IA Mathematical Biology : Genetics teaching components

The following segment of the course is taught by a member of te Department of Genetics

Dr Aylwyn Scally : Probability, Genome Sequencing and Population Genetics

These lectures introduce fundamental concepts of probability and randomness, and how to build probabilistic models of biological systems. Such models are essential and widely used tools for understanding complex biological phenomena, and are particularly important in genetics and genome sequence analysis. The lectures also introduce basic population genetics and the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium as an important example of a probabilistic model.

1 Randomness, probability and counting :

Describing experiments: sample spaces and events ; Probability ; Conditional probability; Independence; Multiple events; Switching conditions; Conditional independence ; Counting

2 Bayes’ theorem

3 Solving problems in probability

4 Random variables and probability distributions :

Discrete probability distributions ; Cumulative distribution function ; Continuous distributions

5 Averages, variability and sampling :

Expected value ; Other measures of central tendency ; Variance ; Expectation and variance for special distributions ; Sampling

Joint distributions

Further information about the course

Website : https://www.biology.cam.ac.uk/undergrads/nst/courses/mb

Programme specification/Aims & outcomes : https://www.biology.cam.ac.uk/undergrads/nst/courses/mb/aims

Course organiser : Dr Aylwyn Scally

Course administrator : teach@path.cam.ac.uk

Contributing Depts : Zoology, Plant Sciences, Genetics

IA Mathematical Biology : Genetics teaching components

Dr Aylwyn Scally : Probability, Genome Sequencing and Population Genetics

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