Engineering in Genomics & AI

 Modern “omics” methods comprise a set of high-throughput techniques useful for the study of entire sets of biological molecules, such as genomes, transcripts, and proteins. These approaches strive to provide a comprehensive view of a living system, and are increasingly used to probe cellular diversity, trace the evolution and spread of pathology, and to directly connect molecules to functional changes at the level of the cell or organism. This course will survey the foundational technologies and ideas underpinning such work by building a clear, intuitive understanding of modern methods—sequencing chemistries (Illumina, PacBio HiFi, ONT), single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, single-cell and spatial DNA sequencing, in situ imaging-based sequencing, genome editing, and CRISPR-based perturbations—with computational themes like base-calling, normalization, cell-type classification, and interpretation of perturbation data. Familiarity with basic genomics methods and processing of biological data is helpful but not required.