PGY/PHA 617 Physiological Genomics: Microarray gene expression profiling
Co-course directors:
Tim McClintock, Physiology, 323-1083, mcclint@uky.edu
Kuey-Chu Chen, Molecular and Biomedical Pharmacology, 323-6241, kueyc@uky.edu
Course Description. This course, designed for second and third year graduate students, teaches the study of function by global analysis of gene expression. It emphasizes the technical aspects of measuring gene expression with microarray techniques, but also incorporates examples where such studies have had a significant impact on understanding the function or dysfunction of physiological systems. The course emphasizes the use of Affymetrix GeneChip microarrays, but also describes other expression profiling methods.
Prerequisites: IBS604 Cell Signaling and IBS602 Biomolecules and Molecular Biology, or their equivalents. Suggested companion course: BIO520 Bioinformatics
Major themes.
1. UniGene, Entrez Gene, OMIM, BLAST and other NCBI bioinformatics tools
2. Comparison of expression profiling techniques
3. Design and performance of microarray experiments
4. Normalization and statistical analysis of microarray data
5. Bioinformatics of microarray data
6. Impact of expression profiling on the study of function and dysfunction.
Course objectives. Students will learn to:
1. Extract detailed information about a gene and its encoded protein from databases.
2. Design an expression profiling experiment and choose the appropriate method.
3. Analyze the results of microarray experiments, including the identification of functional processes and pathways in the data.
4. Construct hypotheses and tests of system-wide physiological responses.
Methods of instruction. Approximately 15 hours of the instruction will be didactic lecture. The remainder of the course uses the computer lab to allow hands-on instruction in on-line bioinformatics tools, microarray data analysis, and data visualization.