Bioinformatics Workshop Notes

1
Bioinformatics Workshop Notes

• How can I use the information I am learning in my
  own classroom????
• What background information will my students need
  to understand this?
• What materials and equipment will I need to
  organize?
• What hooks can I use to tie bioinformatics in
  to meaningful, real life issues?

2
What background information will my students need
to understand bioinformatics?

• 1) Central Dogma
• -general structure of DNA, RNA, proteins
• -DNA replication (polymerase)
• -transcription and mRNA
• -translation, tRNA, the triplet code

3
What background information will my students need
to understand bioinformatics? (continued)

• 2) How DNA is organized
• -genes and chromosomes
• -coding and non-coding regions, junk DNA,
• transposons/insertions
• -features of genes
• -promoter regions
• -introns and exons

4
What background information will my students need
to understand bioinformatics? (continued)

• 3) Mutations
• -varieties of gene mutations
• -how they affect proteins
• -may have little or no effect due to
• -redundancy of code
• -similar types of AAs
• -not at active site
• -mutations at active sites affect function

5
What background information will my students need
to understand bioinformatics? (continued)

• 4) Biotech basics
• -gel electrophoresis and other separation
  techniques
• -sequencing DNA
• -PCR
• -restriction enzymes (and sticky ends)
• -visualizing (staining, fluorescent tagging,
  etc.)
• -cloning genes and making libraries in bacteria

6
What background information will my students need
to understand bioinformatics? (continued)

• 5) What are genomics?
• -human genome project
• -what it is
• -what it has produced
• -purpose
• -how it has been done
• -concept of model organisms

7
What materials and equipment will I need to
organize?

• 1) curriculum materials for background
  information
• -paper simulations
• -computer animations and video clips
• -textbook readings and articles
• 2) biotech lab equipment for background
• -gel electrophoresis equipment
• -DNA extraction stuff

8
What materials and equipment will I need to
organize?

• 3) computer lab time
• -how much????
• -what do I want them to do during this time?
• -explore NCBI databases
• -Blast search
• -look at 3-D protein molecules

9
What hooks can I find to tie bioinformatics in
to meaningful, real life issues?

• 1) genetic disorders
• -testing methods and issues
• 2) relationships between organisms
• -comparing sequences in related organisms
• -human ancestry
• 3) ?????