Computational Methods of Systems Biology

582653
4
Bioinformatics
Advanced studies
The course explores computational methods for biological networks, including network motif discovery, pathway analysis and reconstruction techniques. Prerequisite studies: recommended background studies include basics in bioinformatics as well as algorithms. Course book: B. H. Junker, F. Schreiber: Analysis of Biological Networks, Wiley, 2008.

Exam

28.02.2011 16.00 A111
Year Semester Date Period Language In charge
2011 spring 17.01-24.02. 3-3 English Juho Rousu

Lectures

Time Room Lecturer Date
Mon 12-14 B222 Juho Rousu 17.01.2011-24.02.2011
Thu 10-12 B222 Juho Rousu 17.01.2011-24.02.2011

Exercise groups

Group: 1
Time Room Instructor Date Observe
Mon 10-12 C222 Leena Salmela 24.01.2011—25.02.2011

Information for international students

 The course is lectured in English.

General

 

The course explores computational methods for biological networks, including network motif discovery, pathway analysis and reconstruction techniques.
Prerequisite studies: recommended background studies include basics in bioinformatics as well as algorithms.
 
 
First lecture: Monday 17.1 at 12.15-14 B222
 
Note: No lecture on Thursday 20.1. Read Chapter 2 on your own.
 
Points from the first groupwork have been added to the course bookkeeping system. The first groupwork was not specially graded, all participating received full points.

The course has been graded. The results can be found here 

 

 

Completing the course

 The course consists of the following components:

  • Lectures
    • Lecture 1 (17.1): Slides
    • Lecture 2 (24.1): Slides. Note: The original paper by Barabasi&Albert is unclear on how the preferential attachment models is initialized. The problem seems to be generally solved by connecting the vertices of the initial network to at least one other vertex. Perhaps more elegant would be to use the Laplace correction in the attachment probability definition p(ni) = (ki+1)/sumj(kj+1), which correspnds to the number of neighbors + the vertex itself. Both approaches will lead to similar network properties enough iterations.
    • Lecture 3 (27.1): Slides.
    • Lecture 4 (3.2): Slides.
    • Lecture 5 (7.2): Slides.
    • Lecture 6 (10.2): Slides.
    • Lecture 7 (14.2): Slides.
    • Lecture 8 (17.2): Slides.
  • Lecture 9 (24.2): Slides.
  • Group work: completed during the group works session, 20% of the grade. Two sessions:
    • Mon 31.1, 10.15am - 11.45am C222, 12.30pm-14.00pm, B222
    • Mon 21.2, 10.15am - 11.45am C222, 12.30pm-14.00pm, B222
      • Topic: presentation of software tools and databases for biological network analysis. Each group prepares a presentation of ca. 15-20 minutes of a software/database suitable for analysis of biological network. 
      • Below the people that participated to group work 1 has been preassigned to groups (if you want to participate and you don't see your name in the lists, please contact Juho as soon as possible):
        • Group 1:Khadeeja Ismail, Serikzhan Kazi, Jia Liu: Cytoscape
        • Group 2:Juhana Kammonen, Pasi Korhonen, Marie-Noelle Specq: Biocyc 
        • Group 3: Meharji Arumilli, Alejandra Cervera Taboada, Shihab Hasan:  KEGG  
        • Group 4: Chengyu Liu, Hongyu Su, Fang Zhou: Pajek
      • The above links are pointers to the homepages of the tools. Note that all of them a have a scientific publication or several behind them that explains the internals. Please go and look for them!
      • The groupwork will be graded by looking at (1) information content (2) clarity (3) use of presentation tools. An ideal presentation would answer a question "I have a problem about a biological network at hand. How do I solve it by using this tool?"
  • Exercises: completed at home, returned in writing to Leena (leena.salmela@cs.helsinki.fi) prior to the session (don't return late if you want exercise points!), reviewed in the exercise sessions, 30% of the grade. Three sessions
  • Course exam, 50% of the grade. Examined content are the lectures and the exercises. Group work is not part of the examined contents.
    • Mon 28.2 at 16.00  in A111 

The course will be graded in the scale 1-5. 50% of the maximum points will give the grade of 1/5, 80% of the maximum will give the grade of 5/5.

Schedule

 

 

Literature and material

 Text books: 

Scientific papers: