New course about Molecular Bioinformatics for Neurobiologists at RWTH Aachen University

March 9, 2016 - Prof. Paolo Carloni and Dr. Alejandro Giorgetti, in collaboration with Dr. Marc Spehr (Institute for Biology II in Aachen) are offering a new course entitled “Molecular Bioinformatics for Neurobiologists” at the RWTH Aachen University.

The course targets advanced master students from RWTH Aachen and doctoral students in Biology and Neuroscience from RWTH Aachen / UK Aachen and the FZJ / GRS from Jülich.

The course will be held from 25.04.2016 to 04.05.2016 (exception: Tuesdays) from 08:30 - 11:00 in a seminar / course room of the Institute for Biology II (2. Sammelbau Biologie, Campus-Melaten). Up to 15 students can be admitted to the course.
To sign in, the student(s) should just send an e-mail to m.spehr@sensorik.rwth-aachen.de and express their interest.

The course will introduce the basic elements of bioinformatics aimed at the characterization of structural/functional assessment of proteins involved in neuronal processes. Particular attention will be given to G-protein couple receptors (GPCR) that form part of about the 80% of the signaling pathways in the brain and they are also involved in chemoperception mechanisms.
Organization: Each day of the course will consist of an introduction into theoretical concepts followed by exercises at the PC (students are strongly encouraged to bring their own PC, at least it will be necessary to have one PC each pair of students). The state-of-art methods that will be used are all free, available through web-servers, so no complex installation of programs is needed.