Autumn Quarter, Research Apprenticeship
September 25 - December 9, 2006
Biology 499 (15 credits)
Instructors: Drs. Jonathan Alberts, Adriana Dawes and Kerry Kim
This apprenticeship is sponsored by Friday Harbor Laboratories, the NIGMS (National Institute of General Medical Sciences), the Washington Research Foundation, and the Mary Gates Endowment.
In this course, students had the opportunity to build research-level computational models of biological networks. Students spent the first 5 weeks learning the relevant biology, mathematics, physics and programming skills. Some of the tutorials used in this part of the couse are available on the tutorials page. After this, they embarked on a 5-week research project with a faculty mentor from the Center for Cell Dynamics. Project topics ranged from dynamics of cytoskeletal elements (microtubules and actin) to simulations of developmental pattern forming processes and evolution of networks. The final reports of the students' projects summarize their findings and demonstrate how computational modeling can be used to investigate and understand biological systems.
Class photo taken the second to last week of class after a record snowstorm. Thanks to digital technology, instructors stranded off island due to snow storm can be added. From left to right: Jonathan Alberts (Instructor), Ryan Gile (Technical support), Roman Avanesyan, Erika Hoyos, Liyun Zeng, Bibhash Mukhopadhyay, Kerry Kim (Instructor), Ryan Littlefield (Project mentor), Ivan Vulovic, Jose Natali, David Quan, Vilaiwan Fernandes, Kris Skotheim, Chris Schoff (TA), Adriana Dawes (Instructor).
