Give a concise review of relevant background biology and an introduction to the statistical problems arising recently in gene mapping, high throughput -omic data analysis, phylogenetics and sequence analysis. Basic ideas of key methods will be developed with considerable attention to analysis of published data. Statistics students should gain sufficient background to start exploring their own research questions in the area. Biology students should gain a deeper understanding of state-of-the-art statistical methods to encourage best practices. For all students, the objective is to experience fruitful cross-disciplinary work.
The initial course is aimed at PhD and MS graduate students in statistics, but open to advanced graduate students in other fields. We anticipate a second course, Stat 677, that would be more applied and focused on biologists with strong quantitative skills, but we will start with one course for a variety of reasons, including staffing. Both courses would be geared toward collaborative audiences: graduate students in the statistics/biostatistics PhD program paired with graduate students in biology programs with strong interests in quantitative methods. Plans are still tentative, but the expectation is to offer a prototype course under Stat 992 in Spring 2008.