(Mailing List for Registered Students Only)
Biochemistry 201, Advanced Molecular Biology, is a graduate level course covering protein and nucleic acid structure, DNA metabolism, gene expression, gene regulation, genomics and bioinformatics. The course will emphasize readings from the current literature. Each topic will be introduced by several lectures that will provide the background knowledge required to understand current issues in each area. Following each set of lectures, will be a literature review session lead by students enrolled in the class.
The literature review sessions will cover two current or seminal papers that expand the field or explore new directions. Each student will be required to submit, in writing, a two-page review of each paper due at the review sessions. The review of the papers will cover the hypotheses being tested, the basis for conclusions drawn, the control experiments performed, and alternative hypotheses and approaches to the problem.
The syllabus, handouts and the papers to be reviewed during the literature reviews will all be available on the Web. You can access these web pages by simply typing cmgm/biochem201 in the browser location window.
No textbook is adequate for the course since we will be discussing advanced molecular biology at the level of the literature. We will, however, provide background readings in Lewin's Genes VI and Stryer's Biochemistry (4th edition). We expect students to know the material in these basic texts prior to the lecture. We assume that all students have had a basic molecular biology course such as Biology 52 or a course based on a text such as Stryer or Lewin.
Access to Lane Library, to Medline, and to HighWire Press will be essential for research on the literature review topics. Also the syllabi and handouts for the class will only be available on the Web. For those of you without ready access to a computer on the Internet we have arranged for use of the Fleischmann Learning Labs (M202). There will be a Biochemistry 201 folder inside the Spring Quarter Courseware Folder on all the machines in the lab.
Biochemistry 201 will meet in Munzer on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 1:00 to 2:30 except on January 12th and February 9th when we will meet in Fairchild. There will be a final exam on Monday March 13th in the Fairchild Auditorium from 8:00 to 11:30 AM. Your grade for the course will be determined 50% based on your papers and presentation during the literature reviews and 50% on the basis of the final exam score.