CSCI4181/6802 Bioinformatics Algorithms / Winter 2025-2026
Updates
- New Lecture is up: 07 Fast Sequence Searches: BLAST and friends [slides]
- New Lecture is up: 06 Optimal Alignment - Dynamic Programming [slides] [recording]
- New Lecture is up: 05 Sequence Alignment - Definitions and Scoring [slides] [recording]
- New Lecture is up: 04 Sequence Representations [slides] [recording]
Course Description
Bioinformatics uses computational and statistical approaches to tackle questions of biological function and evolution. The goal of Algorithms in Bioinformatics is to introduce key applications of algorithms, data structures, and encodings to the analysis of large biological data sets. A recurring theme throughout the course will be the disconnect between algorithmic beauty and the horrifying realities of biological data. Every statistical model is violated and every classification comes with an asterisk, as we struggle with even the most basic concepts of 'gene' and 'species', and the challenges of understanding events that happened across ~3.5 billion years. In spite of these challenges, in this age of massive data sets we stand to learn a good deal if the computational tools we use are efficient, robust, properly validated, and correctly applied. The course covers major challenge areas in bioinformatics, each focused on an aspect of DNA or protein sequence analysis. The goal in each case is to define an overarching problem, and then explore different approaches that have been applied to solving that problem, with an emphasis on the match (or mismatch) between the algorithm and the underlying biological system.
2026 Course Details
- Monday & Wednesday: 14:35-15:55, 2176 McCain Arts Social Sciences
- Office: 4242 Mona Campbell Building, Studley Campus
- Email: finlay.maguire@dal.ca
- Office Hours: Email for appointments
- BrightSpace for assignment/paper review submission.
- Syallabus
- Majority of materials used in this class were originally created by Prof. Robert Beiko and modified (to greater and lesser degrees) by myself.
