Information for Current Students

BIOL 285/485; Quantitative Biology Seminar;
Mon 5:30pm – 6:45pm

Blocker 628

TAs:

Randy Gil, email:

rgil@tamu.edu
Christine Schwartz, email:
cschwartz@bio.tamu.edu

Announcements

Later talks will be updated as soon as schedules are confirmed.

Course requirements:

The focus of this class is to discuss recent approaches to answering biological questions and the role that computational methods, if applicable, might play in this process. For the class, you will be grouped either according to classification or research interest and each group will be required to lead a discussion on one paper. Alternatively, those groups that are currently doing research may discuss their work and relevant data.

Those groups that lead discussions must divide the work evenly among the group members. You will be responsible for knowing the material covered in the paper, but you will also be responsible for asking questions to the audience, with the aim of discussing the research aims presented, and the rationale behind the research.

Each presenter, regardless of whether a paper or personal research is presented, will be evaluated by 2 independent peers. These evaluations are for the benefit of the presenter and will not affect your grade in the class, but they will help you in becoming a better presenter. Writing an evaluation will be part of your completion grade, so it is important to come to the meetings every week.

USEFUL LINKS:
McGraw-Hill Online Scientific Encyclopedia (good for getting definitions of terms)

Mathworld (Also good for Mathematical terms/concepts)

Guides to reading scientific articles (supplemental to what you were given in class

http://capillaryteam.pbwiki.com/f/How_to_Read.pdf

http://www.fiu.edu/~collinsl/Article%20reading%20tips.htm