The post-genome era has seen significant advances in our ability to obtain biological data, be it protein sequences or structures. Bioinformatics have become an indispensible skill for the next generation of biochemists and biologists in order to retrieve, analyse and interpret data. This module will introduce the different resources and tools available on-line for the study of protein structure and interaction. This module will focus on how to decode the role and the molecular evolution of a protein starting from its sequence. The lectures will teach the theory and the computer practicals will introduce some of the many computer and web resources available to perform bioinformatics analyses.
Learning Outcomes
In order to pass this module the student will need to be able to:
1. use and retrieve information from protein databases and protein portals;
2. align protein sequences, and edit them in the light of amino acid similarities;
3. predict protein secondary and tertiary structure and protein-protein interaction;
4. observe and modify protein structure files using PyMol;
5. use webtools to recognise motifs in a protein sequence;
6. define the principles of molecular dynamics and perform energy minimisation.
- Module Supervisor: Filippo Prischi