Aims and objectives
This module is an integrated series of lectures, and workshops covering the key expanding disciplines of genomics and bioinformatics. Genomics is a family of 'information technologies' for biology that are being used to obtain interpret and exploit the complete sequences of the chromosomes and genomes of organisms ranging from bacteria to man.
Bioinformatics encompasses the methodologies (particularly computational) enabling the analysis and integration of information made available by structural, physiological, taxonomic and genomic studies with the ultimate goal of assigning functions to genes. The results emerging from these two disciplines will inform new predictive strategies to identify new and useful genes and potential drug targets, understand gene behaviour and develop novel therapeutic products. The module will provide both theoretical and practical training in genomics and computational biology.

Content
The lectures cover the following topics:

• An introdcuiton to genomics & bioinformatics
• Information on retrieval from biological databases
• Fundamentals of database searching
• (including sequence, genomic, structural, enzyme & pathway databases)
• Computational gene finding
• Sequence analysis
• Primary structure analysis, pairwise and multiple sequence alignment
• Protein classification and functional assignment
• Phylogenetic analysis
• Comparative genomics
• Functional genomics
• Investigation of model genomes
• Metabolome, transcriptome & proteome analysis
• Spectroscopic analysis and data interpretation methods
• Specific examples of the application of genomics and bioinformatics to ongoing research at Aberystwyth

Learning outcomes
On completion of this applied module, students

• will appreciate current research strategies for gene discovery and determination of gene function (genomics) and biological data analysis and interpretation (bioinformatics)
• will have practical experience and knowledge of the concepts underlying database access, sequence analysis, protein classification and functional assignment.