Malini's Musings

Dear Bioinformatics Neophyte If you are familiar with the basics of biology, namely, central dogma, transcription, translation and the genetic code; and you wish to become familiar with the tools and resources in bioinformatics - both theory and practice - but do not know where to start, this article is for you. Here is a list of websites that will help you get moving on your bioinformatics journey 1. Bioinformatics Virtual Lab - I maintained by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. You can sign in with your Google or Yahoo! account and access their tutorials. 2. Bioinformatics Virtual Lab - II maintained by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. You can sign in with your Google or Yahoo! account and access their tutorials. 3. Bioinformatics Virtual Lab - III maintained by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. You can sign in with your Google or Yahoo! account and access their tutorials. The above provide theory and practical steps with carefully chosen examples to learn the tools hands-on. If you wou...

Hello :) If you have finished studying cell cycle and mitosis, start meiosis with this video At the end of it, compare meiosis and mitosis. How are they fundamentally different? Reflect back on Cell cycle and remember what M stands for. Questions? Feedback? Comment below!

Hello Started studying Cell biology? Cell cycle is an important concept. Do this before mitosis and meiosis. Remember the stages of the cell cycle and their significance. Questions? Feedback? Comment below! :) Prepare well

Hello! How is your GATE prep coming along? Here is a video on Signal Transduction basics Questions? Suggestions? Feedback? Comment Below! :) Ciao

Hello GATE Aspirants How is your preparation coming along? Here is a video on previous years questions from Bioinformatics for you to get a feel for the kind of questions in GATE from Bioinformatics portion. Have a question? Comment below!

Hello Bioinformatics Neophyte :) This one is about RNA and RNA secondary structure prediction. Again, I have in mind two kinds of people for this video 1. People who know about RNA, but don't know about algorithms 2. People who do not know RNA, but are comfortable with algorithms Questions? Comments? Comment below!

Dear Bioinformatics Neophyte If you are a bioinformatics neophyte, you are probably aware that experiments, sometimes, are performed on mice and rats. Mice and rats provide excellent model systems to study the effect of certain drugs and treatments. Like them, many other organisms are used in experimental biology. I have made a video on these organisms, which I hope you will watch :) One video was not enough. So I made another If you watched the videos, I hope you learnt a lot that you did not already know, and that what you have learnt helps you in your bioinformatics journey. :) Ciao !

Hello! How did you get here? Perhaps you googled "molecular dynamics and simulations" and found this in your results. Perhaps someone shared this with you. Perhaps you saw it on social media and wondered what it was. I had tremendous confusion about molecular dynamics simulations and have done my best to explain things in a simple and orderly fashion. While making the videos I have kept in mind students like me. The first video is about some basic concepts - law of conservation of mass, law of conservation of energy, etc. The second video is where the fun begins - molecular modelling, QM and MM --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ciao!

Dear Reader Bioinformatics, as a field of study, attracts people from biological sciences with no programming or modelling experience, as well as their mirror image - people with strong background in mathematics, statistics, and computer science with no background in biology.  If you are new to bioinformatics, regardless of your previous studies, then this video is for you.  I hope you enjoy watching the video as much as I enjoyed making it. And, I hope you enjoy your bioinformatics journey.

Dear Bioinformatics Neophyte If you have visited my previous post on historical milestones in bioinformatics, you probably have a fair idea about the interdisciplinary nature of bioinformatics and you are wondering what now? The next step is to become familiar with the resources and tools in bioinformatics, for which I made this video . By the end of this video, you will know what are resources, and what are tools. To be more familiar with the concept of databases and various biological databases, visit this post . Ciao!

Hello Bioinformatics Neophyte! If you have seen my previous post, you probably have a fair idea of what is bioinformatics. Now, it is time to know the bioinformatics tools and resources available to you. The first is databases, for which I have made these three videos. 1. Types of Databases - primary and secondary databases and DNA sequence databases. 2. Gene Expression Databases   3. Protein Databases With these videos, you are good to go ahead to their websites and start using them!

Hello Probably you found this blog post from a google search on Hidden Markov Models As an experimental biologist, I transitioned into bioinformatics and computational biology and was introduced to the world of algorithms and programming over the past 8 months. I finally understood Hidden Markov Models and wish to share my understanding with other confused people through this Unacademy video.  I have kept in mind two kinds of people while making this video 1. Biologists with no programming or modelling experience transitioning into bioinformatics 2. Computer science students with no biology background curious about the biology part of bioinformatics. In the video (made for GATE exam aspirants) I used CpG islands as example to explain Hidden Markov Models (HMM) concept and application. If you don't know what CpG islands are, no worries, I explained that in the video too. I hope you enjoy this video as much as I enjoyed making it. Good Day! 

How is your preparation for GATE coming along? Molecular Basis of Genetic Diseases is a small topic, which you can quickly finish and test yourself. 7 videos coming up... Start here! 1. Overview of the topic and course plan  2. Important Definitions 3. Autosomal Dominant Inherited Diseases 4. Autosomal Recessive Inherited Diseases  5. X-linked Dominant Disorders  6. X-linked Recessive Disorders 7. Y-linked diseases and mitochondrial diseases This is a small and easy topic so finish this quickly and feel confident about getting something done :) Practice makes perfect. Solve as many MCQs as you can and be confident! Cheers! 

Hello :) This September, I have made the Cell Biology course in Hindi Here are the links :) 1. Overview and Introduction 2. Size of Cells and Microscopy 3. Plant and Animal Cells 4. Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes 5. Plasma Membrane The same course in English can be found here I'm making a couple of more courses this month and adding a few more lessons to the Cell Biology course. Be sure to watch them on Unacademy :) Wanna jump straight to solving previous years questions? Check them out here and here Ciao!!

Good morning :) I have started making videos on Unacademy for GATE-Biotechnology. If you are preparing for GATE, do check out my videos on Unacademy Visit my older post for other resources you can use to study for GATE - Biotechnology :)

Hi there ! I have not been able to blog because I have been busy. I started making videos on Unacademy. When I was introduced to Bioinformatics in my 5th semester of B.E. Biotechnology, I found it tough. In my videos, I have tried to make it simple, without oversimplifying it. Check out the videos here: https://unacademy.com/lesson/overview-lesson/RMHXZ9P2/?source=Course https://unacademy.com/lesson/introduction-history-and-scope-of-bioinformatics/QX45082G https://unacademy.com/lesson/model-organisms-in-biology-part-1/GO4NM31F https://unacademy.com/lesson/model-organisms-in-biology-part-2/EYEC3HS4 https://unacademy.com/lesson/biological-databases-part-1/20SOIB5B https://unacademy.com/lesson/biological-databases-part-2/IVBWZJ3D https://unacademy.com/lesson/biological-databases-part-3/UI3VUFAL https://unacademy.com/lesson/sequence-analysis-part-1/IZDM91SQ https://unacademy.com/lesson/resources-and-tools-in-bioinformatics/W298OW8N https://unacademy.com/lesson/sequenc...

A few weeks ago, I received an email from a student of my alma mater, PESIT (now PESU ) asking me about GATE-BT or XL exam preparation. I decided to list online study resources here. I write this article keeping in mind BE/BTech students aspiring for higher studies (especially PhD) in India. I hope this collection of resources will be useful for GATE (BT or XL), CSIR-UGC-NET, DBT-JRF, ICMR-JRF, JNU-CBEE and aspirants of other competitive exams for higher studies in life sciences. 1. " Communicating at an Unknown Rate " - a website containing interactive animation of cell biology and biochemistry concepts - glycolysis, TCA cycle, gluconeogenesis, photosynthesis, cell division. Created and maintained by John Kyrk, a "biologist by education and artist by disposition", the website provides interactive animation to help understand the intricacies of  complex concepts and metabolic pathways. 2. NPTEL  (National Program on Technology Led Learning) - an initiative b...