Biological Databases and Distributed Computing
Instructors: Fernando Pineda and Michael OchsDescription
Provides students with the principles and skills required to implement biological databases and their web-based interfaces. Presents essential notions of distributed computing on the worldwide web. Includes the fundamentals of TCP/IP, client-server model, http protocol, server-side and client-side scripting with CGI and PHP and Javascript. Presents the principles of biological database design using relational and object-oriented database models and management systems (e.g. MySQL and Zope). Topics include SQL, database design, normalization, optimization and ER modeling. Discusses biological database interoperability, with e.g. XML, XML schema, and ontologies (i.e. GO). Guest lectures provide insights into significant biological database projects such as the Human Protein Reference Database (HPRD) and DRAGON. As a final project, students develop and publish a database-driven web-based application for a biological application.Course website
