A practical programming course for Year 3 Life Sciences students at the University of Sussex. No prior coding experience required!
Master the Python fundamentals through hands-on biological applications. All students complete these five essential sessions.
Put your Python skills to the test with a comprehensive DNA sequencing analysis project. Learn NGS fundamentals and perform real mutation analysis.
Apply your Python knowledge to real genomic data analysis
Understand sequencing technologies, FASTQ format, and quality control
Work with real sequencing data, compare reads to reference and call variants
Build your own mutation analysis pipeline and discover variants
Available after Lecture 3 - Complete the core sessions first to build the foundation skills
Apply everything you've learned to explore large-scale genomic datasets. Become a bioinformatician through hands-on data analysis.
Explore large gene effect and expression data with EDA and correlation analysis:
Choose one track to deepen your skills for your final project. Ambitious students are encouraged to explore all three tracks.
10 hands-on sessions: 5 lecture support labs + 5 capstone project sessions
Practice sessions that reinforce each lecture with guided notebook exercises. Work through problems step-by-step with instructor support.
Variables, calculations, and basic programming concepts
Open NotebookFirst steps working with Python packages and Pandas DataFrames
Open NotebookGenerating publication-ready plots and visualisations
Open NotebookGene Dependency Correlation Analysis with Statistics and Visualisation
Open NotebookIntroduction to your final capstone project: building a comprehensive gene analysis pipeline. Learn about project requirements, choose your biological dataset, and plan your approach.
Four dedicated sessions to build your capstone project with instructor guidance. Get help debugging code, implementing features, and preparing your final presentation.
| Week | Lecture Topic | Seminar | Assignment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction to Python & Setup | Lab calculator workshop | |
| 2 | Strings & DNA Analysis | Sequence Analysis Workshop | |
| 3 | Object Oriented Programming and intro to Pandas | Depmap Data Workshop | DNA Sequence Analysis, due Week7 |
| 4 | Linear Regression and Data Visualisation | Matplotlin Seaborn Workshop | |
| 5 | End to End Data Mining project | Gene Dependency Correlation Analysis Workshop | Final Project, due Week 11 Basic Python Skill Test |
This course is specifically designed for Year 3 students in the Life Sciences from the University of Sussex who want to add computational skills to their toolkit. But this course is also for anyone who wants to learn Python for biology!