This is a four-day course designed to provide an introduction to the Python programming language for all biologists and life scientists. Throughout the course, participants will learn python programming concepts and practical applications, engaging in hands-on coding exercises and projects to solidify their understanding.

The course is intended for biologists at all levels (students, researchers, and group leaders) with little or no prior programming experience. The pace of the course will begin foundational and develop into more complex aspects, with lots of time dedicated to the practice of the concepts covered.

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Write and run basic Python code to extract, parse, process, analyse and visualise biological data

• Understand the basics of bioinformatics libraries in Python

• Understand the basics of data analysis and statistics using Python

• Write organised and reusable code

• Create a simple project using Python for their specific field.

Monday– Classes from 2-8 PM Berlin time

    Introduction, concepts, & data types
    Basic data types, first coding, & Data manipulation
    Collections - Lists & Tuples
    Project: Manipulating DNA sequences - Transcription Factor Binding

Tuesday– Classes from 2-8 PM Berlin time

    Collections - Dictionaries
    Conditionals & loops
    Advanced string manipulation
    Project: Manipulating Complex Field Data

Wednesday– Classes from 2-8 PM Berlin time

    I/O handling
    Organising code into functions
    Modules and libraries: BioPython
    Project: Chipseq, bespoke file formats, and functional organisation

Thursday– Classes from 2-8 PM Berlin time

    Statistics modules: numpy & pandas
    Data visualisation packages (matplotlib/seaborn/plotly)
    Your code as command line programs
    Coding in the age of ChatGPT and AI bots
    Project: More data problem solving - viral genomics

Should you have any further questions, please send an email to info@physalia-courses.org