BIOC 106 Spring MCB Course Module
The final term of a year-long graduate-level course in biochemistry, cell and molecular biology, a continuation of BIOC 101 and BIOL 103. These special-topics mini-courses provide more in-depth information about specific areas in biochemistry, cell and molecular biology. Each first-year MCB student must enroll in three sequential modules. Module topics offered each year will vary. Students should contact Janet Cheney for current list of spring-term modules and descriptions.
The goal of this module is to highlight ‘big’ open questions in cell biology. We will focus on high profile findings in the recent literature, as well as ongoing debates in the field. For each class session, students will be assigned one research article and one review article. Following a brief introduction and paper review, we will moderate a roundtable discussion of how genetic, biochemical, and structural approaches could be taken to tackle novel questions in each field.
Class session topics include: Endoplasmic reticulum structure and dynamics; Contacts and functional connections between the ER and mitochondria; Is the ER linked to every other organelle?; Movement, division, inheritance, and regulation of the organelle network; How we image things inside cells, and the nature of the cytoplasm; How do cells divide? What we know and don’t know about cytokinesis and abscission; Self-assembling polymers beyond the cytoskeleton, what, how and why?; Organelles without membranes, liquid-phase organization of cellular components.
Instructor
Wickner and Moseley