Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Guidelines for Establishing Undergraduate Bioinformatics Courses

  • Published:
Journal of Science Education and Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper first provides a bird's-eye view of the topics involved in teaching undergraduate courses in bioinformatics. It then presents constructive suggestions on how to design such courses so that the subject can be introduced early in the undergraduate curriculum; that allows students to pursue a career in the field by taking few additional courses. This effort represents a first step in the design and implementation of a major in bioinformatics. The approach encourages an interaction among the faculty in biology and in computer science and paves the way for wider channels of communication which can benefit both computer scientists and biologists. Worth noting is the description of a project-oriented syllabus that has been used in a joint Brandeis–Wellesley course for the past years. This paper may also assist as a guide for further discussions on the teaching of bioinformatics.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Altman, R. (1998). A curriculum in bioInformatics: The time is ripe. BioInformatics 14: 549–550.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baldi, P., Brunak, S. (2002) Bioinformatics: The Machine Learning Approach, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baxevanis, A., and Ouellette, B. F. F. (1998). Bioinformatics: A Practical Guide to the Analysis of Genes and Proteins, Wiley, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, A. M., and Heyer, L. (2002). Discovering Genomics, Proteomics and BioInformatics, Benjamin Cummings, San Francisco.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durbin, R., Eddy S., Krogh A, and Mitchison G. (1998) Biological Sequence Analysis, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gonick, L., and Wheelis, M. (1991). A Cartoon Guide to Genetics, Harper Perennial, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gonick, L., and Wycoff, G. (1994). A Cartoon Guide to Statistics, Harper Perennial, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krane, D., and Raymer, M. (2003). Fundamental Concepts of BioInformatics, Benjamin Cummings, San Francisco.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luscombe, N. M., Greenbaum, D., Gerstein, M. (2001). What is bioinformatics? A proposed definition and overview of the field. Methods of Information Medicine 40: 346–358. Available at http://bioinfo.mbb.yale.edu/papers/whatis-mim/

    Google Scholar 

  • Mount, D. W. (2001). Bioinformatics: Sequence and Genome Analysis, Cold Spring Harbor, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pevzner, P. A (2000) Computational Molecular Biology: An Algorithmic Approach, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salzberg, S. L., Searls, D. B., and Kasif, S. (1998). Computational Methods in Molecular Biology, Elsevier, Amsterdam.

    Google Scholar 

  • Setubal, J., and Meidanis, J. (1997) Introduction to Computational Molecular Biology, PWS Publishing, Boston.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science Department, Volen Center, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, 02454

    Jacques Cohen

Authors
  1. Jacques Cohen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Cohen, J. Guidelines for Establishing Undergraduate Bioinformatics Courses. Journal of Science Education and Technology 12, 449–456 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOST.0000006304.01183.ba

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOST.0000006304.01183.ba

Search

Navigation