Tools in Bioinformatics, Fall 2009-2010

Overview:

The aim of the course is to familiarize students with modern methods in bioinformatics used for current biology research.

Teaching instructors: Nimrod Rubinstein, Osnat Penn, and Daiana Alaluf.

Course hours:

There are three groups:
1. Sunday: 16:00-18:00
2. Monday: 12:00-14:00
3. Monday: 14:00-16:00
Each student will participate in one group once every two weeks.

Location:

Sherman 03.


Syllabus

Assignment grades

Announcements:

03.05.10: Project and final grades are updated in the Assignment grades file.
21.03.10: During 28.03-07.04 the ConSurf, ConSeq, Selecton, and other servers located at TAU will be unavailable due to electricity maintenance power offs. We therefore recommend that you perform all your final project analyses that rely on these servers by the 28th.
21.01.10: Assignment grades file has been updated with all class and home works. Please check that all the assignments you handed in during the semester have been marked and graded.
17.01.10: In HW6, question 5, please replace "e." with "4.".
31.12.09: The Selecton server, which you use in HW5, takes a few hours to return results. It is thus recommended not to wait until the last minute for solving HW5.
31.12.09: To correctly download the files of HW5 (protease.aln, protease.ph, amino.aln) right-click the link and pick the "Save Target As" option in Internet Explorer or the "Save Link As" option in Mozilla Firefox.
16.12.09: The links referred to in Solution_HW2 have been updated, please download the document again.
10.12.09: The links referred to in HW4 have been updated, please download the document again.
16.11.09: Question 5b in HW2 has been updated. Please refer to the updated version. If you already handed in your HW2 please email us your updated solution to question 5b.
03.11.09: The excel file listing your assignment grades is online.
01.11.09: In HW1, questions 1 c, d, e, (PubMed search in the last two years), fill in the date two years back from the date you solve the question, and indicate this date in your solution.
27.10.09: Please name the class and home work files you submit with your ID (if you are a pair both IDs separated by a dot) followed by a dot and the class or home work number. For example: 043345663.042334522.CW2.doc.
26.10.09: Checked CWs will be emailed back to you only if we had remarks. In any case we recommend that you go over the solution when it is online.
26.10.09: An excel file listing your assignment grades will be uploaded to the website shortly. Please check it to see that your assignments were received and graded. In case of mistake please contact your instructor.
26.10.09: HW1 is online. Hand-in date is at your next lesson (08,09.11.09).
18.10.09: The first lesson will take place on the second week of the semester.


Class Dates Topic Presentation Class work Class work solution Home work Home work solution
Lesson 1 26,27.10.09 Introduction to databases and GO enrichment analysis 1-Databases_GO.ppt CW1.doc Solution_CW1.doc HW1.doc Solution_HW1.doc
Lesson 2 08,09.11.09 Pairwise and multiple sequence alignment 2_pairwise_and_multiple_sequence_alignment.ppt CW2.doc Solution_CW2.doc HW2.doc
ClustalX
question5b.jpg
Solution_HW2.doc
Lesson 3 22,23.11.09 PSI-Blast, Prosite, and UCSC genome browser 3_psiBlast_prosite_UCSC.ppt CW3.doc Solution_CW3.doc HW3.doc Solution_HW3.doc
Lesson 4 06,07.12.09 Phylogeny 4_phylogeny.ppt CW4.doc
njplot.exe
Solution_CW4.doc HW4.doc
globin_human.fas
Solution_HW4.doc
Lesson 5 20,21.12.09 Evolutionary rates 5_evolutionary_rates.ppt CW5.doc
pp2c.aln 1t82.aln
Solution_CW5.doc HW5.doc
protease.aln protease.ph
Solution_HW5.doc
Lesson 6 03,04.01.10 Protein structure 6_proteinStructure.ppt CW6.doc Solution_CW6.doc HW6.doc
3.zip 4.zip
Solution_HW6.doc
Lesson 7 17,18.01.10 Final project exercise - CW7.doc Solution_CW7.doc Final project.doc -


Useful links:



Database or application name Contents URL
NCBI Sequences, structures, diseases, publications, and more http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
EMBL-EBI Data resources and tools http://www.ebi.ac.uk
PubMed Biomedical publications http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
Google scholar Publications http://scholar.google.co.il
Swiss-Prot Protein knowledgebase http://www.expasy.ch/sprot
PDB Database of biological macromolecules http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/home/home.do
GeneCards Database of human genes http://www.genecards.org
GO Gene ontology database http://www.geneontology.org
NCBI BLAST All BLAST tools http://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi
EMBL-EBI ClustalW An interface to a multiple sequence alignment program http://www.ebi.ac.uk/Tools/clustalw2
MAFFT A server for multiple sequence alignment http://align.bmr.kyushu-u.ac.jp/mafft/online/server/
PRANK A server for multiple sequence alignment http://www.ebi.ac.uk/goldman-srv/webPRANK
RAxML An interface to a phylogeny reconstruction program http://phylobench.vital-it.ch/raxml-bb/
PhyML An interface to a phylogeny reconstruction program http://atgc.lirmm.fr/phyml
Prosite Database of protein domains, families, and functional sites http://www.expasy.org/prosite
UCSC Genome browser http://genome.ucsc.edu
Ensembl Genome browser http://www.ensembl.org
ConSeq A server for the identification of functionally and structurally important residues in protein sequences http://conseq.tau.ac.il
ConSurf A server for the identification of functionally and structurally important residues in protein structures http://consurf.tau.ac.il
Selecton A server for the identification of site-specific positive selection & purifying selection http://selecton.tau.ac.il
RasTop Molecular visualization software http://www.geneinfinity.org/rastop
C alpha match Rigid pairwise protein structure alignment http://bioinfo3d.cs.tau.ac.il/c_alpha_match
FlexProt Flexible pairwise protein structure alignment http://bioinfo3d.cs.tau.ac.il/FlexProt
MultiProt Multiple protein structure alignment http://bioinfo3d.cs.tau.ac.il/MultiProt
DALI Distance matrix ALIgnment http://ekhidna.biocenter.helsinki.fi/dali_server