UR COURSES
Applied Genomics (BIO 257,BIO457)
This course is designed to introduce students to applications of genomics to problems in genetics, evolution and human health and demography. Students will receive hands-on training in genomic methods, where they will learn to apply next generation sequencing (NGS) and other high throughput assays to current biological problems. Students will read and discuss primary literature, and come up with a hypothesis about an unanswered question in Biology that they will then test as a group. Applied Genomics is part of the core curriculum for the Computational Biology Major at UR and our new MS in Data Science Applied Genomics Track.
Last offered fall 2023
Advanced topics in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (BIO 474, BIO476)
Topic: Genetic Conflict and Selfish Genetic elements. This course is a whirlwind introduction to selfish genetic elements. This course is part of the EEB graduate program but interested undergraduates are encouraged to e-mail alarracu@bio.rochester.edu to discuss the possibility of enrolling.
Last offered Spring 2023
Join us as we discuss interesting papers in evolutionary biology. We meet on Wednesdays at noon in HH316. Anyone is welcome (and all are encouraged) to attend!
Offered every semester, rotating faculty
UR PROGRAMS
Computational Biology major/minor: Dr. Larracuente is the advisor for the computational biology major – an interdisciplinary undergraduate major offered by the Biology Department. Read more on this page.
The Genomic Intensive Data Science Research, Education and Mentorship (GIDS-REM) fellowship program aims to expand and diversify the genomics workforce through hands-on genomics training and mentorship to a diverse group of data science MS students. The program provides curricular training covering theoretical and applied aspects of genomics data science, a way to build core competencies in genomics through workshops and research experiences, and mentoring. The overarching goal is to retain data science scholars in the genomics workforce through culturally-responsive mentorship. GIDS-REM fellows are students in the new GIDS Data Science MS program on the track in Applied Genomics. The fellows receive full tuition scholarships and stipends, in part funded by an NIH R25 from NHGRI (to MPIs: Larracuente, Fay, McCall) with support from the University of Rochester. For more information, visit this link or e-mail gids-rem@rochester.edu.
OUTREACH
Upward Bound
The Larracuente Lab runs a workshop on insect mating for local high school students as part of the Upward Bound program. Students learn about courtship in different insect species like fruit flies, parasitic wasps and fireflies.
Rochester Science Café
The Science Café provides a forum for interactive discussions on current topics with scientists from the University of Rochester and RIT. The group meets once a month on Tuesdays at 7pm in the Community Room of Barnes and Noble in Pittsford Plaza. Anyone is welcome to attend!
Amanda’s café was a presentation on the “Mysteries of the Genome” (11/24/15).
OTHER
Hackathons! The Goergen Institute for Data Science working group in life and biomedical data science (co-chaired by Drs. Justin Fay, Matthew McCall, and Amanda Larracuente) hosts annual hackathons open to anyone at the University at any experience level. Click here to read an NSF MCB blog post about our hackathons. E-mail alarracu@bio.rochester.edu for information about the next event.