Bioinformatics is a rapidly emerging field of biomedical research. A flood of large-scale genomic and postgenomic data means that many of the challenges in biomedical research are now challenges in computational science. At the same time, it is also creating a huge number of bioinformatics and genomics jobs. In this post, we will go through a brief overview of bioinformatics and genomics and the best online courses.
What is Bioinformatics?
Bioinformatics is a modern, growing scientific field created by the intersection of biology, computer science, and information technology to support the storage, organization, and retrieval of biological data.
Objectives of Bioinformatics
According to the NCBI, “the ultimate goal of the field [bioinformatics] is to enable the discovery of new biological insights as well as to create a global perspective from which unifying principles in biology can be discerned”.
With bioinformatics, it is possible to identify disease-associated genes; identify genes and genetic markers; predict three-dimensional structures of protein and organisms evolution; design new drugs. Read more about bioinformatics careers and jobs.
Relation Between Bioinformatics and Genomics
Broadly viewed, the field of bioinformatics incorporates three main areas:
- Genomics
- Proteomics
- Systems Biology
What is Genomics?
Genomics is a branch of biology focusing on the evolution, function, structure, mapping, and editing of genomes. It involves measuring everything about a genome and the changes between genomes.
The field of genomics includes sequencing, mapping, and analyzing a wide range of RNA and DNA codes, from viruses and mitochondria to many species across the kingdoms of life.
Genetics vs Genomics
Genetics and Genomics are two terms that are often incorrectly used interchangeably.
Genetics is the study of single genes and their role in the way traits or conditions are passed from one generation to the next. Genes are units of heredity. Genes hold information in the molecule DNA, which is a string of chemicals called bases. Read more about careers and jobs in Genetics.
Genomics is a term that describes the study of all parts of an organism’s genes. All of the genes of an organism taken together, plus all of the sequences and information contained therein, are called the genome.
Objective and Application of Genomics in Bioinformatics
The field of genomics aims at the collective characterization and quantification of all of an organism’s genes, their interrelations, and their influence on the organism.
Genomic medicine has already shown benefit in refining diagnoses and guiding therapeutic approaches for various diseases like cancer, etc.
Genomic Data Science
The amount of data being produced by sequencing, mapping, and analyzing genomes propels genomics into the realm of Big Data. Genomics produces huge volumes of data; each human genome has 20,000-25,000 genes comprised of 3 million base pairs. This amounts to 100 gigabytes of data, equivalent to 102,400 photos.
Genomic Data Science is the field that applies statistics and data science to the genome. To understand, analyze and interpret data from next-generation sequencing experiments, the specialization of genetics is required to cover the concepts and tools. Read more about careers in genomics and genomic data science.
Importance of Bioinformatics and Genomics Post-COVID
Genomics and bioinformatics are increasingly contributing to our understanding of infectious diseases. This ranges from investigations of disease outbreaks and pathogenesis, host and pathogen genomic variation, and host immune evasion mechanisms to the identification of potential diagnostic markers and vaccine targets.
High throughput genomics data generated from pathogens and animal models can be combined with host genomics and patients’ health records to give advice on treatment options as well as potential drug and vaccine interactions.
Why Undertake Genomics and Bioinformatics Courses Online?
The biology of coronaviruses has been studied for many years. However, bioinformatics tools designed explicitly for SARS-CoV-2 have only recently been developed as a rapid reaction to the need for fast detection, understanding, and treatment of COVID-19.
The application of bioinformatics to vaccine research and drug discovery has never been so essential in the fight against infectious diseases.
It’s obvious that the COVID-19 pandemic is not going to be the last one. Moreover, bioinformatics and genomics will play a critical role in other areas of biomedical research as well. Hence, it would be great to have a headstart by undertaking genomics and bioinformatics courses online.
Best Online Courses on Bioinformatics and Genomics for Students
Co-authored by Sandipan Mukherjee
Bioinformatics Specialization (Coursera)
Students enrolled: 48,430+
Average Rating: 4.8
When you complete this Specialization, you will learn how to answer many questions in modern biology that have become inseparable from the computational approaches used to solve them.
You will also obtain a toolkit of existing software resources built on these computational approaches that are used by thousands of biologists every day in one of the fastest-growing fields in science.
Although this Specialization centers on computational topics, you do not need to know how to program in order to complete it. If you are interested in programming, we feature an “Honors Track” (called “hacker track” in previous runs of the course).
The Honors Track allows you to implement the bioinformatics algorithms that you will encounter along the way in dozens of automatically graded coding challenges. By completing the Honors Track, you will be a bioinformatics software professional!
Bioinformatic Methods I (Coursera)
Students enrolled: 94,448+
Average Rating: 4.7
Large-scale biology projects such as the sequencing of the human genome and gene expression surveys using RNA-seq, microarrays, and other technologies have created a wealth of data for biologists. However, the challenge facing scientists is analyzing and even accessing these data to extract useful information pertaining to the system being studied.
This course focuses on employing existing bioinformatic resources – mainly web-based programs and databases – to access the wealth of data to answer questions relevant to the average biologist, and is highly hands-on.
Topics covered include multiple sequence alignments, phylogenetics, gene expression data analysis, and protein interaction networks, in two separate parts.
Bioinformatic Methods II (Coursera)
Students enrolled: 30,721 +
Average Rating: 4.8
Large-scale biology projects such as the sequencing of the human genome and gene expression surveys using RNA-seq, microarrays, and other technologies have created a wealth of data for biologists. However, the challenge facing scientists is analyzing and even accessing these data to extract useful information pertaining to the system being studied.
This course focuses on employing existing bioinformatic resources – mainly web-based programs and databases – to access the wealth of data to answer questions relevant to the average biologist, and is highly hands-on.
Topics covered include multiple sequence alignments, phylogenetics, gene expression data analysis, and protein interaction networks, in two separate parts.
Biology Meets Programming: Bioinformatics for Beginners (Coursera)
Students enrolled: 130,222 +
Average Rating: 4.2
This course will cover algorithms for solving various biological problems along with a handful of programming challenges helping you implement these algorithms in Python. Each of the four weeks in the course will consist of two required components. First, an interactive textbook provides Python programming challenges that arise from real biological problems.
Looking for Live Classes on Bioinformatics and Genomics?
Check out our Summer Program on Bioinformatics and Biostatistics and Summer Program on Data Science for Biology & Biotechnology.
Big Data, Genes, and Medicine (Coursera)
Students enrolled: 27,892 +
Average Rating: 4.3
This course distills for you expert knowledge and skills mastered by professionals in Health Big Data Science and Bioinformatics. You will learn exciting facts about the human body biology and chemistry, genetics, and medicine that will be intertwined with the science of Big Data and skills to harness the avalanche of data openly available at your fingertips and which we are just starting to make sense of.
You will investigate the different steps required to master Big Data analytics on real datasets, including Next Generation Sequencing data, in healthcare and biological context, from preparing data for analysis to completing the analysis, interpreting the results, visualizing them, and sharing the results.
Introduction to Genomic Technologies (Coursera)
Students enrolled: 72,448+
Average Rating: 4.6
This course introduces you to the basic biology of modern genomics and the experimental tools that we use to measure it. We’ll introduce the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology and cover how next-generation sequencing can be used to measure DNA, RNA, and epigenetic patterns.
You’ll also get an introduction to the key concepts in computing and data science that you’ll need to understand how data from next-generation sequencing experiments are generated and analyzed.
This is the first course in the Genomic Data Science Specialization.
Genomics: Decoding the Universal Language of Life (Coursera)
Students enrolled: 32,581+
Average Rating: 4.8
What is a genome? A genome contains all of the information that a cell needs to develop, function, and reproduce itself, and all the information needed for those cells to come together to form a person, plant, or animal. Genomes contain an organism’s complete set of genes, and also the even tinier genetic structures that help regulate when and how those genes are used.
The ability to regrow a torn ligament, the clues that might predict the onset of mental illness, the nutritional potential of crops, and even the history of life itself, are all encoded in genomes. By taking this course, you will discover how scientists are deciphering the language of genomes to learn how to develop sustainable food and fuel supplies, improve disease treatment and prevention, and protect our environment.
Genome Sequencing (Bioinformatics II) (Coursera)
Students enrolled: 24,512+
Average Rating: 4.6
Biologists still cannot read the nucleotides of an entire genome as you would read a book from beginning to end. However, they can read short pieces of DNA. In this course, we will see how graph theory can be used to assemble genomes from these short pieces. We will further learn about brute force algorithms and apply them to sequencing mini-proteins called antibiotics.
Comparing Genes, Proteins, and Genomes (Bioinformatics III) (Coursera)
Students enrolled: 17,084+
Average Rating: 4.7
Once we have sequenced genomes in the previous course, we would like to compare them to determine how species have evolved and what makes them different.
Statistics for Genomic Data Science (Coursera)
Students enrolled: 28,616+
Average Rating: 4.3
An introduction to the statistics behind the most popular genomic data science projects. This is the sixth course in the Genomic Big Data Science Specialization from Johns Hopkins University.
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More Online Courses on Bioinformatics and Genomics
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