It is essential to educate students with necessary bioinformatics knowledge in order that they may systematically and critically study biological problems. In both classrooms and research labs, our students are equipped with the computational skills needed to solve practical biological and biomedical problems. Curriculum development is one of crucial activities that lead to the achievement of excellence in teaching. In the following, I summarize major courses and a teaching grant with which I have been involved in both development and instruction.

• BIOI 1000/BIOL 4030 Introduction to Bioinformatics. Fall 2005. Team-taught with M. Pauley in IS&T.

• BIOI 3000 Applied Bioinformatics. Spring, 2006-2009; Spring 2010 -, Team-teaching with K. Bastola in IS&T.

• BIOI 4860/8866 Bioinformatics Algorithms. Fall, since 2006. Team-teaching with H. Ali in IS&T.

• BIOL 4050 Bioinformatics Programming. Summer 2007. Team-taught with M. Pauley in IS&T.

• BIOI 4960 Seminar (Colloquium) in Bioinformatics. Fall, since 2006.

• BIOS 427/827 Bioinformatics Laboratory. Spring 2005. Team-teaching with E Moriyama in SBS and H. Moriyama in Biotech Center.

• BIOS 816/VBMS 818 Computer Aided Sequence Analysis. Spring 2003, 2004. Team-teaching with R. Donis in VBMS, E Moriyama in SBS, and H. Moriyama in Biotech Center.

An Integrated Curriculum in Bioinformatics project at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Funded by the Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) of the National Science Foundation (NSF# 0737407). PI: M. Pauley.

Project website: http://mp1.ist.unomaha.edu/ccli/modules.html

Fall 2005. Team-taught with M. Pauley in IS&T.
The course was developed in collaboration with Dr Mark Pauley in the UNO Department of Computer Science. The goal of this course is to provide an overview of fundamental concepts of bioinformatics including an introduction to the molecular biology and chemistry needed to understand the problems examined in bioinformatics and examine some of the tools used by bioinformaticians to address these problems. Major topics included are: 1) Introduction and overview; 2) Biological, chemical and statistical foundations; 3) Computational foundations; 4) Genome Sequencing; 5) Finding �Similar� Sequences; 5) Representing Relationships; and 6) Analysis of Gene Expression.

Fall 2005. Team-taught with M. Pauley in IS&T.
The goal of this course is to provide an overview of fundamental concepts of bioinformatics including an introduction to the molecular biology and chemistry needed to understand problems examined in bioinformatics and examine some of the tools used by bioinformaticians to address these problems. Major topics included are: 1) Introduction and overview; 2) Biological, chemical and statistical foundations; 3) Computational foundations; 4) Genome Sequencing; 5) Finding �Similar� Sequences; 5) Representing Relationships; and 6) Analysis of Gene Expression.

Spring, 2006-2009; Spring 2010, Team-teaching with K. Bastola in IS&T.
This course was developed to bridge the gap between low-level classes such as BIOI 1000 and high level classes such as BIOI 4860, with a focus on the application aspects of bioinformatics. The goal of this course is to provide students with practical bioinformatics knowledge and hands-on experience with various Web resources and computational tools. A broad range of topics covered in this class include access to various types of biological data, comparison of sequences and genomes, as well prediction of structure and function. Basic algorithms are introduced, but the focus is on how to use popular bioinformatics resources and tools to solve practical biology problems.

Summer 2007. Research course. Team-taught with M. Pauley in IS&T.
This summer research course aims to provide students with the ability to program in PERL, the most popular programming language in the bioinformatics community. Topics covered include 1) modular programming with PERL, 2) data structures and string algorithms, 3) Object-Oriented programming in PERL, 4) sequence formats and inheritance, 5) a class for restriction enzymes, 6) PERL and relational databases, 7) PERL and the Web, 8) PERL and graphics, and 9) introduction to Bioperl.

Fall, since 2006. Team-teaching with H. Ali in IS&T
The main objective of this course is to provide an organized forum for learning about recent developments in Bioinformatics, particularly, from the algorithmic standpoint. The course presents basic algorithmic concepts in Bioinformatics and show how they are connected to molecular biology and biotechnology. Standard topics in the field such as restriction mapping, sequence assembly, sequence comparison, and database search are covered. The course also addresses problems like protein sequencing, DNA arrays, and genome rearrangements.

Fall, since 2006.
The main goal of this course is to provide an opportunity for students to participate in public presentations on bioinformatics-related topics. It is expected to achieve the following course objectives: engaging students in the latest research topics in bioinformatics, exposing students to the nature and structure of a scientific talk and learning to critique and report scientific research work in bioinformatics.

Spring 2005. Team-teaching with E Moriyama in SBS and H. Moriyama in Biotech Center at University of Nebraska � Lincoln.
This computer laboratory course will provide students basic knowledge and practical skills needed for general bioinformatics, genomics, and proteomics analyses. The topics covered include: biological databases, molecular biology tools (e.g., primer design, contig assembly), gene prediction/mining, database searches, pairwise and multiple alignments, phylogenetic inference, microarray data analyses, protein molecular graphics, and protein structure modeling. Both commonly used and specialized software (e.g., GCG, Vector NTI, Entrez, BLAST, ClustalX, Phylip, PyMOL, SwissPDBviewer) will be illustrated and exercised in the class. No programming skill is required.

Spring 2003, 2004. Team-teaching with R. Donis in VBMS, E Moriyama in SBS and H. Moriyama in Biotech Center at University of Nebraska � Lincoln.
This course will provide the basic knowledge and skills needed for genomic and proteomic analysis. At the completion of this course, students should be able to perform analyses like database search, sequence alignment, phylogenetic reconstruction, restriction mapping, primer design, and RNA and protein structure mining. Course Web site: http://bioinfolab.unl.edu/unlbioinfo/docs/BIOS816/spring_2004/