Written exam (in case of a small number of participants: oral tests)

Functional genomics, i.e. the interpretation of a genome to determine the biological
function of genes and gene interactions, is one of the most important
fields in modern biology. Today, next-generationßequencing technologies are increasingly
being used to measure the expression of thousands of genes simultaneously.
This results in new challenges for bioinformatics, both algorithmically
and software-wise. In the lecture the following topics will be discussed among
others: NGS technologies, in particular RNA-Seq and ChIP-Seq technologies,
fast to ultrafast alignment methods of short reads, mapping-based and de novo
’assembly’ of genomes and transcriptomes, peak calling, splicing and gene models,
motif search, differential expression, visualization of NGS data and other
current topics. In the exercises, especially scientific work and scientific writing
is encouraged. The exercises are also supplemented with blended learning
methods

The students are familiar with the new bioinformatics findings on expression
analysis and the newer sequencing technologies. They can formulate the challenges
of the new technologies for bioinformatics. They know algorithms for
the quantification of expression data, statistical methods and machine learning
procedures for the calculation of differential expression and classification as well
as methods for the analysis of expression data in a network context. Students
can analyse real microarray experiments as well as RNA-Seq experiments and
have deepened their R knowledge. The students are aware of the possibilities
but also the limitations of different methods in this subfield of bioinformatics.
They are able to analyse problems on a scientific level and summarise them
in writing. In particular, a high degree of intrinsic motivation and personal
responsibility is encouraged.

Own lecture notes and selected articles