CSE 180: Biology Meets Computing

Winter 2019 - UCSD - San Diego, USA

Lectures (CSB 004)

  • Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 3:00 - 3:50 pm
  • Friday: 4:00 - 4:50 pm, discussion

Logistics

Course staff

  • Yana Safonova, instructor: isafonova at ucsd dot edu
  • Owen Chapman, TA: ochapman at eng dot ucsd dot edu
  • Arya Kaul, tutor: a1kaul at ucsd dot edu

Office hours

  • Yana: Wednesday, 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm, Atkinson Hall, room 4105
  • Arya: Tuesday, 11 am – 12 pm, CSE dungeon
  • Owen: Wednesday, 7pm – 8pm, CSE dungeon B240

CSE 180 syllabus and schedule

UCSD Academic and Administrative Calendar 2018–2019

Week 1. Introduction


Week 2. Chapter 1: Where in the Genome Does DNA Replication Begin? (Part 1)

  • Jan 14th, Monday
  • Jan 16th, Wednesday
    • 1.3. Hidden Messages in the Replication Origin (Part 2).
    • 1.4. Some Hidden Messages are More Surprising than Others.
    • Homework for Jan 16th: Chapters 1.3 and 1.4. Rosalind problems "Counting DNA Nucleotides" and "Complementing a Strand of DNA".
    • Quiz 2.
    • Programming practice “Counting k-mers in a string”.
  • Jan 18th, Friday
    • 1.5. An Explosion of Hidden Messages.
    • 1.6. Detour: The Most Beautiful Experiment in Biology.
    • 1.7. Detour: Directionality of DNA Strands.
    • Homework for Jan 18th: Chapters 1.5 - 1.7.
    • Programming practice “A naive algorithm for finding oriC”.


Week 3. Chapter 2: Where in the Genome Does DNA Replication Begin? (Part 2)


Week 4. Chapter 3: Which DNA Patterns Play The Role of Molecular Clocks? (Part 1)

Please also prepare up to 5 questions about Chapters 1 and 2 and send it to Yana by Monday, Jan 28th, 9:00 am. Questions may cover various aspects of finding the origin of replication (limitation of methods, alternative approaches, biomedical applications) or express concerns about the quality of the explanations provided in Chapters 1, 2. Each reasonable question will be awarded by 1 point (max 5 points) and the points will be included to Quiz part during the final grading. IMPORTANT: Questions sent after the deadline won't be considered.


Week 5. Chapter 4: Which DNA Patterns Play The Role of Molecular Clocks? (Part 2)


Week 6. Midterm 1. Topics of final projects. Chapter 5: Unix command line


Week 7. Chapter 6: Investigating the Foodborne Outbreak (Genome Assembly Project)

  • Feb 18th, Monday, Presidents' Day Holiday
  • Feb 20th, Wednesday:
  • Feb 22nd, Friday:
    • 6.1. The Start of the Outbreak
    • 6.2. The Mysterious Strain
    • 6.3. A Puzzle of Million Pieces
    • Genome assembly, part II
    • Homework to Feb 22nd: Chapters 6.1 - 6.3


Week 8. Chapter 7: Of Mice and Men (RNA Sequencing and Gene Expression Analysis)

  • Feb 25th, Monday:
    • 6.4. Eyewitness Identification
    • 6.5 What is the genetic cause of HUS?
    • 6.6. Antibiotic Resistance and its Origin
    • 6.7. Detour: Tools, Databases and Formats
    • Quiz. Genome assembly, part III
    • Homework to Feb 25th: Chapters 6.4 - 6.7
  • Feb 27th, Wednesday
  • Mar 1st, Friday


Week 9. Chapter 8: 65 Roses (Whole Genome and Whole Exome Sequencing)


Week 10. Midterm 2. Chapter 9: Learning from a Trio


Final week, presentations of final projects

  • Wednesday, Mar 20th, 3:00 - 5:59 PM, CSB 004