📚 Syllabus & Course Curriculum
Bioinformatics & Computational Biology
Module-by-module breakdown of Exploring Bioinformatics Tools for Genomic Analysis, from foundations to a certified capstone project.
Databases
• NCBI, Ensembl and UCSC and the differences in their annotation
• Genome builds, coordinate systems and the off-by-one that breaks analyses
• Accession types and retrieving data reproducibly rather than by download button
Alignment
• BLAST variants, E-value interpretation and scoring matrix choice
• Multiple sequence alignment with MUSCLE or MAFFT and manual inspection
• Homology, orthology and paralogy — the distinction most reports get wrong
Browsers
• UCSC Genome Browser tracks, custom tracks and the Table Browser
• Ensembl gene views, regulatory features and comparative genomics
• IGV for inspecting alignments before trusting any variant call
Annotation
• Gene structure, transcript isoforms and the meaning of a canonical transcript
• Variant annotation with VEP and interpreting consequence terms
• Functional annotation with GO and KEGG and the correct background set
Workflow
• File formats — FASTA, FASTQ, SAM/BAM, VCF, BED — and their pitfalls
• Command line basics and scripting instead of repeated web submissions
• Recording versions and parameters so an analysis can be repeated
Earn government-registered certification in Exploring Bioinformatics Tools for Genomic Analysis
e-Certificate and e-Marksheet issued on successful completion.
