Course Descriptions

All registered BMB students must participate in the Journal Club/Seminar. Stud ents are required to critically review published paper(s) of their choice and d escribe in detail the findings described therein. Senior students will present their own research.

This course is a continuation course for BMB 616. It covers essentially the same topics as BMB 616 but at a more advanced level. It brings the student to the forefront of research in Molecular Biology. The course material is discussed exclusively in the form of original research papers. Based on this experience, students are required to propose experimental approaches
to biological problems and defend them.

This course is offered by various faculty members in the department on a rotating basis depending upon their expertise. For example, an advanced topic course in Nanomedicine offered by Dr. Deo and Dr. Dhar covers these topics through lectures.

This course deals with mechanisms and fundamental concepts of genetic inheritance. The first part of the course is devoted to the genetics of bacteria and bacteriophages. Topics include genetic implementation, recombination, suppression, transposition, conjugation, transformation, transaction, and regulation of prokaryotic gene expression. The second part of the course covers selected topics in eukaryotic genetics (including molecular genetics of yeast, mitochondria, Drosophila, mice and humans). Problem solving is emphasized in homework and exams. The objective of the course is to provide students with an appreciation of the value of molecular genetics as a tool they can use to solve a wide variety of problems in bio-medical research.

This course focuses on the relationships between structure and function in biological macromolecules, and how this knowledge has led to the discoveries of new drugs.

Among the skills required to become a successful interdisciplinary life scientist is the ability to navigate biological databases to better understand gene and protein function. Genome sequences contain the signals that guide differential gene expression and encode structural RNAs, regulatory RNAs and proteins. This course will introduce the tools, databases and evolutionary considerations that help us understand the regulation of gene expression and predict protein function.

The biochemical and regulatory functions encoded in genomic DNA sequences will be explored using bioinformatics techniques including gene finding, BLAST searches, PubMed searches, high-throughput dataset mining, multiple alignments, phylogenic analysis, identification of conserved functional domains and motifs, assessment of protein-protein and protein-ligand interactions, gene context and co- occurrence analysis. secondary and tertiary structural analysis, metabolic and cellular modeling, and phenotypic analysis. The databases, tools and tutorials available at websites developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, EMBL-EBI, the Protein Data Bank, and others will be used as supporting course materials. Each week will have a set of online videos and instructions to complete before the weekly live lecture. The live lecture consist of a one hour slide presentation and one half-hour of Q&A discussions. Competency in bioinformatics will be assessed by a midterm and a final exam.

Special work, lecture, or laboratory or a combination of these, as determined by advisor in accord with student's individual interest.

Required of all candidates for the Ph.D. The student will enroll for credit as determined by his/her advisor but not for less than a total of 24. Not more than 12 hours of BMB 730 may be taken in a regular semester, nor more than six in a summer session. Where a student has passed his/her (a) qualifying examinations, and (b) is engaged in an assistantship, he/she may still take the maximum allowable credit stated above.

Required for all PhD candidates. The student will enroll for credits as determined by the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.

Used to establish research in residence for the Ph.D., after the student has been enrolled for the permissible cumulative total in appropriate doctoral research. Credit not granted. May be regarded as full-time residence as determined by the Dean of the Graduate School.