Life Sciences 

Online Course:
Dates: January 6 - March 14, 2025 - Click here to apply (opens a new webpage)
Grade Level: Students must currently be in 10th - 12th grade
Tuition: $2,000

Schedule:  Monday & Wednesdays 4:30pm-6:50pm. Synchronous online teaching

This 10-week synchronous online course introduces the theory and practical applications of bioinformatics to genes and proteins.  The lecture/computer lab format is structured on bioinformatics primary scientific literature and utility of custom data sets emphasizing recent developments and analytical applications in genomics and proteomics. Course topics, supplemented by relevant biostatistical concepts and applications, include genomic and biomolecular bioinformatics resources and databases, advances in sequencing technologies, genome and structural informatics, phylogenetics and transcriptomics. Computational tools (using R programming language) and applications promoting best analytical practices will be emphasized.

• By the end of the course, student will be able to:
  • Establish a testable null and alternative hypothesis
  • Understand the experiments with adequate biological, technical replication and statistical power
  • Critically assess primary scientific literature focused on biostatistics and bioinformatics concepts
  • Perform gene finding and sequence alignments, DNA and Protein Database searching
  • Become familiar with the bioinformatics databases, including NCBI / EBI, PDB, UCSC Genome browser, DAVID Bioinformatics, and STRING protein network bioinformatics
  • Explore and visualize data and perform bioinformatic analysis, including principal component analysis (PCA) using R
  • Understand the high throughput sequencing methods and applications
  • Perform phylogenetic and hierarchical clustering analysis and quantify intra- and inter-species variation and estimate divergence
  • Analyze transcriptomics data using a RNASeq data set

Course Requirements / Eligibility: There is no textbook for this course. A familiarity with basic biological concepts is essential. No formal programming training or advanced mathematical skills are required. Students must have their own computers to access class material and utilize free bioinformatics software and data resources.  All course materials (lectures, computer labs, videos, science manuscript .pdf files and data sets, etc.) will be accessible via Canvas course website.  Students will also present a pre-approved bioinformatics topic of their choice during the last week of the course. Attendance is mandatory to successfully complete the course. All lecture and lab sessions will be recorded and made available asynchronously for review.

Prerequisites: High School AP Biology, Pre-Calculus.  Statistics preferred but not required.

Course is available for 4 pre-college units. 

Hybrid Course:
Dates: January 6 - March 14, 2025 - Click here to apply (opens a new webpage)
Grade Level: Students must currently be in 10th - 12th grade

Tuition: $3,000
Schedule:  Tuesday & Thursdays 4:30pm-6:50pm. Synchronous online & in-person teaching

Research Lab Location: 

Boz Life Science Research and Teaching Institute
La Jolla Cove Research Center
505 Coast S Blvd, Suite 301
La Jolla, CA 92037

This 10-week hybrid course that meets twice per week - once virtually, and once in-person (lab) - introduces students to research about gene expression and metagenomics of fish embryos exposed to environmental stressors relevant to pollution and climate change. Chemical pollution from urban water sources washing into estuaries and oceans consists of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), pesticides, phthalates, and heavy metals. These chemicals can affect organisms' development by altering morphology, physiology, immunity, metabolism, etc. Changes in gene activity that regulate organism's stress response may be temporal or permanent. Stress-induced changes in gene activity and metagenomic whole-body composition influence how individuals and populations cope with environmental stress. You will expose fish embryos to chemically characterized water samples collected at the Tijuana River Estuary to better understand the effects of estuarine pollution on morphology, heart rate, gene activity, and microbial composition during animal development. This course will incorporate multiple research methods including microscopy, fish embryology, fish heart physiology, RNA shallow sequencing, and metagenomic sequencing. Students will work in small teams in the lab to discuss theoretical concepts and primary scientific literature, design experiments, perform research, analyze the data, and prepare their scientific report. The course will conclude with a formal science seminar during which the students will present their work in person to a selected audience.

• By the end of the course, student will be able to:
  • Observe fish embryos and identify developmental stages
  • Quantify changes in embryology and heart physiology (heart rate)
  • Develop testable scientific hypothesis and design a statistically relevant experimental design
  • Critically assess primary scientific literature
  • Become familiar with molecular biology concepts including RNA structure, transcription, and gene expression quantification
  • Isolate and assess the quality of DNA (metagenomics) and RNA (for RNA sequencing)
  • Perform Metagenomics sequencing (nanopore)
  • Apply statistical methods to analyze differential gene expression and microbial composition
  • Apply fundamental bioinformatics analysis to infer biological relevance of experimental exposures
  • Design a scientific poster and present their finding in a formal science seminar setting

Prerequisites: None

Course is available for 4 pre-college units.         

Course is commuter based, housing and transportation is not provided.