Oklahoma City Community College
Introduction to Bioinformatics – BINFO1011

Instructor:                        John McMurray
Office:                              Room 1P1 Main Building
Office Hours:                      
Phone:                              (405) 682-1611 ext. 7164
E-mail:                              jmcmurray@occc.edu                         
Textbook:                      There is no textbook for this course.

Course Description: This course is designed to introduce students to the field of bioinformatics, a specialized and synthetic discipline that combines elements of biological science, biotechnology and computer science in order to understand and interpret DNA and amino acid sequence data. It will expose students to the primary databases that store sequence data and provide them with the basic skills necessary to search, download and analyze (to a limited exent) this data.

Course Objectives: At the conclusion of this course, students should be able to:
- describe and diagram the structure of DNA,
- describe the general organization of prokaryotic and eukaryotic genomes,
- explain how information in the DNA is transcribed and translated to produce a polypeptide,
- explain the process of “shotgun” sequencing,
- open and view trace files,
- perform an assembly of DNA contigs,
- explain the BLAST search algorithm,
- conduct a BLAST search of both DNA and amino acid query sequences and interpret the results,
- align multiple DNA and amino acid sequences,
- generate phenograms and cladograms from aligned sequence data,
- view (3D) protein structure,
- understand the three basic approaches to protein classification,
- locate metabolic pathway information when given a gene name or DNA sequence, and
- understand how DNA microarrays are able to assess levels of gene expression.

Attendance: Consistent, on-time attendance is required. Students who miss a lecture period will have 10 points deducted from their grade, regardless of the reason. Being late to lecture will result in a 5 point grade deduction.

Accommodations for Students with Special Needs: Oklahoma City Community College complies with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Students with disabilities who require special accommodations should make their request in the following ways:
                - talk with your instructor after class or during office hours about your disability or special needs related to work in class.
                - complete a Request for Special Accommodations Form with a Student Support Services Advisor or a Deaf and Hearing-Impaired Specialist