This course will cover algorithms and techniques used in the identification and functional characterization of cellular proteins. Structure of proteins will be investigated with an emphasis on binding sites including computational approaches to protein-protein interactions, ligand-proteins interactions, and drug design.
CS 483 is intended for students in the Bioinformatics plan in fourth year or those with an interest in the application of current techniques in computer science to the study of macromolecular structure and functionality.
Prerequisites: BIOL 365, CS 341, STAT 231/241.
Course notes to be provided by the instructor. Optional text: Structural Bioinformatics: An Algorithmic Approach, Forbes Burkowski, Chapman and Hall/CRC, 2008.
3 hours of lectures per week. Normally available in Winter.
Review of the fundamentals in structural bioinformatics: Protein structure, DNA and RNA structure, Visualization tools.
Structure superposition. Comparison and alignment algorithms.
Secondary structure assignment. Structural domains
Structure comparison (SCOP, The CATH hierarchy).
Inferring function from structure. Structural motifs. Electrostatic interactions.
Docking algorithms. Scoring functions. Protein flexibility.
Overview of the drug design process. Analog-based design (pharmacophores, QSAR). Structure-based design (docking rigid and flexible ligands, de novo design, peptidomimetism). Design of virtual chemical libraries. Computational approaches to high throughput screening and drug selection. ADMET properties.
Secondary structure prediction. Tertiary structure prediction: (Homology modeling, threading, Ab initio folding).

David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1
Tel: 519-888-4567 x33293
Fax: 519-885-1208
Contact | Feedback: cs-uops@cs.uwaterloo.ca | David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science | Faculty of Mathematics