Coding for Medicine for High School
Prepare for STEM education beyond high-school
Explore the living world integrating biology with coding, math and chemistry!
Major News/Updates for 2023
1. In-person classes at the Bellevue College are back again after the hiatus during the pandemic. Our online classes will also continue so that the students from around the country can join. This year, we are also introducing a new lab module titled "Learning Chemistry from Enzymes" covering the concepts of chemistry based on biochemical molecules.
2. This year we will again offer the summer-long independent research program, but with some important modifications from the last year. This time, the module will have both classes covering predetermined topics, as well as summer-long open-ended independent research. For this module, we plan to have a small group of students selected based on merit and genuine interest. Please contact us for more details.
3. Coding for Medicine clubs are expanding rapidly. In 2020, Leo Zou and Athulya Saravanakumar, our students from the Dulles High School in Sugarland, TX, started a Coding for Medicine club at their school. Today four more student-run Coding for Medicine clubs are operational in various high shcools, and several more clubs formed by students from our summer program are in their planning stages. If you are interested in starting a Coding for Medicine club at your school, let us discuss.
4. Under the guidance of Dr. Samanta, our members from the Coding for Medicine club at Dulles High Schools completed a yearlong research project analyzing the chloroplast genomes of parasitic plants. Their findings are summarized in this paper (link).
5. Anne Grodjak, your favorite teaching assistant from the online classes of 2020, joined MIT in the fall of 2021 and is now in her second year. Anne was not only our student at Coding for Medicine, but she performed excellent research for two years under the supervision of Dr. Samanta and reported the findings in this paper. Anne graduated from Bellevue High School, Bellevue, WA.
Coding for Medicine in 9th Year
Coding for Medicine is an innovative organization dedicated to teach coding skills to young people based on real-life problems. Our primary areas are biology and medicine, but we also offer interesting modules like "Calculus Meets Coding" to teach calculus and coding together and "Catching Pokemon with Coding" to teach coding to the middle-school students.
Our highly favoured high-school summer camps are in ninth year now. This June, we are offering online modules based on zoom/chat-based real time sessions and in-person modules at the Bellevue College.
Join the Genomics Revolution
Dramatic drop in DNA sequencing costs since the human genome project is revolutionizing biology and medicine. Tomorrow's doctors will need to have computational expertise to understand the genomic data, whereas tomorrow's computer scientists will find developing bioinformatics algorithms as their most exciting challenge. You get a glimpse of these advances by following the science of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Everything from developing rapid testing to tracing the global spread of the disease utilizes the genome sequence of the virus.
Coding for Medicine, in collaboration with Coding for Life Science, takes you to the center of that revolution. You will see how the worlds of computer scientists and medical doctors are merging together. We developed a set of courses to give young students the right skills to contribute to this fast-changing scientific world.
Here are our larger objectives.
- The living world is vast and full of mysteries. We like to generate interests among the budding scientists like you about the scientifically unexplored corners of the living world,
- Research in life sciences and medicine has become computer-intensive. We show you how to think using computers to solve such problems,
- We show you how to find open-source codes and biological data and teach you to use efficient collaborative tools like git/github. These skills are relevent for all areas of computing and not just life sciences.
Check here for our other activities.
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Module 1. Introductory Coding for Medicine (online)
This hands on module introduces you to the Python programming language through a series of problem solving exercises. Additionally, you learn about the Linux operating system, where to get publicly available genomic data and NCBI BLAST search engine for DNA sequences.
Just like last year, our this year's theme is coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). You will download its publicly available DNA sequences and write code to analyze it.
Price
$345 ($325 before March 31, 2023)
Choice of Sessions
1. June 5-9, 12-16 (9-11AM PST)
or,
2. July 17-21, 24-28 (10AM-12 noon PST)
or,
3. August 7-11, 13-18 (10AM-12 noon PST)
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Module 2. Introductory Coding for Medicine (in person)
This hands on module introduces you to the Python programming language through a series of problem solving exercises. Additionally, you learn about the Linux operating system, where to get publicly available genomic data and NCBI BLAST search engine for DNA sequences.
Just like last year, our this year's theme is coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). You will download its publicly available DNA sequences and write code to analyze it.
Price
$525 ($495 before March 31, 2023)
Choice of Sessions
1. July 10-14 (10AM-3PM PST)
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Module 3. Intermediate Coding for Medicine (online)
In this hands on programming course, you will use your Python coding skills to explore genome sequences and find key genes, learn how to develop computer algorithms to analyze genomes and see the big picture of where the new cutting-edge jobs are created for the 21st century.
After starting with the small coronavirus genome, you will explore the human genome to find information.
Price
$345 ($325 before March 31, 2023)
Choice of Sessions
1. July 17-21, 24-28 (1-3PM PST)
or,
2. Aug 7-11, 14-18 (1-3PM PST)
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Module 4. Intermediate Coding for Medicine (in person)
In this hands on programming course, you will use your Python coding skills to explore genome sequences and find key genes, learn how to develop computer algorithms to analyze genomes and see the big picture of where the new cutting-edge jobs are created for the 21st century.
After starting with the small coronavirus genome, you will explore the human genome to find information.
Price
$525 ($495 before March 31, 2023)
Choice of Sessions
1. July 31, Aug 1-4 (10AM-3PM PST)
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Module 5. Learning Chemistry from Enzymes (Lab)
The living world and the biological materials in it have been possible because of the presence of a set of proteins called enzymes. Enzymes are biocatalysts. Without them, none of the biochemical transformations will be possible and there would be no life! Indeed nature is the best chemist and exploring how enzymes work is helping chemists to understand catalysis. Enzymes accelerate biochemical reactions at tremendous speeds such as 10^17 and with high specificity and 100% yields. Incorporating more and more enzymes into our daily lives such as in manufacturing of fine chemicals, pharmaceutical products, water treatment facilities, daily chores, recycling of plastics etc holds the key to sustainable living.
In this laboratory course we will learn about enzyme-catalyzed reactions, kinetics of enzymatic reactions, enzyme stability and inhibition, enzyme purification and building enzymatic probes. The laboratory course will be supplemented by a single Zoom lecture class prior to the start of the course. The Zoom class will provide the background of the course and explain the experimental procedure in detail.
Prerequisite
A high school biology or chemistry class. However if you are a student who is deeply curious about chemistry or biochemistry, you are welcome to inquire further.
Price
$625 (in-person lab at the Bellevue College)
Choice of Sessions
TBD
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Module 6. Microbial Mysteries (Biotech Lab)
There is a vast untapped microbial world around us. So far our discoveries have merely scratched its surface. Large-scale genomic sequencing is providing us the opportunity of probing this world at a depth and scale never before possible.
Microbial Mysteries- a laboratory course will teach the students the skills and techniques of the biotechnology laboratory and how to use them to explore the microbial world. From learning to use the micropipettor and microscope students will grow and culture bacteria, extract genomic DNA, use PCR to amplify DNA and read sequence data.
The laboratory course will be supplemented by a single Zoom lecture class prior to the start of the course. The Zoom class will provide the background of the course and explain the experimental procedure in detail.
Price
$625 (in-person lab at the Bellevue College)
Choice of Sessions
TBD
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Module 7. Calculus/Precalculus Meets Coding
In this module, you will use your coding skills to understand selected fundamental concepts in calculus, precalculus and physics. More specifically, you will combine algebra with the powerful visualization tools of the R programming language to explore various concepts in mathematics. No prior knowledge of R is needed.
Price
$345 ($325 before March 31, 2023)
Choice of Sessions
1. June 19-23, 26-30 (10AM-12 noon PST)
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Module 8. Advanced Coding for Medicine and Summer Research
This summer-long module will allow you to read scientific publications and perform independent research in bioinformatics. Our this year's theme is genome and gene evolution. We previously worked with a number of high school students on this topic. This year we will continue to build on top of what they developed.
Over the years, we experimented with a number of approaches for this advanced module including two-week classroom-type sessions with pre-determined content more advanced than the intermediate modules or open-ended research sessions over the whole summer. Both approaches had their shortcomings, and therefore this time, we plan to take a hybrid approach.
There will be both sub-components - (A) (online) classroom sessions with pre-determined content for two weeks of the summer, and (B) open-ended independent research for the entire summer with the guidance from an instructor. In this later subcomponent, the students will be working indepedently with guidance from an instructor and meetings throughout the summer.
You are required to complete the intermediate module before joining this module. Also, because of the time commitment from both the students and the instructor, the class size is extremely limited, and the students will be selected based on merit and interest.
Price
$595
Choice of Sessions
Entire summer, includng predetermined classes for two weeks
Register
These registrations do not require any payment, and you register to only reserve your priority in the queue. After you register, we will send you payment link by private email.