Course syllabus

Biologisk modellering
Biological Modelling

EXTG10, 4 credits, G2 (First Cycle)

Valid for: 2015/16
Decided by: Education Board C
Date of Decision: 2015-04-15

General Information

Main field: Technology.
Elective Compulsory for: Pi3
Language of instruction: The course will be given in English on demand

Aim

This course is a mandatory course the third year of the program technical mathematics at the faculty of engineering at Lund university.

The course runs in parallel with the introductory course in biology for engineering students, TEK290. Hence EXTG10 consists of the theoretical and computational parts of TEK290 whereas the broad introduction to biology in TEK290 is not included in the course.

Learning outcomes

Knowledge and understanding
For a passing grade the student must

• be able to independently apply computational and modelling methods used in biology

Competences and skills
For a passing grade the student must

• show ability to apply computational methods used in the course
• posses general knowledge in biology that is sufficient to apply computational methods on biological problems.

Contents

Structure and function of the cell. Structure and replication of nucleic acids. Protein synthesis. Gene regulation. Structure of the genome and the proteome. Basic physiology. Classic and population genetics. Evolution. Ecology and population biology basics and models. Common modelling and computational methods in biology.

Examination details

Grading scale: TH
Assessment: The course has no written examination test. The grading is based on the quality of the hand-ins of the exercises.

Admission

Required prior knowledge: FMAF05 Systems and Transforms or equivalent.
The number of participants is limited to: No
The course overlaps following course/s: TEK290

Reading list

• The Biology content in the course is covered by Mader, S: Biology, latest edition, McGraw-Hill, calculation excersizes are described in handouts and exercize instructions.

Contact and other information

Course coordinator: Anders.Brodin, Anders.Brodin@biol.lu.se
Course homepage: http://biologi.lu.se/utbildning/kurser/kurser-grundniva/biologiska-kurser-pa-grundniva-for-teknologer
Further information: The course consists of various modelling projects and each one of these is introduced in one to two preparatory lectures. The introductory lectures are followed by a modelling exercise, in most cases a computer exercise. The course focuses on biology topics that are feasible to model within theoretical biology, for example population genetics, bioinformatics, population ecology and game theory. The course also contains mathematical methods that are inspired by biology, such as genetic algorithms, neural networks and cellular automata. The programming language that is used is MATLAB, meaning that some knowledge of this software is useful. The course consists of a mixture of lectures and theoretical exercises. It can be given in English if exchange students are taking it.