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Outside Courses

There are many courses that prove helpful in the interdisciplinary approach to Biological and Biomedical Sciences and Research. Here we want to list courses that are not sponsored by our program but may prove useful in the pursuit. We will list them as they come to the attention of our program.

Spring 2008 Courses

Genomic Analysis

SPRING 2008
M 2:30 to 5:30
Engineering Computer Classroom
Bio 444/544
Dr. Margaret Werner Washburne
Professor, Biology

Genomics and Functional Genomics are the areas of biology that developed when we began to be able to sequence and assemble all the DNA in an organism. It started between 1988 and 1994 and has been growing ever since. We deal with high throughput analyses and very large datasets and need to keep our eyes on experimental design, the underlying biology of cells and organisms, statistics, and technology development, many of which are based on classical approaches to understanding living systems - so we can ask questions better and faster. It is an area that is inherently interdisciplinary - with important interactions among biologists, statisticians, mathematicians, computer scientists, chemical engineers, and others.

You will learn why genomics hasn’t led to a cure for cancer - yet, and what is the biologists and the engineer/mathematician/statistician’s role in all of this. You will learn to read scientific papers, if you haven’t already. You will also learn how genomics can be used, not just to report on living organisms but to discover new biology. Hopefully, it will allow you to develop your interdisciplinary skills though significant communication between biology and engineering students.

This class is really the most fun for students who are thinking of or interested in the possibility of research in their futures or who feel that their future careers will require an understanding of genomics and how it can be used to understand many different, important biological problems; and, of course, how amazing it is! It is a class that will likely get you thinking in a new way.

Speciation Biology

SPRING 2008
T R 11:00 to 12:15
Rm. TBA
Dr. Vaishali Katju
Assistant Professor, Biology

I will be offering a course on Speciation this coming Spring 2008.  The course will be a review of the literature on the origin of species beginning with Darwin and continuing through temporary work. The course aims to provide an overview of several major topics in speciation with special emphasis on the genetics of speciation.  This is a 3-credit course with biweekly meetings on Tuesday and Thursday from 11am-12:15 pm.  Graduate students should enroll in Biology 502 (section 009).

I am hoping to have at least ten graduate students enrolled given that the course design, as it is currently set up, relies heavily on student participation and discussion.  The topic should be of broad interests to students in ecology as well as evolution, especially students pursing research in systematics.

Please find attached a pdf file listing the tentative schedule and list of topics that will be covered.

If you have any questions, please contact me directly via e-mail.

Topics in Paleoecology

SPRING 2008
W 1:00 to 2:00
Castetter 107
BIO 402/502, cross-listed in anthropology

This one credit course will explore primary literature in topics related to paleoecology.  The class will determine what topics will be discussed at the beginning of the semester.  Potential topics include vertebrate paleontology, mass extinctions, macroecology, and climate change, and we encourage students to come to the class with more ideas.  We hope to bring in guest instructors from the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and the Albuquerque Museum of Natural History.  Please join us!

Fall 2007 Courses

Computer Programming Fundamentals for Biologists

FALL 2007
M W 1:00 - 1:50 pm/ Lab W 9:00 - 11:00 am
Room TBA
CS 151-010
Dr. Melanie Moses
Assistant Professor, Computer Science

This is a special section of CS 151, section 10, where the programming assignments will all be related to biology. This will be a hands on course, with lots of time in lab to ask questions and get comfortable with programming in Matlab. In addition to programming, we'll learn about different ways computers have changed how biologists analyze data and think about science. This is a course on programming and computation, not mathematics, and there are no math prerequisites.

Introductory Mathematical Biology

FALL 2007
M W 11:00 - 11:50 pm/ Lab (Tentatively) M 13:00 - 15:00 am
Room TBA
BIO 402/502 (Firefox may not function properly)
Dr. Toolson
Professor, Biology

This course is designed as a broad introduction to the theory and practice of mathematical biology, the course gives students the techniques and tools they need to utilize the contemporary mathematical biology research literature in the context of their own particular academic interests.  The lecture portion of the course commences with an introduction to general principles of model construction and analysis, followed by a presentation of linear and nonlinear difference equation-based models of biological systems, then progresses to models involving linear and nonlinear ordinary differential equations.  Models are chosen for their broad applicability across levels of biological organization from gene regulation, metabolism and neuron function, to population and community dynamics.  Emphasis is placed on qualitative and numerical solution methods, and on highlighting commonalities in the mathematics used to model seemingly disparate systems.

    The lab portion of the course is devoted to providing students with a good working knowledge of MATLAB as a programming and simulation tool.  This will be facilitated through students' use of MATLAB to work with the models discussed in lecture as well as other models drawn from the mathematical biology literature.