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Biochem 4Y03

 
Biochem 4Y03
Genomes and Evolution
Published by BenScott
06-01-2010
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Biochem 4Y03

A solid, useful course that bridges the gap between math and biology.

The course contained a fair bit more math/stats than I had expected, but it really fit it well. It was more like an introduction to bioinformatics than anything, and it gave me a whole new appreciation for this field.

Each lecture built upon the last, however make sure you take detailed notes as they won't be posted online!

I found the text book to be handy, especially as it gives more detailed examples, practice problems. However, the majority of the questions on the midterm and final come straight out of class, with little to no math involved (you shouldn't need a calculator for anything).

Overall I highly recommend it if you'd like to gain a fairly in-depth understanding of bioinformatics and techniques in studying evolution.
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Old 07-11-2011 at 05:05 PM   #2
Krusenik
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Who was the professor that taught this course when you took it?
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Old 08-15-2011 at 09:47 AM   #3
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Originally Posted by Krusenik View Post
Who was the professor that taught this course when you took it?
Dr. Paul Higgs

As far as I know, he's the only one who teaches it (he co-authored the textbook)
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Old 09-30-2011 at 08:17 AM   #4
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How difficult is it to get a good mark in the class (11-12)? Thanks
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Old 04-08-2012 at 04:46 PM   #5
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Can anyone provide a little more recent insight about the course? Please and thank you
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Old 05-26-2012
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Old 05-26-2012 at 11:14 PM   #6
crys.eg
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Biology 4Y04
I took this class in Winter 2012.

All this information I am about to present to you, can be found on his website (http://physwww.mcmaster.ca/~higgsp/4Y03.htm), but just in case the website is unavailable I will copy and paste here:

This course will focus on key issues in molecular evolution, and will introduce the bioinformatics methods that are necessary to answer these questions. Now that hundreds of complete genomes are available, what have we learned? Which genes are shared between organisms? How do we build evolutionary trees? Is there a molecular clock? What are the evolutionary relationships between bacteria? How often does horizontal gene transfer occur? What are the origins of organelles and their genomes? How does the human genome compare with other species? What do microarray and proteomics experiments tells us about how organisms work at the whole genome level?

Recommended text:
Lectures will be based on material included in the book ‘Bioinformatics and Molecular Evolution’ by P.G.Higgs and T.K.Attwood.

Assessment
Three written assignments - each worth 15%
***Based on papers that he gives you to read, easy marks although how he marks is questionable.
Midterm test - worth 15%
*** Three long answers, 1 hour in length. Basically what you are supposed to do is just give examples of what you learned in lectures or readings and answer his questions. Again fairly simple, but the marking is sometimes questionable.
Final Exam - worth 40%
***Just twice as long as the midterm very similar format and cumulative

Must do readings if you want to do well (11-12). You can skip the readings, but sometimes his lectures don't make much sense they are basically word for word from the textbook. It also helps to read the stuff cause then you can answer the questions better on the midterm/exam. The readings aren't boring, they go hand in hand with the lecture so it won't feel like you're reading something random or wasting time on it.

Overall if you like math and biology it was a good class. I'm not much of a math person myself so I didn't really hit it home with the math equations but I still managed to scrape a decent 8 out of it without stressing too much. Very little memorization. All application based questions. The work load is not enormous you can deff put this class on the back burner and study 1-2 days before the midterms if you're just looking for at least a B.

Hope this helps!
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