Applied Bioinformatics for Exploring College Freshmen and High School Students
[1]
Zach Lozier, Department of Informatics, Indiana University SE, New Albany, Indiana, USA.
[2]
Sridhar Ramachandran, Department of Informatics, Indiana University SE, New Albany, Indiana, USA.
Bioinformatics is a growing professional field characterized by the combination of skills required in the fields of biology, computer science, and information technology. Generally, bioinformatics programs offered at the undergraduate level and beyond focus on preparing their students to develop programs that will be used to analyze and organize data generated by biologists. There is an apparent disconnect between the programs being developed and biologists willing to use them. This paper describes the field of bioinformatics and attempts to establish a need for a course that teaches students how to use various tools and programs currently available for use in analyzing biological data, primarily in the form of genes and proteins. Additionally, a course design and a framework is presented that can be easily adopted by interested instructors.
Informatics, Bioinformatics, Undergraduate, Biotechnology, Bioengineering
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