Basic statistics for bioinformatics

Abstract

Statistics is a branch of mathematics that targets on the collection, organization, and interpretation of numerical data, especially on the analysis of population characteristics by inferences from random sampling. Many research topics in computational biology and bioinformatics heavily rely on the application of probabilistic models and statistical methods. It is therefore necessary for students in bioinformatics programs to take introductory statistics as their first course. In this chapter, the basics of statistics are introduced from the following clue: foundations of statistics, point estimation, hypothesis testing, interval estimation, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and regression models. Besides, the free and open-source statistical computing environment R is also briefly introduced. Students can refer to the book by George Casella and Roger L. Berger [1] and other related textbooks for further studies.