BCMB30002: Functional Genomics and Bioinformatics

- The computer tutorial is a breeze and shouldn't be extremely difficult to complete. There were 2 computer sessions replacing our tutorials and we would follow instructions on a worksheet and get an idea of conducting a bioinformatics search. You would then have to answer a set of questions which aren't difficult. A free 5%. You can bring your own laptop to the computer lab and do the search from there.

The 2 msts are now similar to the ones in 2nd year. Marie's questions were a bit tricky but all in all, they should be a breeze as well and aren't too complicated. For myself, I freaked out a lot in prepping for these assessments but they were honestly not too challenging. For those who did this subject, it was clear why the lecturers were lazy in the 1st MST. On a side note, it's not really clear why we aren't given detailed feedback compared to 2nd year. On another side note, the feedback given was fast based on university standard (2 days) but slow if compared to 2nd yr biochem.

The assignment is based on a topic that's given by each lecturer of the course and we pick one based on what we find most interesting. I felt what made this assignment stressful was that we had very little guidance on what to do or how we were supposed to write it. The tutorial helped in some sense but it provided little help. BCMB20003 does help in that it builds you up to read scientific articles more easily. The process of writing the essay was painful but I would say the marking is less strict than techniques but I can't really say for sure.
The final exam is the monster itself. No matter how well you did for everything else, it doesn't guarantee a H1 for this subject. The final exam is a written exam with no MCQs. This has been the format for this subject for the last few years. While it's great that the weightage of the final exam has been reduced, the difficulty has increased and this took me and my friends by surprise. In the past, it was a 3 hour paper that awarded 100 marks. Now, it has become a 2 hour paper that awards

I'm writing this review because the past review provided is no longer available and the format of this subject has changed quite a lot from past years. This subject is a pre-requisite for people interested in majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology. Based on what i've heard, some people do this subject as part of biotechnology as well. This subject has a major focus on the molecular biology side of the major. Please be warned - I will try to be as objective as I can in this review because this subject has made me frustrated on many occasions and has a different atmosphere compared to BCMB20002 and BCMB20003.

Yes

Stuart Ralph (Introduction to Bioinformatics)
Ian Van Driel (Genes and Chromosomes, Oncogenes)
Marie Bogoyevitch (mRNA world)
Danny Hatters (Genes and diseases)
Elizabeth Hinde (Protein - protein interaction quantification)
Paul Gleeson (Tumour Suppressor genes)

- I'll start with the positives of the lectures. What makes this subject great is that all the lecturers have slides that have comprehensive notes that are very detailed and explain everything you need to know. You won't have the issue of lack of info on the slides. It was clear the lecturers did know what they were talking about and explained clearly 80% of the time. The content was interesting at times by exploring the CRISPR/cas9 system used for gene editing or miRNA therapy. If you're like me in that you are used to only studying the biology, you may find the bioinformatics section confusing as it moves towards a bit of computing but that's fine. It's hard to grasp at first but with enough time and thinking, it will make sense.

The biggest issue with the lectures was that things felt very uncoordinated. On paper, the topics mentioned above felt like they should link to one another but it was a mess. The final section on cancer felt like we moved away from everything we learnt on finding genes and were asked to memorise oncogene and tumour suppressor gene names. The content was given to us and there was no flow from one topic to the next when the next lecturer took over their block of lectures. There were moments where content was being repeated but it didn't really help keep things connected. When revising for the final exam, it felt like each block of lectures were separate subjects and was hard to keep them together.

The final exam was what made me question to continue pursuing a biochemistry and molecular biology major. It can be extremely dry if you're not interested in the molecular level of the cells especially if you hate genes. To top it all off, this subject can be quite daunting in that the lecturers don't seem like they're interested in educating us. During discussion on the facebook group (yes, no piazza), much discussion was happening for the past papers but the lecturers wouldn't help guide us when we were stuck on things. I understand that the answers may be given away for the final exam but it was honestly not too engaging. Do this subject if you really love molecular biology and don't mind looking at experiments throughout the semester. Here's hoping that Terry makes it interesting next semester.

PM if there are any questions

Yes, from 2012 to 2014 and 2016 as well. Past format MSTs included.

3 Out of 5

Alberts et al, Molecular Biology of the Cell, 6th edition (Not really necessary)

- The tutorials were a disappointment when compared to BCMB20002 and BCMB20003. It was a simple Q and A session where people were given a week in advance to send questions via emails or bring it up during tutorials. This is a poor method to conduct tutorials and this was evident in 1 tutorial where the whole 50 min slot consisted of only the lecturer talking and answering questions from their email sent by students. It felt like a lazy attempt to conduct a tutorial. It was clear from the flipped lecture by Stuart that it was possible to conduct these kind of tutorials where we would answer MCQs based on a scientific paper (similar to the subjects i mentioned above). Danny's tute was also good in that it forced us to have discussions on a question with one another.

3 lectures/week, 1 tutorial/week and 2 computer lab sessions

2018, Semester 1

H1