MOLB 7950: Informatics and Statistics for Molecular Biology
This page contains an outline of the topics, content, and assignments for the semester. Note that this schedule will be updated as the semester progresses, with all changes documented here.
| MOLB 7950 - Fall 2026 Schedule | ||||||||||
| Classes held in-person from 9:00-10:30am in TBD | ||||||||||
| Date | Block | Topic | Instructor | Title |
Links
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| Prepare | Slides | Exercises | HW | Key | ||||||
| Week 1 | ||||||||||
| 01 | Mon, Aug 24, 2026 | Bootcamp | R | Taliaferro | Intro to R & RStudio | 📖 | 📃 | 💪 | 🧠 | 🔑 |
| 02 | Tue, Aug 25, 2026 | Bootcamp | R | Taliaferro | Tidy data & tidyr | 📖 | 📃 | 💪 | 🧠 | 🔑 |
| 03 | Wed, Aug 26, 2026 | Bootcamp | R | Taliaferro | dplyr | 📖 | 📃 | 💪 | 🧠 | 🔑 |
| 04 | Thu, Aug 27, 2026 | Bootcamp | R | Taliaferro | ggplot2 | 📖 | 📃 | 💪 | 🧠 | 🔑 |
| 05 | Fri, Aug 28, 2026 | Bootcamp | R | Taliaferro | ggplot2 | . | 📃 | 💪 | 🧠 | . |
| Week 2 | ||||||||||
| 06 | Mon, Aug 31, 2026 | Bootcamp | R | Taliaferro | tidyverse odds & ends | 📖 | 📃 | 💪 | 🧠 | 🔑 |
| 07 | Tue, Sep 1, 2026 | Bootcamp | R | Taliaferro | tidyverse odds & ends | . | 📃 | . | 🧠 | 🔑 |
| 08 | Wed, Sep 2, 2026 | Bootcamp | R | Taliaferro | putting it all together | 📖 | 📃 | 💪 | 🧠 | 🔑 |
| 09 | Thu, Sep 3, 2026 | Bootcamp | Statistics | Ramachandran | Stats intro and history | . | 📃 | 💪 | 🧠 | . |
| 10 | Fri, Sep 4, 2026 | Bootcamp | Statistics | Ramachandran | Probability and descriptive stats | . | 📃 | 💪 | 🧠 | 🔑 |
| Week 3 | ||||||||||
| 11 | Mon, Sep 7, 2026 | - | - | - | NO CLASS - LABOR DAY | . | . | . | . | . |
| 12 | Tue, Sep 8, 2026 | Bootcamp | Statistics | Ramachandran | Hypothesis testing | . | 📃 | 💪 | 🧠 | 🔑 |
| 13 | Wed, Sep 9, 2026 | Bootcamp | Statistics | Ramachandran | Hypothesis testing | . | 📃 | 💪 | 🧠 | 🔑 |
| 14 | Thu, Sep 10, 2026 | Bootcamp | Statistics | Ramachandran | Exploratory data analysis | . | 📃 | 💪 | 🧠 | 🔑 |
| 15 | Fri, Sep 11, 2026 | Bootcamp | Statistics | Ramachandran | Big data concerns | . | 📃 | 💪 | 🧠 | 🔑 |
| Week 4 | ||||||||||
| 16 | Mon, Sep 14, 2026 | DNA | Mapping chromatin structure and transactions | Ramachandran | Experimental overview | 📖 | 📃 | 💪 | 🧠 | . |
| 17 | Wed, Sep 16, 2026 | DNA | Chromatin-centric methods | Ramachandran | Information from fragment length distributions | . | 📃 | 💪 | 🧠 | 🔑 |
| 18 | Fri, Sep 18, 2026 | DNA | Problem Set Review | - | - | . | . | . | . | . |
| Week 5 | ||||||||||
| 19 | Mon, Sep 21, 2026 | DNA | Chromatin-centric methods | Ramachandran | Meta-plots and heatmaps | . | 📃 | 💪 | 🧠 | 🔑 |
| 20 | Wed, Sep 23, 2026 | DNA | Factor-centric methods | Ramachandran | Peak calling | 📖 | 📃 | 💪 | . | . |
| 21 | Fri, Sep 25, 2026 | DNA | Factor-centric methods | Ramachandran | Sequence motif analysis | . | 📃 | 💪 | 🧠 | . |
| Week 6 | ||||||||||
| 22 | Mon, Sep 28, 2026 | RNA | RNA-seq Overview | Taliaferro | Concepts and techniques | . | 📃 | 💪 | . | . |
| 23 | Wed, Sep 30, 2026 | RNA | Import, filtering, QC | Taliaferro | metrics and sample similarity | . | 📃 | 💪 | 🧠 | 🔑 |
| 24 | Fri, Oct 2, 2026 | RNA | Differential Gene Expression | Taliaferro | DESeq2 | . | . | 💪 | 🧠 | 🔑 |
| Week 7 | ||||||||||
| 25 | Mon, Oct 5, 2026 | RNA | Alternative Splicing | Taliaferro | rMATS | . | 📃 | 💪 | 🧠 | 🔑 |
| 26 | Wed, Oct 7, 2026 | RNA | NO CLASS | - | NO CLASS | . | . | . | . | . |
| 27 | Fri, Oct 9, 2026 | RNA | RBP-RNA 1 | Taliaferro | Data integrations | . | 📃 | 💪 | 🧠 | 🔑 |
| Week 8 | ||||||||||
| 28 | Mon, Oct 12, 2026 | RNA | RBP-RNA 2 | Taliaferro | - | . | 📃 | 💪 | 🧠 | 🔑 |
| 29 | Wed, Oct 14, 2026 | RNA | Positron setup | Taliaferro | - | . | . | . | . | . |
| 30 | Fri, Oct 16, 2026 | - | - | - | NO CLASS: MOLB RETREAT | . | . | . | . | . |
| Week 9 | ||||||||||
| 31 | Mon, Oct 19, 2026 | RNA | Single-cell | Hesselberth | - | . | 📃 | 💪 | . | . |
| 32 | Wed, Oct 21, 2026 | RNA | Single-cell | Hesselberth | - | . | 📃 | 💪 | . | . |
| 33 | Fri, Oct 23, 2026 | - | - | - | NO CLASS: CSDV RETREAT | . | . | . | . | . |
| Week 10 | ||||||||||
| 34 | Mon, Oct 26, 2026 | Final | - | - | Final project presentations | . | . | . | . | . |
| 35 | Wed, Oct 28, 2026 | Final | - | - | Final project presentations | . | . | . | . | . |