Exploring Bioinformatics: A Project-Based Approach is intended for an introductory course in bioinformatics at the undergraduate level. Through hands-on projects, students are introduced to current biological problems and then explore and develop bioinformatic solutions to these issues. Each chapter presents a key problem, provides basic biological concepts, introduces computational techniques to address the problem, and guides students through the use of existing web-based tools and software solutions. This progression prepares students to tackle the On-Your-Own Project, where they develop their own software solutions. Topics such as antibiotic resistance, genetic disease, and genome sequencing provide context and relevance to capture student interest.
Key Features:
- Guided Programming Projects: Guided analysis of solutions to current biological problems enables students to understand the computational approaches to real-world issues.
- On-Your-Own Projects: Students are provided with the opportunity to apply their problem-solving and programming skills to new problems.
- Web Exploration: Includes widely used web-based tools to explore bioinformatic approaches to important biological questions.
- BioBackground: Provides key biological concepts for understanding the chapter material.
- Perl: Need to Know: Provides key Perl and programming syntax for developing software solutions within the chapter exercises.
- Putting Your Skills into Practice Exercises: Test students’ problem-solving abilities through either modifying or implementing existing code.
- BioConcept Questions: Help students assess whether their biology knowledge is sufficient to master the chapter material.
