Code of Life - When Computer Science Meets Genetics

Course
  • Digital Health

Code of Life - When Computer Science Meets Genetics

Welcome to the class: we are very excited that you are interested in learning more about the foundations of life. In this openHPI course, we will give an introduction about components of human cells and their functions. We dive into the cell core to explore the Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA), its structure, and how it stores the code of life. Furthermore, we will explore how to discover genetic variants and mutations and how to assess their impact on the cell functions and the whole human body. Ultimately, we will outline how individual genetic variants can be connected to complex diseases, such as cancer. Just two decades ago, all these tasks would have been impossible due to missing knowledge about the DNA and a lack of computational power. As a result, you will learn basic concepts about how to incorporate latest computer science aspects to explore the code of life interactively.

Offered by Dr.-Ing. Matthieu-P. Schapranow | Last updated on Jul 15, 2026 | 6810 enrollments

Enroll now
  • Expert
  • EN
  • Certificate
Course information

Welcome to the class: we are very excited that you are interested in learning more about the foundations of life. In this openHPI course, we will give an introduction about components of human cells and their functions. We dive into the cell core to explore the Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA), its structure, and how it stores the code of life. Furthermore, we will explore how to discover genetic variants and mutations and how to assess their impact on the cell functions and the whole human body. Ultimately, we will outline how individual genetic variants can be connected to complex diseases, such as cancer. Just two decades ago, all these tasks would have been impossible due to missing knowledge about the DNA and a lack of computational power. As a result, you will learn basic concepts about how to incorporate latest computer science aspects to explore the code of life interactively.

News: Pre-course reading materials as well as additional information about our projects focusing on digital health are available on our Analyze Genomes website.

Join openHPI's official Twitter Feed: @openHPI. Use the hashtag #codeoflife to join and contribute to social media conversations about this course.

Additional video lecturing material can be found at www.tele-task.de .
Photo source: © Sergey Nivens / Fotolia

Attention: This course is currently in self-study mode, in which you do not have access to graded assignments/exams. Therefore, we can only issue you a certificate of participation.

Requirements for Proofs of Achievement
  • Confirmation of Participation: You will automatically receive a free Confirmation of Participation once you have completed at least 50% of the content.
  • Certificate: You will receive your official openHPI Certificate by earning at least 50% of the maximum number of points from all graded assignments.

Find out more on our page for Proofs of Achievement and Guidelines.

Our teachers

Dr. Matthieu-P. Schapranow

Dr. Matthieu-P. Schapranow is Program Manager E-Health at the HPI, Visiting Scientist at the Mass. Veterans Epidemiology Research and Information Center (MAVERIC) of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and at Charité – University Medicine in Berlin, Germany. He is a valued member of the Berlin Cancer Society contributing to the Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM) and the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health. Dr. Schapranow holds a PhD as well as the MSc and BSc degrees in Software Engineering. He was honored with the Personalized Medicine Convention Award 2015, the European Life Science Award in 2014, and the Innovation Award of the German Capital Region in 2012. Together with Prof. Dr. Plattner, he published the textbook "High-Performance In-Memory Genome Data Analysis" in 2013.