Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics plays a crucial role in modern biology, enabling researchers to analyze large-scale biological data and integrate it with existing knowledge found in literature and databases. This course introduces students to key computational problems in bioinformatics and the methods used to tackle them.

Students will gain both theoretical understanding and practical experience in using bioinformatics software and databases. The course provides an in-depth look at essential algorithms and techniques for processing and analyzing sequence data and other quantitative biological measurements. Through a combination of lectures, computer practicals, and project work, students will learn to understand and apply bioinformatics approaches to real biological problems.

The course grade is calculated by a weighted average of the Written Exam grade (60%) and the Project grade (40%).

• Written Exam (60% final grade): One exam (3 hours) covering all the modules of the course.

• Projects (40% of final grade): The projects are graded on a scale 0-10 and require you to hand in a deliverable and present your results.

In addition, there are practicals:

Practicals are available per module to practice the material and need to be completed before the given deadline. The practicals are graded pass/fail, where an overall pass (60% of total points) is needed to participate in the final exam and resit.

The deadlines for the practicals and project deliverables will be presented in the first lecture and are presented in the course schedule in the electronic learning environment.

Late policy:

Late submission of a project results in a daily -1 (minus one) on the project grade for every day from the submission deadline until submission.

Notes:

• Project and practical grades from 2025-2026 can carry over to 2026-2027.

• In order to pass the course, students must score at least 5.0 on the individual graded components (exam and project grade) and a "pass" on the practicals.

• The resit grade only replaces the exam grade (60% of final grade), not the project grades.

• For the projects, a repair opportunity will be offered. Registration and submission deadlines will be posted in Brightspace in week 4.1, no repairs will be allowed after week 5.3. For deadlines to resit projects in 2026-2027, refer to the study guide for NB2161 after July 15th 2026.

• There is no repair opportunity for practicals, but students can compensate a low grade for one practical with a high grade for another. Only the overall practical grade is evaluated.

• Exceptions to the late submission policy are possible based on recommendation by the academic counsellor.