Course Descriptions

One semester survey of the molecules in a cell, their interconversions and roles in sustaining and regulating cellular function, cell replication and information transfer.  The course is designed for Master's candidates in the biomedical sciences.

The Graduate Student Seminar meets weekly to provide a mechanism for graduate students to gain experience and expertise in preparing and presenting orally a research/teaching seminar.  The Journal Club is based on recent, topical paper from the primary research literature.  The paper's subject may or may not be related to the student's research.

Students in the master’s program rotate through at least one laboratory as part of the process of finding a mentor. Each rotation lasts for 4 to 5 weeks and includes approximately 15 to 20 hours per week of laboratory research under the guidance of the mentor and laboratory personnel.

The primary objective of this course is for students to become familiar with the principal, broad questions in protein structural biology and the experimental strategies used to answer them. These strategies include kinetics, specific mutagenesis, and model design and analysis. Specific topics include steady-state and transient kinetics, protein origins of enzyme catalysis, folding pathways and protein design, and protein allostery in the gating function of ion channels.

Familiarizes students with up-to-date concepts and experimental approaches used in the study of eukaryotic gene expression. Focuses on the molecular mechanisms involved in RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) transcription. Specific topics include the structure and function of RNAPII and required auxiliary factors, the molecular mechanisms of transcriptional activation and repression, the coupling of transcriptional elongation with mRNA processing, and specific examples of the role of regulated RNA polymerase II transcription in development and cellular differentiation. Each week, one to two selected papers from the scientific literature are discussed in class, with students taking turns presenting one or two figures and the instructor providing clarification and/or additional questions as appropriate.

This course focuses on how the spatial and temporal readout of the genome is achieved during development, and conversely on how forced changes in gene expression patterns can affect developmental processes. The philosophy of the course is that “development never ends” and thus examples of processes from normal or pathological embryonic, adult and aging systems may be discussed. Each session focuses on one or more fundamental principles of developmental biology/genomics using papers from the literature to illustrate the principle(s). Every effort is made to demystify developmental biology and discuss state-of-the-art experimental approaches to address questions about the genes required for normal development. While much teaching is in the form of student presentations from the primary literature, one-hour introductions are given by the course guides on each topic in the Tuesday lecture. The goal of the course is to enable students to read papers in the areas of developmental biology and genomics, to critically evaluate them, and to propose experiments that will answer questions raised in the paper.

This course introduces graduate students to the concepts and practices of bioinformatics, including computational analysis of DNA and protein sequences, analysis of large-scale DNA and protein datasets, statistical analysis of sequence alignments and gene array datasets, proteomics, and RNA and protein structure prediction. The Tuesday session is didactic lectures introducing the topic of the week and giving out assignments for completion at or prior to the Thursday lab session. The Thursday lab focuses on practical use of the concepts taught in the Tuesday lecture and is conducted by either the Tuesday lecturer, another faculty member who is expert in the particular analysis being performed or both. Assignments completed by the students for the lab sessions are graded by the appropriate instructor and used to determine the student’s grade in the course.

This elective course will cover topics in cellular signaling, including G protein-coupled receptors as well as growth factors and their receptors — including nuclear FGFR1. Other topics to be covered include mTOR signaling and neurological disease; the unfolded protein response and diabetes; and changes in signaling leading to polycystic kidney disease. The contribution of the microenvironment to cellular signaling will be studied, including the pathways that promote tissue remodeling, wound healing and cancer.

This course is cross-listed in the departments of Microbiology and Biochemistry. This course, for advanced PhD students, consists of a single, two-hour meeting per week. It utilizes a seminar/journal club format and all class readings consist of primary research articles in the general areas of DNA replication, DNA repair, and how these processes are regulated. Students taking this course should have satisfactorily completed BMS 503 or an equivalent advanced graduate-level biochemistry course covering biosynthesis of DNA in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. In addition, students should have experience in the reading and analysis of primary research articles. Students are graded on their presentations of the primary research articles and on their participation in class discussions.

This advanced graduate level seminar style course is designed to teach principles and approahes used in genetic dissection of complex biological processes in model bacteria.

This course concerns basic concepts and contemporary issues of cell structure and function. Topics covered include cell structure and function, protein sorting and trafficking, membrane transport and excitability, signal transduction and cell cycle. A combined lecture and conference format is used with lectures emphasizing basic principles derived from original journal articles. Conferences are used to review lecture concepts, present laboratory demonstrations, analyze original literature and solve problems.