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Bioinformatics and Computational Biology

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Undergraduate study in BCBIO is jointly administered by the Department of Computer Science, the Department of Genetics, Development, and Cell Biology, and the Department of Mathematics. The undergraduate B.S. degree is offered through the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Bioinformatics and Computational Biology is an interdisciplinary science at the interfaces of the biological, informational and computational sciences. The science focuses on a variety of topics. These include gene identification, expression, and evolution; RNA, protein, and genome structure; and molecular and cellular systems and networks. The large group of participating faculty provides students with a multidimensional perspective on bioinformatics and computational biology and presents them with broad range of possibilities to get involved in research.

This major will prepare students for careers at the interfaces of biological, informational and computational sciences. BCBIO graduates with a B.S. seeking direct employment will find ready markets for their talents in agricultural and medical biotechnology industries, as well as in academia, national laboratories, and clinics. Although some students find employment directly after their baccalaureate training, many students will continue their education in one of the many excellent graduate programs in bioinformatics and computational biology that now exist.

Participation in this field requires that students achieve a high level of competence not only in biology, but also in mathematics, computer science, and statistics. As a result, the program includes required courses from many different disciplines. Graduates demonstrate an above-average ability to synthesize methods from these different disciplines to solve problems.

Student Learning Outcomes

By completing their studies, students earning the BS degree in BCBIO are expected to:

1. Develop critical thinking skills by implementing the scientific method through bioinformatics data analysis.

2. Explain and complete simple applications of the common bioinformatics and computational biology methods used for DNA, RNA, and protein analysis.

3. Understand the central dogma of biology and how bioinformatic analyses of high throughput biological next-generation sequencing proteomics datasets can help answer fundamental questions about the biology of DNA, RNA, and proteins.

4. Define systems biology and explain its importance in understanding biology; undertake basic data analyses in systems biology.

5. Identify common formats for biological data and be able to convert among different formats.

6. Summarize fundamental bioinformatics software tools, know when to apply them, and be able to use them.

7. Combine existing software tools into bioinformatic data processing pipelines.

8. Evaluate the limits of traditional algorithms and data analysis techniques as they apply to big data in biology.

9. Identify and appraise noise in high throughput biological datasets and uncertainty in the conclusions of data analysis.

10.  Interpret bioinformatics and computational biology analyses individually and in collaborative learning environments.

As majors in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology students must meet College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and University-wide requirements for graduation in addition to those stated below for the major.

LAS majors require a minimum of 120 credits, including a minimum of 45 credits at the 3000/4000 level. You must also complete the LAS world language requirement and career proficiency requirement.

Students in all ISU majors must complete a three-credit course in U.S. cultures and communities (formerly U.S. diversity) and a three-credit course in international perspectives. Check (http://www.registrar.iastate.edu/courses/div-ip-guide.html) for a list of approved courses. Discuss with your advisor how the two courses that you select can be applied to your graduation plan.

A. Complementary Courses for the BCBIO Major

A minimum of 5 credits from the following:5-8
College Chemistry
and Laboratory in College Chemistry
or
General Chemistry I
and Laboratory in General Chemistry I
and General Chemistry II
or
Advanced General Chemistry
and Laboratory in Advanced General Chemistry
A minimum of 4 credits from the following:4-8
Elementary Organic Chemistry
and Laboratory in Elementary Organic Chemistry
or
Organic Chemistry I
and Laboratory in Organic Chemistry I
and
Organic Chemistry II
and Laboratory in Organic Chemistry II
5 credits from the following:5
Physics for the Life Sciences
and Laboratory in Physics for the Life Sciences
or
General Physics I
and General Physics I Laboratory
or
Introduction to Classical Physics I
and Introduction to Classical Physics I Laboratory
STAT 3300Probability and Statistics for Computer Science3
STAT 4830Empirical Methods for the Computational Sciences3
BIOL 2110
2110L
Principles of Biology I
and Principles of Biology Laboratory I
4
BIOL 2120
2120L
Principles of Biology II
and Principles of Biology Laboratory II
4
BIOL 3140Principles of Molecular Cell Biology3
or
Biological Evolution
or
Molecular Genetics
Total Credits31-38

Complementary courses note: The following other STAT courses may be substituted for STAT 3300 and STAT 4830, with permission of the BCBIO Major.
STAT 3300: STAT 1010, 1040, 2010, 2310, 3050, or 3410
STAT 4830: STAT 3010, 3420, or 4320

 B. Core Courses Within the BCBIO Major

GEN 3130
3130L
Principles of Genetics
and Genetics Laboratory
4
COMS 2270
COMS 2280
Object-oriented Programming
and Introduction to Data Structures (recommended when developing course plan)
7
COMS 2300Discrete Computational Structures3
COMS 3110Introduction to the Design and Analysis of Algorithms3
MATH 1650
MATH 1660
Calculus I
and Calculus II (recommended when developing course plan)
8
BCBIO 1100BCBIO Orientation0.5
BCBIO 3220Introduction to Bioinformatics and Computational Biology3
BCBIO 4010Bioinformatics of Sequences3
BCBIO 4060Bioinformatics of OMICS3
BCBIO 4900Independent Study1-5
or BCBIO 4910 Team Research Projects
Total Credits35.5-39.5

Core courses note: The COMS 2270/2280 and MATH 1650/1660 core course series is required for BCBIO majors. However, students transferring into the major who have already earned credit for COMS 2070/2080 and/or the Math 1810/1820 can substitute those courses for the respective COMS 2270/2280 and/or MATH 1650/1660 series. Students will need permission of the instructors to enroll in any upper-level course that requires a pre-req in COMS 2270/2280 and/or MATH 1650/1660.

C. Support Electives

3-9 credits to be chosen from the following list:

BBMB 4040Biochemistry I3
BBMB 4050Biochemistry II3
BBMB 4610Molecular Biophysics2
BIOL 3280Molecular and Cellular Biology of Human Diseases3
BIOL 4230Developmental Biology3
BIOL 4510Plant Evolution and Phylogeny4
BIOL 4620Evolutionary Genetics3
BIOL 4870Microbial Ecology3
COMS 2520Linux Operating System Essentials3
COMS 3090Software Development Practices3
COMS 3190Construction of User Interfaces3
COMS 3270Advanced Programming Techniques3
COMS 3630Introduction to Database Management Systems3
COMS 4250High Performance Computing for Scientific and Engineering Applications3
COMS 4260Introduction to Parallel Algorithms and Programming4
GEN 3400Human Genetics3
GEN 4100Analytical Genetics3
MATH 2070Matrices and Linear Algebra3
or MATH 3170 Theory of Linear Algebra
MATH 2650Calculus III4
MATH 2660Elementary Differential Equations3
or MATH 2670 Elementary Differential Equations and Laplace Transforms
MATH 3040Combinatorics3
MATH 3140Graph Theory3
MATH 3730Introduction to Scientific Computing3
MICRO 4020Microbial Genetics and Genomics3
STAT 3420Introduction to the Theory of Probability and Statistics II4
STAT 4710Introduction to Experimental Design3
STAT 4740Introduction to Bayesian Data Analysis3
STAT 4750Introduction to Multivariate Data Analysis3
STAT 4860Introduction to Statistical Computing3
STAT 5810Analysis of Gene Expression Data for the Biological Sciences3

D. The communications and English proficiency requirements of the LAS college are met by:

ENGL 1500Critical Thinking and Communication3
ENGL 2500Written, Oral, Visual, and Electronic Composition3
or ENGL 2500H Written, Oral, Visual, and Electronic Composition: Honors
And one of the following:
ENGL 3090Proposal and Report Writing3
or
Communicating Science and Public Engagement
or
Technical Communication

BCBIO majors must earn a minimum grade of C in ENGL 2500 Written, Oral, Visual, and Electronic Composition or ENGL 2500H Written, Oral, Visual, and Electronic Composition: Honors.

Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, B.S.

Freshman
FallCreditsSpringCredits
BCBIO 11000.5BIOL 21203
BIOL 21103BIOL 2120L1
BIOL 2110L1CHEM 23103
CHEM 16304CHEM 2310L1
CHEM 1630L1MATH 16604
MATH 16504LIB 16001
ENGL 15003Humanities choice3
 16.5 16
Sophomore
FallCreditsSpringCredits
BIOL 31303COMS 22803
BIOL 3130L1BIOL 31403
BCBIO 32203PHYS 11504
COMS 22704PHYS 1150L1
ENGL 25003Social Science choice3
International Perspectives or U.S. Cultures and Communities (formerly U.S. Diversity)3LAS 20301
 17 15
Junior
FallCreditsSpringCredits
COMS 2300 (or CPRE 3100)3COMS 31103
STAT 33003STAT 48303
ENGL 3090 (or ENGL 3120 or ENGL 3140)3Bioinformatics Support Elective3-9
MATH 2650 (or other Support Elective)4Humanities choice3
Humanites Choice3Social Science choice3
 16 15-21
Senior
FallCreditsSpringCredits
BCBIO 4010 (or BCBIO 4440)3BCBIO 4900 or 49101-5
Humanities choice3BCBIO 40603
World Language, if needed / Elective3-4World Language if needed or elective4
COMS 3630 (Recommended or other support elective)3International Perspectives or U.S. Cultures and Communities (formerly U.S. Diversity)3
Social Science choice3 
 15-16 11-15
Total Credits: 121.5-132.5

Minor in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology

The administering departments offer a minor in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, which requires the following courses.

BIOL 2110Principles of Biology I3
BIOL 2120Principles of Biology II3
GEN 3130Principles of Genetics3
COMS 2270
COMS 2280
Object-oriented Programming
and Introduction to Data Structures
7
STAT 3300Probability and Statistics for Computer Science3
BCBIO 3220Introduction to Bioinformatics and Computational Biology3
BCBIO 4010Bioinformatics of Sequences3
BCBIO 4060Bioinformatics of OMICS3
Total Credits28

Note: The following other STAT courses may be substituted for STAT 3300, with permission of the BCBIO Major: STAT 1010, 1040, 2010, 2310, 3050, or 3410. 

2.  The COMS 2270/2280 course series is required for the BCBIO minor. However, students transferring into the minor who have already earned credit for COMS 2070/2080 can substitute those courses for the COMS 2270/2280 series. Students will need permission of the instructors to enroll in any upper-level course that requires a pre-req in COMS 2270/2280.

Most students pursuing a minor in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology will be biology, genetics, computer science, computer engineering, statistics, or mathematics students who have already taken some of these courses for their major. The minor must include at least 9 credits that are not used to meet any other department, college, or university requirement.

Graduate Study

Work is offered for the Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees with a major in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (BCB). Faculty are drawn from several departments: Agronomy; Animal Science; Astronomy and Physics; Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology; Biomedical Sciences; Chemical and Biological Engineering; Chemistry; Computer Science; Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology; Electrical and Computer Engineering; Entomology, Genetics, Development and Cell Biology; Materials Science and Engineering; Mathematics; Plant Pathology; Statistics; Veterinary Microbiology and Preventive Medicine; and Veterinary Pathology.

The BCB program emphasizes interdisciplinary training in nine related areas of focus: Bioinformatics, Computational Molecular Biology, Structural and Functional Genomics, Macromolecular Structure and Function, Metabolic and Developmental Networks, Integrative Systems Biology, information Integration and Data Mining, Biological Statistics, and Mathematical Biology. Additional information about research areas and individual faculty members is available at: www.bcb.iastate.edu.

BCB students are trained to develop an independent and creative approach to science through an integrative curriculum and thesis research projects that include both computational and biological components. First year students are appointed as research assistants and participate in BCB 6970 Graduate Research Rotation, working with three or more different research groups to gain experience in both “wet” (biological) and “dry” (computer) laboratory environments. In the second year, students initiate a thesis research project under the joint mentorship of two BCB faculty mentors, one from the biological sciences and one from the quantitative/computational sciences. The M.S. and Ph.D. degrees are usually completed in two and five years, respectively.

Before entering the graduate BCB program, prospective BCB students should have taken courses in mathematics, statistics, computer science, biology, and chemistry. A course load similar to the following list would be considered acceptable:

MATH 2650Calculus III4
STAT 3410Introduction to the Theory of Probability and Statistics I4
COMS 2270Object-oriented Programming4
COMS 2280Introduction to Data Structures3
COMS 2300Discrete Computational Structures3
CPRE 3100Theoretical Foundations of Computer Engineering3
CHEM 1630College Chemistry4
CHEM 2310Elementary Organic Chemistry3
BBMB 3010Survey of Biochemistry3
BIOL 3130Principles of Genetics3
BIOL 3150Biological Evolution3

During the first year, BCB students are required to address any background deficiencies in calculus, molecular genetics, computer science, statistics and discrete structures, with specific courses determined by prior training. Among the total course requirements for Ph.D. students are four core courses in Bioinformatics, three of which are mandatory in the BCB program:

BCB 5670Bioinformatics Algorithms3
BCB 5680Statistical Bioinformatics3
BCB 5690Structural Bioinformatics3
BCB 5700Systems Biology3
And also should include
GDCB 5110Advanced Molecular Genetics3
Student Seminar in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
Faculty Seminar in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
Workshop in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology

M.S. students take the above background and core courses, take at least 6 credits of advanced coursework, and may elect to participate in fewer seminars and workshops. Additional coursework may be selected to satisfy individual interests or recommendations of the Program of Study Committee. All graduate students are encouraged to teach as part of their training for an advanced degree. (For curriculum details and sample programs of study, see: www.bcb.iastate.edu.)