02-180 Great Ideas in Computational Biology I

5 units, Carnegie Mellon University

This course introduces great ideas that have formed the foundation for the recent transformation of life sciences into a fully-fledged computational discipline. Extracting biological understanding from both large and small data sets now requires the use and design of novel algorithms, developed in the field of computational biology. The course is designed as a gateway exposure to computational biology for first-year undergraduates in the School of Computer Science, although it is open to other computationally minded students who are interested in exploring the field. This course is the first in a two-course sequence, showing students fundamental algorithmic techniques that are used in modern biological investigations. This first course focuses on algorithmic techniques for genomics, or the study of DNA, and it addresses questions like "How do we reconstruct the sequence of a genome?", How do we compare genes and genomes?, and "How can we build evolutionary trees to infer relationships among many species?" Previous exposure to molecular biology is not required.

Prerequisites: (02-201 or 15-112) and (21-128 or 15-151 or 21-127)

Offered: Spring 2027, Spring 2026

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