Prerequisite:

Basic knowledge in biochemistry and genetics.

Course director:

Malcolm Whitman, Ph.D. (617-432-1320), mwhitman@hms.harvard.edu

Co-Director:

Jennifer Stanford, Ph.D. (617-432-5773), jennifer_stanford@hms.harvard.edu

Lectures:

Time: Mondays and Wednesdays 10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Location: Cannon Room, Building C

Note:
-First lecture - Wednesday, January 30, 2008
-There are TWO lectures on Fridays:  February 1, 2008 AND April 11, 2008

Section meetings:

Time: Fridays, 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Location: TBA - Look at the Sections part of the website for more info
Faculty: Section leaders are faculty members from Cell Biology and other departments.

Note: First section meeting is on Friday, February 8, 2008

Workshops:

Light Microscopy Workshop:
*NOTE: all lab sessions are the same, you will only attend one of the three.  Space is LIMITED.  Register early if you want to participate.
Date/Time:
                Monday, February 25, 6-9:00 pm
                Wednesday, February 27, 6-9:00 pm
                Monday, March 3, 5-8:00 pm
                
Location: Nikon Imaging Center, LHRRB-113
Faculty: Jennifer Waters

Protein Identification in Cell Biology:
Date/Time: Wednesday, March 12, 6-7:30 pm
Location: Cannon Rm.
Faculty: Steve Gygi

Molecular Electron Microscopy:
Date/Time: Monday, March 17, 6-7:30 pm
Location: Cannon Rm.
Faculty: Tom Walz

Stem Cells:
Date/Time: Wednesday, April 23, 6-7:30 pm
Location: Cannon Rm.
Faculty: Amy Wagers

Mitochondria: Electron Transport and Reactive Oxygen Species:
Date/Time: Monday, April 28, 6-7:30 pm 
Location: Cannon Rm.
Faculty: Bruce Spiegelman

 

Literature:

Recommended Textbook:

Molecular Biology of the Cell (5th Ed. 2008), Alberts et al.

Several copies of this text are on reserve at Countway.  In addition, you can access the 4th edition of the text on the NCBI website using the "Books" link.  While you cannot select chapters and read them directly online, you can search the book and read relevant sections.  For each lecture, we have indicated chapters from Alberts where you can find relevant background information if you are learning about a particular topic for the first time.  For more detailed information about lecture topics, we will indicate appropriate reviews or other references.

Grades:

Four problem sets will be assigned throughout the semester, which you will be evaluated on.  These are take-home assignments, designed to make you consider what you learned in lecture and section, and how you might apply this information in designing experiments, or evaluating data.  You can find these problem sets on the website.  There are no in class exams.

For discussion sections, we will post a guide with information and questions to help you in thinking about that week's paper.  These questions are meant to stimulate your thinking about the papers.  You will not need to submit written responses to these questions, but we ask you to consider them thoughtfully before each section.  Reading the paper(s) and considering the questions we pose to you will help you to prepare for section.  Section preparation is an important component of your course grade. 

Each week, two students in each section will be asked to present the paper from that week.  Those students will guide their classmates through the relevant background for the paper, and lead the discussion of the experiments and findings of that paper.  The section leaders will evaluate students on these presentations as another component of the course grade.

Your final grade for the course will be decided based on section participation, presentations, and the four problem sets.  Problem sets account for 40% of the final grade, and section accounts for 60%, of which 30% will be based on presentations, and 30% will be based on participation in section discussions.