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Perspectives in Computational Biology

Objectives

This curricular unit aims to complement the knowledge that will acquired by the students in other curricular units, by showing them how these knowledge is applied in practice by specialists in different fields, working either in academia or in industry. This will help the students to have a clear notion of how the knowledge obtained throughout the Master program may be applied in practice. By the end of this curricular unit the student will have acquired knowledge, abilities and competences that enable her/him to:
- Understand the role of computational biology and bioinformatics in the context of modern biology, as well as the scientific and technological impact of this field
- Know the latest developments and state of the art applications of the different branches of computational biology
- Be able to read, interpret and discuss scientific papers in this field
- Be able to elaborate a written work on a topic in this field
- Be able to prepare and deliver an oral presentation

General characterization

Code

12500

Credits

3.0

Responsible teacher

Cláudio Manuel Simões Loureiro Nunes Soares, Diana Andreia Pereira Lousa

Hours

Weekly - 2

Total - 28

Teaching language

Português

Prerequisites

Available soon

Bibliography

Available soon

Teaching method

Different teaching methodologies will be applied in this curricular unit (CU):
1) Seminars
The students will participate in seminars organized by the teachers involved in this CU and presented by experts in different areas of computational biology, including professionals from both academia and industry, where they will be stimulated to ask questions and actively participate.
2) Journal clubs and written work
In the journal clubs, the students will analyse, present and discuss scientific papers on recent developments in different areas of computational biology and bioinformatics. This work will be done with the support from the teachers involved in this CU. Additionally, the students will elaborate an individual written work on one of the topics discussed in the seminars and journal clubs, with the supervision of the teachers.

Evaluation method

The evaluation will include two components:
1) Individual our group presentations and discussions in journal clubs.
2) Individual written work.

Subject matter

The topics of this curricular unit are very diverse, reflecting the large number of areas and methodologies present in this field. These topics will be discussed in the context of their applications, both in academia and in industry.
An overview of the different branches in this field and their recent developments and applications will be given, through seminars presented by experts in the topics and through the analysis and discussion of scientific papers.
Additionally, students will elaborate a written work on one of these topics. The following topics will be discussed:
1) Applications of computational evolutionary biology
2) Applications of computational multi-omics
3) Applications of computational proteomics

4) Applications of systems biology
5) Applications of biomolecular simulation and chemoinformatics
6) Applications of artificial intelligence in biology