Part I: In a few sentences, describe your educational background, your current job (if biology/health/computer science/biotechnology – related), and your goals beyond the M.S. Biotechnology program. Next, list the previous computer-related courses and molecular life science courses you have completed. Finally, briefly describe what you hope to get out of this course.

Part II: Use any available web resources to answer the following questions. A good place to start (but not the only place you can go) is the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) site. NCBI is our national resource for molecular biology information. It creates and maintains public databases, conducts research in computational biology, develops software tools for analyzing genome data, and disseminates biomedical information. You can find it here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

1. Give brief (just a few words) definitions of the following in your own words, without looking them up. Do NOT cut and paste from a wiki, I want to assess your level of understanding (this assignment is not graded):

a) polymorphism

b) linkage disequilibrium

c) RNA splicing

d) C-value

2. To which phyla do the following species belong?

a) lamprey

b) ginkgo tree

c) horseshoe crab

d) sea urchin

3. How many RefSeq nucleotide sequence records are there in GenBank for alcohol dehydrogenase in corn? Do they all code for alcohol dehydrogenase?

4. What is the complete amino acid sequence of horse platelet glycoprotein IIIa?

5. How many H1N1 influenza virus sequences are there currently in GenBank?

6. To date, how many genome sequences of the organism that causes bubonic plague have been completed?

7. What does the genomic analysis tool called “Splign” do?

8. a) What is BRCA1?

b) What is its chromosomal location?

c)What disease genes are immediately centromeric and telomeric to BRCA1?

9. What is the longest gene in nature and how long is it?

10. What, specifically, is MLWWEEVEDCY?

Part III: Have you read the course syllabus carefully and completely?

Do you have any questions regarding course structure and requirements? If so, please list them here.