Biostatistics and Mathematical Biology

By Prof Felix Bast | Central University of Punjab, Bathinda

Learners enrolled: 1330

This 12 weeks course will thoroughly cover basic mathematics essential for biologists. Traditional course Biostatistics offered across Indian universities usually do not cover topics such as Bayesian probability, Maximum Likelihood, Box-Plots, Statistical Power and sampling size estimation, Normality and Outlier tests, Non-linear regression and so on; this course is designed such a way to compensate that deficiency. In addition, mathematical skills essential for biologists are covered thoroughly as part of this course, including levels of measurements, permutations and combinations, tests for categorical data including Relative Risk, Odds Ratio and so on. Fun facts and games included in the course is expected to pique interest among the participants. Substantial time is spared to solve practice problems on whiteboard, making the comprehension easy. The course is application oriented and more importance is given for deciding which significance test to use, how to analyse the data and so on using computational softwares rather than manual solutions or using statistical tables.

Summary

Course Status :	Completed
Course Type :	Core
Duration :	12 weeks
Category :	Biological Sciences & Bioengineering
Credit Points :	4
Level :	Postgraduate
Start Date :	31 Jan 2023
End Date :	30 Apr 2023
Enrollment Ends :	15 Mar 2023
Exam Date :

Page Visits

Course layout

Week 1

Biostatistics and Mathematical Biology: An Introduction, Types of studies

Week 2

Levels of measurements Summarizing the Data: Tabular Presentation

Week 3

Summarizing the Data: Graphical Presentation Charting with Excel

Week 4

Descriptive statistics: Point Estimates Descriptive Statistics: Interval Estimates Error Bars

Week 5

Moments, Normality Tests and Outliers Concepts of Population, Sample and Confidence Interval

Week 6

Statistical Hypothesis Testing Statistical Significance and P-Values Relationship between Confidence Intervals and Statistical Significance

Week 7

Statistical Power and Choosing the right Sample Size t-Distribution and tests of significance based on t-distribution F-distribution and tests of significance based on F distribution

Week 8

χ2 Distribution and tests of significance based on χ2 distribution Comparing Proportions Gaussian, Binomial, Lognormal and Poisson Distributions

Week 9

Pearson’s Correlation Simple Linear Regression Non-Linear Regression

Week 10

Nonparametric tests Permutations and Combinations

Week 11

Probability Bayes Theorem and Likelihood

Week 12

Statistics with MS Excel and GraphPad Prism Key concepts of statistics Statistical Pitfalls to Avoid

Books and references

Motulsky, H. (2014). Intuitive biostatistics: a nonmathematical guide to statistical thinking. Oxford University Press, USA. Amazon link

Van Belle, G., Fisher, L. D., Heagerty, P. J., & Lumley, T. (2004). Biostatistics: a methodology for the health sciences(Vol. 519). John Wiley & Sons.

Le, C. T., & Eberly, L. E. (2016). Introductory biostatistics. John Wiley & Sons.

Instructor bio

Prof Felix Bast

Central University of Punjab, Bathinda

Prof. Felix Bast is an award-winning Indian science communicator and a public educator working as a Full Professor at the Central University of Punjab, India. He is an expert panellist of the Paris-based International Science Council, an elected fellow of the Linnean Society of London, and a member of IUCN, Geneva. He holds PhD in Marine Biology from MEXT, Japan (alumnus of Monbukagakusho:MEXT Japanese Govt. international doctoral fellowship), and served as an expedition scientist in Indian Antarctic Mission. Dr. Bast discovered seven new species of marine algae and moss from India and Antarctica. He is an alumnus of IIT Bombay, University of Washington-US, Marine Biological Association of UK-Plymouth, UK, and Leibniz Institute of Tropical Marine Research, Bremen- Germany. Dr. Bast served as an in-residence intern with the President of India at Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi and received "President's Inspired Teacher" recognition (2015). He also won the Teaching Innovator Award from the Ministry of Education, Govt. of India (2019). He spread the word of scientific thinking through several media, including YouTube, school outreach talks, magazine articles, blogs, and books. Dr. Bast is also involved with SWAYAM, a flagship online education program of the Ministry of Education, Government of India as a Course Coordinator. A TEDx speaker, Dr Bast's works have been featured in numerous media, including All India Radio, Rajya Sabha TV, BBC, The Independent, The Hindu, Indian Express, Times of India etc.

Dr. Bast is an advocate of sustainable lifestyle- a primary focus of his works. He is an avid cyclist who often commutes to his workplace by cycle. Dr. Bast is also a runner, a frequent blood donor, and an advocate of zero-waste and low-carbon footprint lifestyle. Dr. Bast has also signed up for posthumous whole-body donation for medical and forensic education and research through NOTTO, the Government of India. His previous books include Voyage to Antarctica (Vigyan Prasar/Govt of India), Arctic Circle (Amazon/KDP), Biostatistics and Mathematical Biology (Pearson), and Life Skills: Manual of Critical Thinking and Soft Skills (White Falcon).