that does not support some form of microbial life. Through this course, we will aim to understand how microbes became so immensely successful at colonizing every possible habitat on the planet.

MICBIO697S Systems Biology Project Club Course Wiki
Fall 2007: Testing Evolutionary Hypotheses with Microarrays. The first half of the class will be spent discussing current papers and the second half of the class will be a practical on the implementation of microarray analysis methods. Students will report on their success in getting computational methods discussed in the first half of the class running on their own computers. Then share their results using these methods and create a wiki page that describes how to use the method. All students are encouraged to bring their own laptops to the project club to facilitate understanding and sharing of the methods.

Outreach

International Professional Development Workshops for Research Scientists. We have worked closely with Dr. Karin Borgh, Executive Director of BioPharmaceutical Technology Center Institute (BTCI), to develop bioinformatics-related workshops. The workshops we have developed together include: Techniques in Bioinformatics and Comparative Genomics (1999-2003), Database Design and Development for Genomics Research (2000), and Computational Approaches to the Analysis of Gene Expression Data (2002, 2003, 2005). These are very intensive pragmatic workshops geared for practicing professionals. In the past five years we have had 121 people, primarily postdoctoral fellows, professors and scientists from industry, from 30 states and 11 foreign institutions.

Presentations to high school assemblies and local artist groups.
As part of the Genetics Society of America Mentorship Program, we have given presentations to local high school assemblies at Gateway Regional High School and Westfield High School for National DNA Day, commemorating the completion of the Human Genome Project and the discovery of DNA’s double helix. We have also given presentations to a local artist group interested in the interface between science and art.