With permission of the instructor, advanced undergraduates may take graduate courses for credit. If you are interested in one of these consult the instructor and you will need to fill out a special form that should be available in your residential college dean’s office.
MCDB 500aU/MB&B 500aU. Biochemistry.
See MCDB 300 for primary description.
MCDB 504b. Responsible Conduct of Research.
Staff
HTBA
This course meets the NIH requirement that students receive training in the responsible conduct of research at least every four years. Two ninety-minute sessions for MCDB students; additional sessions for fourth-year MCDB students. Attendance is taken, and students who attend both sessions receive a grade of Satisfactory. Graded Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory.
MCDB 517b/ENAS 517b/MB&B517b/PHYS 517b. Methods and Logic in Interdisciplinary Research.
Corey O’Hern, Lynne Regan, Damon Clark, Yongli Zhang, Simon Mochrie,
John Murray, Joerg Bewersdorf, Megan King,
Kathryn Miller-Jensen, Julien Berro, Alex Kwan, Erdem Karatekin,
and Alvaro Sanchez De Andres
This half-term PEB class is intended to introduce students to integrated approaches to research. Each week, the first of two sessions is student-led, while the second session is led by faculty with complementary expertise and discusses papers that use different approaches to the same topic (for example, physical and biological or experiment and theory). Counts as 0.5 credit toward graduate course requirements. ½ Course cr
MCDB 530aU/IBIO 530a. Biology of the Immune System.
See MCDB 430 for primary description.
MCDB 550aU/C&MP 550aU/ENAS 550aU. Physiological Systems.
See MCDB 310 for primary description.
MCDB 560bU/C&MP 560bU/ENAS 570bU. Cellular and Molecular Physiology: Molecular
Machines in Human Disease.
Emile Boulpaep, Fred Sigworth
MWF 9:25–10:15
The course focuses on understanding the processes that transfer molecules across membranes at the cellular, molecular, biophysical, and physiologic levels. Students learn about the different classes of molecular machines that mediate membrane transport, generate electrical currents, or perform mechanical displacement. Emphasis is placed on the relationship between the molecular structures of membrane proteins and their individual functions. The interactions among transport proteins in determining the physiologic behaviors of cells and tissues are also stressed. Molecular motors are introduced and their mechanical relationship to cell function is explored. Students read papers from the scientific literature that establish the connections between mutations in genes encoding membrane proteins and a wide variety of human genetic diseases.
MCDB 561aU/MB&B 561aU/CB&B 561a/PHYS 561a. Modeling Biological Systems I.
See MCDB 330 for primary description.
MCDB 562aU/PHYS 562a/CBB 562a/MBB 562a/MCDB 361a. Modeling Biological Systems II.
See MCDB 361 for primary description.
MCDB 570bU. Biotechnology.
See MCDB 370 for primary description
MCDB 602a/CBIO 602a/MB&B 602a. Molecular Cell Biology.
Charles Lusk, Michael Caplan, Pietro De Camilli, Peter Takizawa, David Calderwood, James Rothman, Valerie Horsley,
Thomas Melia, Megan King, and Josephina van Wolfswinkel
HTBA
A comprehensive introduction to the molecular and mechanistic aspects of cell biology for graduate students in all programs. Emphasizes fundamental issues of cellular organization, regulation, biogenesis, and function at the molecular level.
MCDB 603a/CBIO 603a. Seminar in Molecular Cell Biology.
Megan King, Michael Caplan, Pietro De Camilli, Peter Takizawa, David Calderwood, James Rothman, Valerie Horsley,
Thomas Melia, Charles Lusk, and Josephina van Wolfswinkel
HTBA
A graduate-level seminar course in modern cell biology. The class is devoted to the reading and critical evaluation of classical and current papers. The topics are coordinated with the MCDB 602a lecture schedule. Thus, concurrent enrollment in MCDB 602 is required.
MCDB 625aU/GENE 625a/MB&B 625aU. Basic Concepts of Genetic Analysis.
See MCDB 425 for primary description.
MCDB 630b/MB&B 630b. Biochemical and Biophysical Approaches in Molecular and Cellular Biology.
Karen Reinisch.
HTBA
This course introduces the theory and application of biochemical and biophysical methods to study the structure and function of biological macromolecules. The course considers the basic physical chemistry required in cellular and molecular biology but does not require a previous course in physical chemistry. One class per week is a lecture introducing a topic. The second class is a discussion of one or two research papers utilizing those methods. Does not count for graduate course credit for BBSB graduate students.
MCDB 650a. Epigenetics
See MCDB 350 for primary description.
MCDB 670a. Advanced Seminar in Biochemistry and Genetics.
Ronald Breaker, Stephen Dellaporta, Josephina van Wolfswinkel
HTBA
This seminar is designed to expand students abilities to critically read and evaluate the primary scientific literature relevant to some of the most active areas of biochemical and genetic research. Special emphasis is placed on topics that deal with recent discoveries in nucleic acids, such as catalytic RNA and DNA, functions of noncoding RNA, gene regulation by RNA, and genomic processing and instability. Students read assigned papers in advance. Discussion focuses on experimental design used by the authors, results of the experiments, and conclusions drawn by the authors.
MCDB 677b/GENE 777b. Mechanisms of Development.
Valerie Reinke and Staff
W 1.30–3.20
An advanced course on the mechanisms of animal development focusing on the genetic specification of cell organization and identity during embryogenesis and somatic differentiation. The use of evolutionarily conserved signaling pathways to carry out developmental decisions in a range of animals is highlighted. Course work includes student presentations, critical analysis of primary literature, and a research proposal term paper.
MCDB 720aU/NBIO 720a/NSCI 720a. Neurobiology.
See MCDB 320 for primary description.
MCDB 743b/GENE 743b/MB&B 743bU. Advanced Eukaryotic Molecular Biology.
Mark Hochstrasser, Matthew Simon, Patrick Sung, Seyedtaghi Takyar,
Wendy Gilbert.
HTBA
Selected topics in transcriptional control, regulation of chromatin structure, mRNA processing, mRNA stability, RNA interference, translation, protein degradation, DNA replication, DNA repair, site-specific DNA recombination, somatic hypermutation. Prerequisite: biochemistry or permission of the instructor.
MCDB 752bU/CB&B 752b/CPSC 752bU/MB&B 752bU. Bioinformatics: Practical Application of
Simulation and Data Mining.
Mark Gerstein
HTBA
Biomedical data science encompasses the analysis of gene sequences, macromolecular structures, and functional genomics data on a large scale. It represents a major practical application for modern techniques in data mining and simulation. Specific topics to be covered include sequence alignment, large-scale processing, next-generation sequencing data, comparative genomics, phylogenetics, biological database design, geometric analysis of protein structure, molecular-dynamics simulation, biological networks, normalization of microarray data, mining of functional genomics data sets, and machine-learning approaches to data integration. Prerequisites: biochemistry and calculus, or permission of the instructor.
MCDB 900a/CBIO 900a/GENE 900a. First-Year Introduction to Research and Rotations – Grant Writing and Scientific Communication.
Valerie Horsley
M 4.00-5.30
Grant writing, scientific communication, and laboratory rotation talks for Molecular Cell Biology, Genetics, and Development track students.
MCDB 901b/CBIO 901b/GENE 901b. First-Year Introduction to Research-Ethics: Scientific Integrity in Biomedical Resarch.
Joerg Bewersdorf and Staff
Th 4.15–5.45
Ethics and laboratory rotation talks for Molecular Cell Biology, Genetics, and Development track students.
MCDB 902a/903b. Advanced Graduate Seminar.
Fall: Matthew Rodeheffer, Damon Clark
Spring: Valerie Horsley
3 HTBA
This course allows students to hone their presentation skills through yearly presentation of their dissertation work. Two students each give 30-minute presentations in each class session. Students will be required to present every year beginning their third year in the MCDB program. Each MCDB graduate student will be required to attend at least 80% of the class sessions. Two faculty members will co-direct the course, attend the seminars, and provide feedback to the students.
MCDB 911a/CBIO 911a/GENE 911a. First Laboratory Rotation.
Valerie Horsley and Staff
HBTA
First laboratory rotation for Molecular Cell Biology, Genetics, and Development track students.
MCDB 912b/CBIO 912b/GENE 912b. Second Laboratory Rotation.
Valerie Horsley and Staff
3 HTBA
Second laboratory rotation for Molecular Cell Biology, Genetics, and Development track students.
MCDB 913b/CBIO 913a/GENE 913b. Third Laboratory Rotation.
Valerie Horsley and Staff
3 HTBA
Third laboratory rotation for Molecular Cell Biology, Genetics, and Development track students.
MCDB 950a and 951b. Second-Year Research.
Staff
3 HTBA
By arrangement with Faculty.