Course Description Prerequisites: P6104, P8175, and the instructor�s permission This is a one-semester course using computer simulation to teach how to analyze genetic data in a search for disease-related genes. The purpose of the course is to give students a hands-on feel for the problems and vagaries of genetic linkage and association analysis. Students will use computer simulation to generate highly-realistic human genetic data sets under a variety of conditions, varying such parameters as the mode of inheritance, penetrance, gene frequency, linkage disequilibrium, and heterogeneity, among others. The students will then analyze those data using both correct and incorrect assumptions about the true genetic origin of the data. By analyzing multiple data sets, students will gain understanding of the variation in results that occur due to random factors and also gain insight into the reliability of results. Both the data generation and the analysis steps are automated and the interface web-based, so that students can devote their attention to the data and results without distraction by details of computer usage. However, knowledge of data handling in the computer is essential to understand the details of genetic analysis and time will be devoted to learning some elements of Unix and data and file handling, as well as the details of what linkage programs require. |
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