Computational Biology Major
Master 1 courses
1st Semester
Shared courses
Organisation: TD (18h)
Lecturers: Julien Lefèvre
Evaluation: projects and oral presentation
The goal of this course is to introduce students to multidisciplinary research topics through seminars and visits to research laboratories and private sector companies.
The teaching unit consists of a presentation of the main professions involved in biological modelling. It will be carried out in two ways. First of all, some seminars will be offered with speakers from outside Aix-Marseille University in the academic and industrial field. Secondly, students will benefit from an immersion in Centuri laboratories where they will discover multidisciplinary research topics. To conclude this unit, students will be asked to present a specific problem related to data processing and modelling. The scientific aspect will also have to be integrated into a reflection on the underlying professional issues, whether in the academic or private sector.
Organisation: Lectures (6h), TD (6h), TP (6h)
Lecturers: Brigitte Mossé, Elisabeth Remy
Evaluation: projects and final written exam
This UE presents the finite Boolean dynamical systems, that are mathematical tools more and more used in the field of the modelling of biological regulatory networks.
Prerequisites in logics, set theory, graph theory and Boolean finite dynamical systems are provided, as well as definitions of the different possible associated dynamics, the corresponding regulatory graphs and logical formula. The rôle of feedback circuits in the dynamics is specially emphasised.
Applications of these tools for the modelling of biological networks are presented, mainly in context of diseases. The practical lessons (TP) are done using GINsim, a free software dedicated to the logical modelling of regulatory networks.
Organisation: Lectures (18h)
Lecturers: Laurence Röder, Fabrice Muscatelli
Evaluation: final written exam
This unit is the first part of the Fundamentals of biology course. In this first part, we will give a general presentation of the role of macromolecules in cell function, particularly in the regulation of gene expression, epigenetic inheritance and speciation as a source of biological diversity during evolution.
Organisation: Lectures (14h), TP (16h)
Lecturers: Laurent Pézard, Michael Kopp, Andreas Zanzoni
Evaluation: projects and final written exam
Computational biology introduce the biological concepts needed to model complex systems, implement modelling approaches (differential, logical, stochastic or deterministic equations) to develop mathematical models of a biological system, analyze mathematical models and biological data to understand complex systems and assess the adequacy between a biological question.
The course is divided in 3 sections:
- Computational neuroscience: dynamic models of neuron function: dynamic behavioural simulation, biological aspects, computer complexity, analytical aspects
- Bioinformatics: alignment, molecular phylogeny, prediction and modelling of structural aspects of proteins, cis-regulation
- Evolution and population dynamics.
Organisation: Lectures (12h), TD (12h), TP (12h)
Lecturers: Julien Lefèvre
Evaluation: continuous exams
This course recalls the general basics of programming, implemented here with Python.
It also provides the essential elements for a modern practice of programming in the Python language: use of an IDE, version control, use of existing modules, good practice for coding. Part of this course is also devoted to some classic algorithms for sorting and manipulating current data structures as well as algorithms dedicated to bioinformatics.
Bioinformatics courses
Organisation: Lectures (9h), TP (9h)
Lecturers: Laurence Röder
Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of modern biology that studies the genetic complement of an organism. With nearly 3,500 genomes now sequenced, the post-genomic era has greatly improved our knowledge of the origin of diversity and the evolution of human genomes, cell pathways, organism phenotypes and diseases. The course will be divided into four main themes intended to cover methods of genome analysis: Three-dimensional structureof eukaryotic genomes, Gene regulation and gene regulation network, Evolution of cis regulation, Deregulation of expression in human diseases.
Organisation: Lectures (6h), TD (6h), TP (6h)
Lecturers: Charlotte Perrin
Evaluation: continuous monitoring and final written exam
The purpose of this course is to introduce some of the simplest differential equations and systems of differential equations which underlie the main continuous models used in biology (dynamics of populations or cells, biochemical processes, epidemiology...). We will address both qualitative (equilibria and their stability, long-time behavior) and quantitative (positivity, parameter dependency) properties of the considered models. In parallel to this theoretical study, numerical simulations will be performed during the computer sessions. Practicals will consist in using Python specialised libraries as scipy.integrate in order to visualise trajectories and systems behaviours.
2nd Semester
Shared courses
Organisation: Lectures (12h)
Lecturers: Laurence Röder, Fabrice Muscatelli
Evaluation: project and continuous monitoring
Scientific seminars constitute a good way to broaden your scientific horizon. In this regard, MSc students will frequently attend CENTURI seminars. At the end of the semester, students will be asked to write a summary of two seminars they have attended.
Organisation: Lectures (12h), TD (12h)
Lecturers: François Muscatelli, Thomas Lecuit, Dominique Payet, Guillaume Voisinne, Valery Matarazzo, Julie Koenig
Evaluation: final written exam
This course is a continuation of Fundamentals of biology 1. It will show how molecular mechanisms provide the information required for the development and function of tissues and organisms. Instruction is structured around four areas:
- Organismal development;
- Immune system;
- Nervous system
- Intergenerational transmission of traits
Organisation: Lectures (6h), TD (6h), TP (6h)
Lecturers: Annie Broglio
Evaluation: projects and final written exam
This course aims at providing students with a practical approach of the analysis of biological data with R, based on the concepts acquired in the course “Probabilities and statistics for modelling 1”. The associated mathematical foundations will be developed in the course “Advanced statistics”. The following notions will be investigated:
- Sampling and estimation (moments, robust estimators, confidence intervals)
- Fitting
- Additional distributions
- Hypothesis testing (mean comparison, goodness of fit, …)
The course will be based on the analysis of biological datasets with the R programming language.
Organisation: Project
Lecturers: Florence Hubert, Laurence Röder
Evaluation: project
Following the module [PROJ1], the students will do a short internship in laboratory. They will have to propose a modelling or data processing problem at the math-info-bio interface. They will be asked to synthesize their results in a dissertation and an oral presentation.
Organisation: Lectures (6h), TD (6h), TP (6h)
Lecturers:Jean-Marc Freiermuth
Evaluation: projects and final written exam
Prerequisite for CMB-B:
- [STAT1] Probabilities and statistics for modelling 1
- [STAT2] Statistics for biology
The R software will be used in the practicals.
This course will tackle advanced notions in statistics such as:
- Statistical inference (fundamental concepts, estimators, intervals and tests, quadratic error, bias and variance)confidence
- Likelihood (Fisher information, likelihood ratio test)
- Exponential family
- Convergence
- Multivariate Gaussian distributions
Organisation: TD (10h), TP (20h)
Lecturers: Denis Puthier
Evaluation: projects and final written exam
Bioinformatic analysis
Analysis of omics data constitutes a first approach towards omics data’s (e.g. DNA sequencing) high throughput analysis. This course will first focus on introducing bioinformatics’ methods and their goal (e.g. quality check, positioning reads on a genome, searching for ChIP-seq’s spikes, etc.). Different kinds of files needed to proceed to these analysis will be presented, and more particularly those used in epigenomic sequencing (e.g. ChIP-seq, RNA-seq, etc.).
Statistical analysis
During this course you will learn more about concepts of probability and statistics applied to biological models (e.g. epigenomic data sets). These biological models will be picked amongst the models presented in other courses. Example of Statistical concepts: Fisher's exact test, hypergeometric distribution, multiple tests, unsupervised classification ; Example of Biological models: detection of differentially expressed genes with counting data, functional enrichment analysis, classification of expression profiles
Bioinformatics courses
Organisation: Lectures (6h), TD (6h), TP (6h)
Lecturers: Michael Kopp
Evaluation: projects and final written exam
This course is addressed to students with a background in biology, and aims at enforcing the theoretical grounds in order to allow them to apprehend advanced statistics. The following concepts will be investigated:
- Numerical sequences and series (limits, convergence)
- Continuous laws of probabilities (normal, Student, chi2, Snedecor distribution).
- Introduction to the different notions of convergences in probabilities and Relationships between the different laws (convergence between laws).
- Law of large number and Central limit theorem
Practicals in Python will illustrate the different concepts.