What's new in 2026:

The 2026 Applied Bioinformatics course is now underway.

This year, AI-assisted bioinformatics starts from day one. We use AI as a tool to help students work on real problems sooner, while emphasizing the skills needed to evaluate whether the results are correct and meaningful.

I recently came across an analogy I like: AI is a calculator for words. A calculator can evaluate a formula better than you can, but it cannot tell you whether you chose the right formula or whether the answer makes sense. That is the perspective we take with AI in this course.

By the second assignment, students were already building Makefiles to download, rename, index, and visualize a genome.

What has not changed is the focus on realistic, published datasets and practical methods that reflect how bioinformatics is actually done.

The course is being taught in the classroom right now, with new material published each week as it is presented. I am documenting what works, what does not, and how AI changes the way these skills can be taught.

New material is being published each week as the course is taught. You can follow along as it develops or wait for the completed version.