Designing Your Course

Sample Curriculum

A letter to the editor of The Journal of College Science Teaching

(Note: This letter has been accepted for publication and will appear in their February issue.)

There is a critical need for individuals trained in the area of bioinformatics that is not being adequately met by institutions of higher education. An inherently interdisciplinary field, bioinformatics has emerged from the disciplines of biology and computer science. Advances in the experimental techniques of molecular biology have translated to an explosive growth in the availability of molecular data. A corresponding increase in the need for individuals capable of assisting with the organization, representation, analysis, annotation and mining of large databases has resulted.

The difficulties inherent to interdisciplinary work have made academia slow to respond to strong student interest and societal needs for training that facilitates the development and application of novel bioinformatics techniques. Some institutions are responding to this demand by establishing graduate programs in bioinformatics. However, the significant amount of prerequisite knowledge in the disparate fields of biochemistry and computer science typically translates into one or two years of remedial study in computer science for biology graduates or in molecular biology for computer scientists before graduate studies can begin in earnest.
We have found that it is possible to address this problem at the undergraduate level without needing to face the challenges associated with the development an entirely new program. By primarily utilizing courses already offered at most undergraduate institutions we hope to have created a model (http://birg.cs.wright.edu) that can be easily be implemented elsewhere – perhaps even by highly motivated individual students without significant institutional support.

We believe that the defining characteristic of a successful baccalaureate bioinformatician is not necessarily complete mastery of both biology and computer science, but rather a traditional mastery of one field and a comfortable familiarity with the other. The model we propose allows traditional biology majors to develop that "comfortable familiarity" with the language and concepts of computation crucial to bioinformatics by completing coursework that would typically result in a minor in computer science at most institutions. Some specialized bioinformatics training is recommended at an introductory level (during the sophomore year) and as a capstone (during the senior year) to provide students with opportunities to become familiar with the use and development of the tools of bioinformatics.

Our introductory course, "Introduction to Bioinformatics," is offered early in the program of study and presents students with the fundamental concepts of bioinformatics while using a tools-oriented approach toward solving informatics problems. In-class lectures and the accompanying textbook for this course (Fundamental Concepts in Bioinformatics, Krane and Raymer, 2003, Benjamin Cummings) focus on pen-and-paper implementation of algorithms, so that prerequisite experience in programming languages and strategies is eliminated. In contrast, the capstone course, "Algorithms for Bioinformatics," assumes that students are well versed in both the fundamentals of biology and computer science and focuses on the application of algorithmic techniques to biologically driven problems in bioinformatics. At our institution, these new courses are co-listed as BIO/CS courses and open to students majoring in either discipline. They require relatively little in the way of resources in that they can be offered as infrequently as every other year and work best when taught by a team of biology and computer science faculty.
Our model is just that – an evolving model. Other institutions will need to address the specific implementation appropriate to their strengths and needs as they work to fill the critical need for individuals trained in this important area.