Course Requirements:

• Prerequisites: A familiarity with the concepts of molecular biology, basic biostatistics, and comfort using computers and the internet. Although there are no formal course prerequisites, you should have at least one prior upper division undergraduate course (or better) in each of molecular biology, statistics and computer programming. Many students have found the statistics we assume to be challenging. You should be comfortable with concepts of probability, hypothesis testing and regression before taking this course.

• Readings: I have yet to find a really excellent, all-inclusive bioinformatics textbook; it depends on what you know and what you want to know. Here are some context-sensitive suggestions about good textbooks Supplementary and background readings on computer science, molecular biology and bioinformatics are also listed. Mostly your readings will be from the primary scientific literature. An online reading list will be made available before each lecture.

• Access to a computer with an internet connection. You will need an account with a UCHSC IP address to get access to some readings. There will be web sites you have to visit and data to up- and down-load, so it will help to have a high speed connection. Most of the machines available through the program run linux, so you you might want to try it yourself to learn the basics. Visit UCHSC Information Services to get a remote access account.