Genomics and Bioinformatics

Note 1: The period mentioned below is the period in which this course starts. For the exact academic weeks see the courseplanning on www.wur.eu/schedule.
Note 2: This course is offered online and it takes about 20 hours to complete the weekly task. There are assignments with deadlines and non-synchronous interaction with teachers and fellow students.

Genomics is a new area of research that relates to holistic study of the genome a the gene, transcript, protein and metabolite levels. Due to the large amounts of data involved in this study computer tools are extensively used. During the course we will present basic concepts of genomics and introduce students to the problems of dealing with and understanding these large datasets. We will discuss the basic architecture of the genome and the implications for genome evolution. We will also deal with the structural and functional aspects of genomics from gene through to metabolites. The course will help the students to analyse and understand the links and relationships between genes and their various products. The course will comprise information packages in the form of knowledge clips, recorded tutorial and these will be combined with a large number of exercises where the knowledge provided will be applied to practical bioinformatics problems.

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:

• Interpret the organization of plant genomes and how they evolved
• Explain how different functional genomics levels interacts and depend on each other's
• Evaluate the results of genome assembly and annotation
• Analyze simple genomics data to retrieve biological information
• Execute and present a literature study on a crop genome of choice
• Integrate information from genes to pathways to networks at an organism level
• Argument the role of genomics for crop improvement

Assumed Knowledge:
Basic knowledge of Molecular Biology and Genetics. It is necessary to have followed an online course at Wageningen University before, or the special Onboarding course for distance learning. To get access to the Onboarding course, send an email to: onboarding.wur@wur.nl.