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Tuesdays, 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm
Wednesdays, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Location: Weill Greenberg Center (1305 York Avenue); 13th Floor ICB Conf Room, Y.13.01
Course Director: Jason Banfelder (jrb2004@med.cornell.edu)
Teaching Assistant: Clark Fisher (clf2003@med.cornell.edu)
This course will prepare students to apply quantitative techniques to the analysis of experimental data and the modeling of biological systems. To emphasize both practical and theoretical skills, the course will involve several hands-on workshops, and the completion of several projects by the students will be required. Topics include: practical aspects of data formatting and management; graphical, mathematical and verbal communication of quantitative concepts (including videotaping of students’ lectures); a review of statistics, with emphasis on the selection of appropriate statistical tests, the use of modern software packages, the interpretation of results, and the design of experiments; the formulation, evaluation, and analysis of mathematical models of biological function, with an emphasis on linear and non-linear regression, determination of model parameters, and the critical comparison of alternative models with regard to over-parameterization. In order to enable quantitative modeling in biological arenas such as gene networks, neural function, enzyme kinetics, cardiac dynamics, and signaling pathways, the formal components will introduce (and demystify) ordinary differential equations and basic principles of non-linear dynamics. Additional special topics will also be presented (e.g., control theory, machine learning) and their application will be illustrated with ongoing research in the laboratories of PBSB faculty.