INTRODUCTION TO PYTHON PROGRAMMING FOR BIOLOGISTS
Online, 22-25 May 2023
COURSE OVERVIEW
This is a four-day course designed to provide an introduction to the Python programming language for all biologists and life scientists. Throughout the course, participants will learn python programming concepts and practical applications, engaging in hands-on coding exercises and projects to solidify their understanding.
TARGET AUDIENCE AND ASSUMED BACKGROUND
The course is intended for biologists at all levels (students, researchers, and group leaders) with little or no prior programming experience. The pace of the course will begin foundational and develop into more complex aspects, with lots of time dedicated to the practice of the concepts covered.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
- Write and run basic Python code to extract, parse, process, analyse and visualise biological data
- Understand the basics of bioinformatics libraries in Python
- Understand the basics of data analysis and statistics using Python
- Write organised and reusable code
- Create a simple project using Python for their specific field.
PROGRAM
Monday - Classes from 2-8 PM Berlin time
Introduction to Python concepts and coding with Jupyter
Basic data types and simple functions
Data manipulation and I/O handling
Project: Creating a program with variable inputs to manipulate DNA sequences
Tuesday - Classes from 2-8 PM Berlin time
Conditionals & loops
Handling bioinformatic file formats
Writing functions & object oriented code
Project: Extract, parse and process sequence data from FASTA and GenBank files
Wednesday - Classes from 2-8 PM Berlin time
Using BioPython & libraries intro (i.e. Statistical packages Numpy/Pandas)
Further coding practice with biological data manipulation and analysis techniques
Accessing third-party bioinformatics tools with Python
Project: Problem solving with real-world biological datasets
Thursday - Classes from 2-8 PM Berlin time
Data visualisation packages (matplotlib/seaborn/plotly)
Project: Create basic plots of genetic data and compute basic statistics
Organising & sharing your code with Git
Project: Developing your-research project concepts and presentation
