Course Description
(Core Course in Molecular and Cellular Biology)
Term: Fall 2022
Course Director: Peter Cheung
Day/Time: Friday @ 2:00pm
Location: LSB 321
Start and End Dates: September 30 to November 25, 2022.
This course will survey key concepts and important, recent developments in the field of nucleic acid biology. Fundamental processes in nucleic acid biology, including DNA and RNA synthesis, DNA recombination and repair, and mRNA processing and translation will be presented and discussed. A significant portion of the course will be devoted to recent developments highlighting the newly discovered complexity of nucleic acid biology. Potential topics include: epigenetics and DNA modification, the histone code, RNA modification and editing, RNA turnover, alternative splicing, non-coding RNA, ribozymes, riboswitches and others. The course will also cover methods currently used in nucleic acid biology. At the end of the course, students will have created and presented a graphical abstract, reviewed an individual topic with focus on unanswered questions in the field, written a grant proposal and presented a method or assay relevant to the proposal. Not all topics will be discussed each time the course is offered.
Evaluation:
Graphical abstract and presentation 10% (10 minutes)
Review presentation 30% (30 minutes)
Grant proposal 40% (3000-4000 words)
Method presentation 10% (10 minutes)
Participation 10%
Bibliography:
All materials for this course will be provided by original research and review articles in the current literature.
Suggested journals:
Cell
Science
Nature
Molecular Cell
Nature Structural and Molecular Biology
Plant Cell
The EMBO Journal
Genes and Development
Molecular and Cellular Biology
Nucleic Acids Research
RNA
The Journal of Biological Chemistry
The Journal of Molecular Biology
Biochemistry
Annual Review of Genetics
Annual Review of Biochemistry