Current course offerings

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Course description

Environmental bioanalytics refers to a wide range of methodological approaches that help environmental scientists to understand the biological components of ecosystems and how they are influenced by environmental issues. In brief, bioanalytics approaches involve the analysis of different pools of biomolecules (e.g., nucleic acids, proteins, and metabolites) and can provide insight into the diversity, function, and dynamics of ecological systems at multiple levels of organisation. The acquisition of knowledge and skills in environmental bioanalytics is an essential component of an environmental scientists¿ training. This course will impart understanding of how bioanalytics approaches are applied in environmental studies. Students will be taught to analyse and evaluate bioanalytics datasets and to communicate their findings to different stakeholders. The course begins with an overview of bioanalytics approaches, and then demonstrates how these methods can be applied in environmental studies. Applications include: 1) biodiversity monitoring using marker gene sequencing, 2) ecosystem service evaluation using metagenomics and functional omics, 3) monitoring of rare/endangered species through analysis of environmental DNA (eDNA), 4) eDNA detection of biological contaminants, pests and diseases, and 5) the use of model systems to address hypotheses relating to biological systems using environmental bioanalytics.

Archived offerings