In previous courses in the Specialization, we have discussed how to sequence and compare genomes. This course will cover advanced topics in finding mutations lurking within DNA and proteins.
Finding Mutations in DNA and Proteins (Bioinformatics VI)
Finding Mutations in DNA and Proteins (Bioinformatics VI)
This course is part of Bioinformatics Specialization
Instructors: Pavel Pevzner
15,860 already enrolled
Included with 
Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.
4.7
(59 reviews)
Intermediate level
Some related experience required
23 hours to complete
3 weeks at 7 hours a week
Flexible schedule
Learn at your own pace
Details to know
Shareable certificate
Add to your LinkedIn profile
Assessments
3 assignments
Taught in English
See how employees at top companies are mastering in-demand skills
Build your subject-matter expertise
This course is part of the Bioinformatics Specialization
When you enroll in this course, you'll also be enrolled in this Specialization.
- Learn new concepts from industry experts
- Gain a foundational understanding of a subject or tool
- Develop job-relevant skills with hands-on projects
- Earn a shareable career certificate
Earn a career certificate
Add this credential to your LinkedIn profile, resume, or CV
Share it on social media and in your performance review
There are 6 modules in this course
<p>Welcome to our class! We are glad that you decided to join us.</p><p>In this class, we will consider the following two central biological questions (the computational approaches needed to solve them are shown in parentheses):</p><ol><li>How Do We Locate Disease-Causing Mutations? (<em>Combinatorial Pattern Matching</em>)</li><li>Why Have Biologists Still Not Developed an HIV Vaccine? (<em>Hidden Markov Models</em>)</li></ol><p>As in previous courses, each of these two chapters is accompanied by a Bioinformatics Cartoon created by talented artist Randall Christopher and serving as a chapter header in the Specialization's bestselling <a href="http://bioinformaticsalgorithms.com" target="_blank">print companion</a>. You can find the first chapter's cartoon at the bottom of this message. </p><p><img src="https://stepic.org/media/attachments/lessons/292/chapter7_cropped.jpg" title="Image: https://stepic.org/media/attachments/lessons/292/chapter7_cropped.jpg" width="528"></p>
What's included
4 videos2 readings1 assignment2 app items
<p>Welcome to week 2 of the class!</p> <p>This week, we will introduce a paradigm called the Burrows-Wheeler transform; after seeing how it can be used in string compression, we will demonstrate that it is also the foundation of modern read-mapping algorithms.</p>
What's included
3 videos1 reading2 app items
<p>Welcome to week 3 of class!</p> <p>Last week, we saw how the Burrows-Wheeler transform could be applied to multiple pattern matching. This week, we will speed up our algorithm and generalize it to the case that patterns have errors, which models the biological problem of mapping reads with errors to a reference genome.</p>
What's included
4 videos1 reading1 assignment2 app items
<p>Welcome to week 4 of class!</p> <p>This week, we will start examining the case of aligning sequences with many mutations -- such as related genes from different HIV strains -- and see that our problem formulation for sequence alignment is not adequate for highly diverged sequences.</p> <p>To improve our algorithms, we will introduce a machine-learning paradigm called a hidden Markov model and see how dynamic programming helps us answer questions about these models.</p>
What's included
5 videos2 app items
<p>Welcome to week 5 of class!</p> <p>Last week, we introduced hidden Markov models. This week, we will see how hidden Markov models can be applied to sequence alignment with a profile HMM. We will then consider some advanced topics in this area, which are related to advanced methods that we considered in a previous course for clustering.</p>
What's included
5 videos1 reading1 assignment2 app items
<p>Welcome to the sixth and final week of class!</p> <p>This week brings our Application Challenge, in which we apply the HMM sequence alignment algorithms that we have developed.</p>
What's included
1 peer review
Instructors
Offered by
Recommended if you're interested in Health Informatics
University of California San Diego
Johns Hopkins University
University of California San Diego
University of California San Diego
Why people choose Coursera for their career
Felipe M.
Learner since 2018
"To be able to take courses at my own pace and rhythm has been an amazing experience. I can learn whenever it fits my schedule and mood."
Jennifer J.
Learner since 2020
"I directly applied the concepts and skills I learned from my courses to an exciting new project at work."
Larry W.
Learner since 2021
"When I need courses on topics that my university doesn't offer, Coursera is one of the best places to go."
Chaitanya A.
"Learning isn't just about being better at your job: it's so much more than that. Coursera allows me to learn without limits."
Learner reviews
Showing 3 of 59
4.7
59 reviews
- 5 stars
72.88%
- 4 stars
23.72%
- 3 stars
1.69%
- 2 stars
1.69%
- 1 star
0%
New to Health Informatics? Start here.
Open new doors with Coursera Plus
Unlimited access to 7,000+ world-class courses, hands-on projects, and job-ready certificate programs - all included in your subscription
Advance your career with an online degree
Earn a degree from world-class universities - 100% online
Join over 3,400 global companies that choose Coursera for Business
Upskill your employees to excel in the digital economy
Frequently asked questions
Access to lectures and assignments depends on your type of enrollment. If you take a course in audit mode, you will be able to see most course materials for free. To access graded assignments and to earn a Certificate, you will need to purchase the Certificate experience, during or after your audit. If you don't see the audit option:
The course may not offer an audit option. You can try a Free Trial instead, or apply for Financial Aid.
The course may offer 'Full Course, No Certificate' instead. This option lets you see all course materials, submit required assessments, and get a final grade. This also means that you will not be able to purchase a Certificate experience.
When you enroll in the course, you get access to all of the courses in the Specialization, and you earn a certificate when you complete the work. Your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page - from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile. If you only want to read and view the course content, you can audit the course for free.
If you subscribed, you get a 7-day free trial during which you can cancel at no penalty. After that, we don’t give refunds, but you can cancel your subscription at any time. See our full refund policy.