Introduction to Bioinformatics

Introduction to Bioinformatics - COIN81

COIN 81 Midterm / Final

The midterm / final below is due on or before the final day of class (but may be submitted at any time). Take your time, read each question carefully, and give me an organized, thoughtful, and cogent response to each question. I grade on effort, organization, and your ability to explain your thoughts.

There is a 'wild card' at the end which you may use to substitute for a question, or use as extra credit. Please read that question *very* carefully.

Good luck, and try to use this course as an 'outcome', not as an 'exercise'. This assignment tells me what you have gained from this class. Your deliverable to me should be a Word document, web document, or a small website (one question per page). Please keep file size below 100K.

Question 1 (30 points) - You have just won the super, super lotto, and have $100 million left (after you purchase your villa in Europe) and have decided to set up a bioinformatics portal. There is no business model required - you are doing this altruistically. What would you build, and why? Focus on the details of your services, who would benefit from this, and why. As a reference, assume that the annual operating budget of NCBI is roughly $25 million.

Question 2 (30 points) - Genomics, proteomics, and physiomics are a delineation in the evolution of bioinformatics industries, not just disciplines. Tell me how would you explain the 'road map' of these phases, as well as their technical definitions, to two types of people. The first is a trained biologist or life scientist, and the second is an ordinary (but educated) person you meet socially. You need to be able to do both.

Question 3 (30 points) - Bioinformatics, and the websites you worked with this quarter, are tools to discover and learn more about molecular biology, evolution, disease, and the role of genes in our lives. Describe how this *course* affected you, and what you know about the world.

Question 4 (15 points) - Two parts. Firstly, what one single activity most benefited you in this class, and why? Secondly, what one single Web resource did you find most valuable, and why? Speak to your overall experience in this course, and what was most valuable to you.

Question 5 (15 points) - Two parts. Firstly, what advice would you give me to make this course more effective, or your learning experience better? Secondly, tell me what you plan to do with the information and knowledge you learned from this course. Try to be specific as possible.

Wild card (10 points) - NASA has returned from a mission to Mars with a sample of soil that early indications suggest contain organic molecules and nitrogenous bases consistent with proteins, DNA, and or RNA. Using any combination of technologies that you deem prudent, tell me what you would do to analyze this sample, and what you expect to find. Focus on questions that you would ask, not (solely) technique. I'm looking for what data you would need from your experiments to comment on evolution of molecular biology on Mars. Be imaginative, but don't think about science fiction - tell me what you would do in terms of activities and skills that you learned in this class, and in your associated research. As a hint, you might want to research a little about 'the RNA World', and associated papers in astrobioinformatics (see NASA publications).

Click here to return to the course outline.