Search result: Catalogue data in Spring Semester 2020

Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Master Information
More informations at: Link
Core Courses
Please note that the list of core courses is a closed list. Other courses cannot be added to the core course category in the study plan. Also the assignments of courses to core subcategories cannot be changed.
Students need to pass at least one course in each core subcategory.
A total of 40 ECTS needs to be acquired in the core course category.
Bioinformatics
Please note that all Bioinformatics core courses are offered in the autumn semester
Biophysics
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
262-5100-00LProtein Biophysics (University of Zurich)
No enrollment to this course at ETH Zurich. Book the corresponding module directly at UZH.
UZH Module Code: BCH304

Mind the enrolment deadlines at UZH:
Link
W6 credits3V + 1UUniversity lecturers
AbstractThe course includes a general introduction into protein structure and biophysics as well as into the usage of molecular dynamics simulations and other computational methods, protein structure and X-ray techniques, protein NMR for determining protein structure and dynamics as well as for folding studies and protein thermodynamics.
ObjectiveA 4 hour/week course on all aspects of protein biophysics. The course includes a general introduction into protein structure and biophysics as well as into the usage of molecular dynamics simulations and other computational methods, protein structure and X-ray techniques, protein NMR for determining protein structure and dynamics as well as for folding studies and protein thermodynamics.
ContentThe lecture course consists of four parts:
1) non-covalent interactions, properties of water and hydrophobic
effect, protein folding and misfolding, molecular dynamics simulations;
2) atomistic simulations of proteins
3) thermodynamics and kinetics of protein folding;
4) single molecule biophysics: single molecule fluorescence
spectroscopy, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, and applications to
stochastic processes in biology.
151-0980-00LBiofluiddynamicsW4 credits2V + 1UD. Obrist, P. Jenny
AbstractIntroduction to the fluid dynamics of the human body and the modeling of physiological flow processes (biomedical fluid dynamics).
ObjectiveA basic understanding of fluid dynamical processes in the human body. Knowledge of the basic concepts of fluid dynamics and the ability to apply these concepts appropriately.
ContentThis lecture is an introduction to the fluid dynamics of the human body (biomedical fluid dynamics). For selected topics of human physiology, we introduce fundamental concepts of fluid dynamics (e.g., creeping flow, incompressible flow, flow in porous media, flow with particles, fluid-structure interaction) and use them to model physiological flow processes. The list of studied topics includes the cardiovascular system and related diseases, blood rheology, microcirculation, respiratory fluid dynamics and fluid dynamics of the inner ear.
Lecture notesLecture notes are provided electronically.
LiteratureA list of books on selected topics of biofluiddynamics can be found on the course web page.
Biosystems
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
636-0016-00LComputational Systems Biology: Stochastic Approaches Information W4 credits3GM. H. Khammash, A. Gupta
AbstractThis course is concerned with the development of computational methods for modeling, simulation, and analysis of stochasticity in living cells. Using these tools, the course explores the richness of stochastic phenomena, how it arises from the interactions of dynamics and noise, and its biological implications.
ObjectiveTo understand the origins and implications of stochastic noise in living cells, and to learn the computational tools for the modeling, simulation, analysis, and identification of stochastic biochemical reaction networks.
ContentThe cellular environment is abuzz with noise. A key source of this noise is the randomness that characterizes the motion of cellular constituents at the molecular level. Cellular noise not only results in random fluctuations (over time) within individual cells, but it is also a main source of phenotypic variability among clonal cell populations.

Review of basic probability and stochastic processes; Introduction to stochastic gene expression; deterministic vs. stochastic models; the stochastic chemical kinetics framework; a rigorous derivation of the chemical master equation; moment computations; linear vs. nonlinear propensities; linear noise approximations; Monte Carlo simulations; Gillespie's Stochastic Simulation Algorithm (SSA) and variants; direct methods for the solution of the Chemical Master Equation; moment closure methods; intrinsic and extrinsic noise in gene expression; parameter identification from noise; propagation of noise in cell networks; noise suppression in cells; the role of feedback; exploiting noise; bimodality and stochastic switches.
LiteratureLiterature will be distributed during the course as needed.
Prerequisites / NoticeStudents are expected to have completed the course `Mathematical modeling for systems biology (BSc Biotechnology) or `Computational systems biology (MSc Computational biology and bioinformatics). Concurrent enrollment in `Computational Systems Biology: Deterministic Approaches is recommended.
636-0111-00LSynthetic Biology I
Attention: This course was offered in previous semesters with the number: 636-0002-00L "Synthetic Biology I". Students that already passed course 636-0002-00L cannot receive credits for course 636-0111-00L.
W4 credits3GS. Panke, J. Stelling
AbstractTheoretical & practical introduction into the design of dynamic biological systems at different levels of abstraction, ranging from biological fundamentals of systems design (introduction to bacterial gene regulation, elements of transcriptional & translational control, advanced genetic engineering) to engineering design principles (standards, abstractions) mathematical modelling & systems desig
ObjectiveAfter the course, students will be able to theoretically master the biological and engineering fundamentals required for biological design to be able to participate in the international iGEM competition (see Link).
ContentThe overall goal of the course is to familiarize the students with the potential, the requirements and the problems of designing dynamic biological elements that are of central importance for manipulating biological systems, primarily (but not exclusively) prokaryotic systems. Next, the students will be taken through a number of successful examples of biological design, such as toggle switches, pulse generators, and oscillating systems, and apply the biological and engineering fundamentals to these examples, so that they get hands-on experience on how to integrate the various disciplines on their way to designing biological systems.
Lecture notesHandouts during classes.
LiteratureMark Ptashne, A Genetic Switch (3rd ed), Cold Spring Haror Laboratory Press
Uri Alon, An Introduction to Systems Biology, Chapman & Hall
Prerequisites / Notice1) Though we do not place a formal requirement for previous participation in particular courses, we expect all participants to be familiar with a certain level of biology and of mathematics. Specifically, there will be material for self study available on Link as of mid January, and everybody is expected to be fully familiar with this material BEFORE THE CLASS BEGINS to be able to follow the different lectures. Please contact Link for access to material
2) The course is also thought as a preparation for the participation in the international iGEM synthetic biology summer competition (Link, Link). This competition is also the contents of the course Synthetic Biology II. Link
Data Science
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
551-0364-00LFunctional Genomics
Information for UZH students:
Enrolment to this course unit only possible at ETH. No enrolment to module BIO 254 at UZH.

Please mind the ETH enrolment deadlines for UZH students: Link
W3 credits2VC. von Mering, C. Beyer, B. Bodenmiller, M. Gstaiger, H. Rehrauer, R. Schlapbach, K. Shimizu, N. Zamboni, further lecturers
AbstractFunctional genomics is key to understanding the dynamic aspects of genome function and regulation. Functional genomics approaches use the wealth of data produced by large-scale DNA sequencing, gene expression profiling, proteomics and metabolomics. Today functional genomics is becoming increasingly important for the generation and interpretation of quantitative biological data.
ObjectiveFunctional genomics is key to understanding the dynamic aspects of genome function and regulation. Functional genomics approaches use the wealth of data produced by large-scale DNA sequencing, gene expression profiling, proteomics and metabolomics. Today functional genomics is becoming increasingly important for the generation and interpretation of quantitative biological data. Such data provide the basis for systems biology efforts to elucidate the structure, dynamics and regulation of cellular networks.
ContentThe curriculum of the Functional Genomics course emphasizes an in depth understanding of new technology platforms for modern genomics and advanced genetics, including the application of functional genomics approaches such as advanced sequencing, proteomics, metabolomics, clustering and classification. Students will learn quality controls and standards (benchmarking) that apply to the generation of quantitative data and will be able to analyze and interpret these data. The training obtained in the Functional Genomics course will be immediately applicable to experimental research and design of systems biology projects.
Prerequisites / NoticeThe Functional Genomics course will be taught in English.
636-0702-00LStatistical Models in Computational BiologyW6 credits2V + 1U + 2AN. Beerenwinkel
AbstractThe course offers an introduction to graphical models and their application to complex biological systems. Graphical models combine a statistical methodology with efficient algorithms for inference in settings of high dimension and uncertainty. The unifying graphical model framework is developed and used to examine several classical and topical computational biology methods.
ObjectiveThe goal of this course is to establish the common language of graphical models for applications in computational biology and to see this methodology at work for several real-world data sets.
ContentGraphical models are a marriage between probability theory and graph theory. They combine the notion of probabilities with efficient algorithms for inference among many random variables. Graphical models play an important role in computational biology, because they explicitly address two features that are inherent to biological systems: complexity and uncertainty. We will develop the basic theory and the common underlying formalism of graphical models and discuss several computational biology applications. Topics covered include conditional independence, Bayesian networks, Markov random fields, Gaussian graphical models, EM algorithm, junction tree algorithm, model selection, Dirichlet process mixture, causality, the pair hidden Markov model for sequence alignment, probabilistic phylogenetic models, phylo-HMMs, microarray experiments and gene regulatory networks, protein interaction networks, learning from perturbation experiments, time series data and dynamic Bayesian networks. Some of the biological applications will be explored in small data analysis problems as part of the exercises.
Lecture notesno
Literature- Airoldi EM (2007) Getting started in probabilistic graphical models. PLoS Comput Biol 3(12): e252. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030252
- Bishop CM. Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning. Springer, 2007.
- Durbin R, Eddy S, Krogh A, Mitchinson G. Biological Sequence Analysis. Cambridge university Press, 2004
636-0019-00LData Mining II
Prerequisites: Basic understanding of mathematics, as taught in basic mathematics courses at the Bachelor`s level. Ideally, students will have attended Data Mining I before taking this class.
W6 credits3G + 2AK. M. Borgwardt
AbstractData Mining, the search for statistical dependencies in large databases, is of utmost important in modern society, in particular in biological and medical research. Building on the basic algorithms and concepts of data mining presented in the course "Data Mining I", this course presents advanced algorithms and concepts from data mining and the state-of-the-art in applications of data mining.
ObjectiveThe goal of this course is that the participants gain an advanced understanding of data mining problems and algorithms to solve these problems, in particular in biological and medical applications, and to enable them to conduct their own research projects in the domain of data mining.
ContentThe goal of the field of data mining is to find patterns and statistical dependencies in large databases, to gain an understanding of the underlying system from which the data were obtained. In computational biology, data mining contributes to the analysis of vast experimental data generated by high-throughput technologies, and thereby enables the generation of new hypotheses.

In this course, we will present advanced topics in data mining and its applications in computational biology.

Tentative list of topics:

1. Dimensionality Reduction
2. Association Rule Mining
3. Text Mining
4. Graph Mining
Lecture notesCourse material will be provided in form of slides.
LiteratureWill be provided during the course.
262-6190-00LMachine LearningW8 credits4Gexternal organisers
Abstract
Objective
252-0220-00LIntroduction to Machine Learning Information Restricted registration - show details
Limited number of participants. Preference is given to students in programmes in which the course is being offered. All other students will be waitlisted. Please do not contact Prof. Krause for any questions in this regard. If necessary, please contact Link
W8 credits4V + 2U + 1AA. Krause
AbstractThe course introduces the foundations of learning and making predictions based on data.
ObjectiveThe course will introduce the foundations of learning and making predictions from data. We will study basic concepts such as trading goodness of fit and model complexitiy. We will discuss important machine learning algorithms used in practice, and provide hands-on experience in a course project.
Content- Linear regression (overfitting, cross-validation/bootstrap, model selection, regularization, [stochastic] gradient descent)
- Linear classification: Logistic regression (feature selection, sparsity, multi-class)
- Kernels and the kernel trick (Properties of kernels; applications to linear and logistic regression); k-nearest neighbor
- Neural networks (backpropagation, regularization, convolutional neural networks)
- Unsupervised learning (k-means, PCA, neural network autoencoders)
- The statistical perspective (regularization as prior; loss as likelihood; learning as MAP inference)
- Statistical decision theory (decision making based on statistical models and utility functions)
- Discriminative vs. generative modeling (benefits and challenges in modeling joint vy. conditional distributions)
- Bayes' classifiers (Naive Bayes, Gaussian Bayes; MLE)
- Bayesian approaches to unsupervised learning (Gaussian mixtures, EM)
LiteratureTextbook: Kevin Murphy, Machine Learning: A Probabilistic Perspective, MIT Press
Prerequisites / NoticeDesigned to provide a basis for following courses:
- Advanced Machine Learning
- Deep Learning
- Probabilistic Artificial Intelligence
- Seminar "Advanced Topics in Machine Learning"
636-0101-00LSystems GenomicsW4 credits3GN. Beerenwinkel, C. Beisel, S. Reddy
AbstractThis lecture course is an introduction to Systems Genomics. It addresses how fundamental questions in biological systems are studied and how the resulting data is statistically analyzed in order to derive predictive mathematical models. The focus is on viewing biology from a genomic perspective, which requires high-throughput experimental methods (e.g., RNA-seq, genome-scale screening, single-cell
ObjectiveThe goal of this course is to learn how a detailed quantitative description of genome biology can be employed for a better understanding of molecular and cellular processes and function. Students will learn fundamental questions driving the field of Systems Genomics. They will also be introduced to traditional and advanced state-of-the-art technologies (e.g., CRISPR-Cas9 screening, droplet-microfluidic sequencing, cellular genetic barcoding) that are used to obtain quantitative data in Systems Genomics. They will learn how to use these data to develop mathematical models and efficient statistical inference algorithms to recognize patterns, molecular interrelationships, and systems behavior. Finally, students will gain a perspective of how Systems Genomics can be used for applied biological sciences (e.g., drug discovery and screening, bio-production, cell line engineering, biomarker discovery, and diagnostics).
ContentLectures in Systems Genomics will alternate between lectures on (i) biological questions, experimental technologies, and applications, and (ii) statistical data analysis and mathematical modeling. Selected complex biological systems and the respective experimental tools for a quantitative analysis will be presented. Some specific examples are the use of RNA-sequencing to do quantitative gene expression profiling, CRISPR-Cas9 genome scale screening to identify genes responsible for drug resistance, single-cell measurements to identify novel cellular phenotypes, and genetic barcoding of cells to dissect development and lineage differentiation.

Main Topics:
-- Next-generation sequencing
-- Transcriptomics
-- Biological network analysis
-- Functional and perturbation genomics
-- Single-cell biology and analysis
-- Genomic profiling of the immune system
-- Genomic profiling of cancer
-- Evolutionary genomics
-- Genome-wide association studies

Selected genomics datasets will be analyzed by students in the tutorials using the statistical programming language R and dedicated Bioconductor packages.
Lecture notesThe PowerPoint presentations of the lectures as well as other course material relevant for an active participation will be made available online.
Literature-- Do K-A, Qin ZS & Vannucci M (2013) Advances in Statistical Bioinformatics: Models and Integrative Inference for High-Throughput Data, Cambridge University Press
-- Klipp E. et al (2009) Systems Biology, Wiley-Blackwell
-- Alon U (2007) An Introduction to Systems Biology, Chapman & Hall
-- Zvelebil M & Baum JO (2008) Understanding Bioinformatics, Garland Science
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