Course Details and Policy

At the conclusion of this course, participants should be able to:

1. recognize current topics and questions in computational biology
2. identify relevant scientific publications from citations and electronic databases
3. organize and summarize relevant work in a clear, coherent, succinct review
4. provide critical and constructive peer-reviews
5. improve their work from the feedback of their colleagues

This course should be particularly valuable to both computer science and biology students aiming for a scientific career in academic research or industrial R&D.

This is a doctoral training course aimed principally at first and second year PhD students in the Graduate School of Life Sciences, or on the EMBL International PhD Programme at the EBI, or following a

• Wellcome Trust PhD Programme in Mathematical Genomics and Medicine
• PhD Training Programme in Chemical Biology and Molecular Medicine
• PhD at DAMTP (eg researching into Biological Physics, Computational Biology or Disease Dynamics)

Self-motivated Masters and 4th Year undergraduate students are welcome to apply but acceptance might be subject to available places. The course might be of interest to current students pursuing any of the following

• MPhil by research
• MPhil Computational Biology
• MPhil Scientific Computing
• Part III Mathematical Tripos (MMath/MASt)
• Part III Natural Science Tripos (Biochemistry, Systems Biology)
• Part IIB Chemical Engineering

Every week (on Wednesdays), students are exposed to recent developments in a different computational biology research topic. Each students will write one short literature review during Lent Term, and two reports on other students' manuscripts.

Please refer to the course schedule for the current list of topics.

Most of the topics will be presented by guest lecturers specialists in the relevant subjects. The scientific work reviewed in each class will form the basis of a separate review assignment.

About 75% of the lecture time on Wednesdays will be devoted to these topical presentation, while 25% will consist in material relevant to the processes of literature search, scientific writing and peer-reviewing. On Thursdays, there will be no lecture; instead the lecturer will be available for consultation (no appointment required).

As a reference, please examine the schedule of the previous course and the list of topics in 2011.

This is an Academic Training and Transferrable Skills Course and is therefore not examinable. Attendance every Wednesday throughout Lent Term (for 10 weeks), the writing and submission of a review manuscript and the writing of peer reviews are all required to obtain a Certificate of Attendance & Completion.