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This project is broken down into several sections, which can be accessed by clicking on tabs in the top navigation bar. Make sure to read through the ‘Resources’, ‘Set Up’, and ‘Background’ tabs before starting! Exercises can be found in steps 1-4. The assignment can be downloaded from the ‘Assignment’ tab. Purple text means that you need to answer a question or paste a screenshot into the assignment.
Assignment Overview
In this project, you will be tasked with taking R scripts from this website and applying them towards analytical chemistry questions. Even if you don’t yet have the experience to write original code, learning how to use and modify existing scripts for your own purpose is an essential skill for a scientific career. The project is broken down into several sections, which increase in difficulty and complexity. The sections are described below, with their respective learning goals.
Downloading R and RStudio
- Before beginning to use R, you must download RStudio onto your computer. This is a user-friendly program that allows you to run R scripts. Instructions for this step are in the ‘Resources’ tab.
Step 1: Calculating the charge of a peptide
- You will learn how to take a published R function and use it to obtain data.
- You will see how a derived equation can be translated into code.
Step 2: Applying the charge function to anion exchange chromatography
- You will learn how to apply an existing function to your own data.
Step 3: Modifying code to calculate other peptide attributes
- You will learn how to modify existing R scripts to suit your needs.
- You will see the potential and utility of customizing and automating data analysis.
Step 4: Writing original code to answer scientific questions
- You will create your own scripts and functions, building from the previous steps.
After completing all these steps, you will have an arsenal of R functions for calculating peptide attributes. The overall goal of this assignment is to help you realize both the power of using code in your research and the ease of adapting previously published code to your own questions. As the scientific community moves into larger and larger datasets, these skills become essential.
Note that the code in this project has been written to be easy to read, not necessarily efficient. However, for the calculations done in these exercises, nothing should take longer than ~1 second on an average computer.
This website is based on a template from jules32