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This course will provide a practical, hands-on introduction to the study of phylogenetics and comparative genomics. Theoretical background on molecular evolution will be provided only as needed to inform the comparative analysis of genomic data. The emphasis of the course will be placed squarely on the understanding and use of a variety of computational tools designed to extract meaningful biological information from molecular sequences. Lectures will provide information on the conceptual essence of the algorithms that underlie various sequence analysis tools and the rationale behind their use. Only programs that are freely available, as either downloadable executables or as Web servers, will be used in this course. Students will be encouraged to use the programs and approaches introduced in the course to address questions relevant to their own work. Prerequisites: 410.601 Biochemistry, 410.602 Molecular Biology, 410.633 Introduction to Bioinformatics. S