Results for DBIO

Evolution of the human hand in the context of primate evolution; roles of the human hand in tool use, manufacture, art, music, and communication. Development of the hand: embryonic axes, appearance of the digit program, roles of cell death, molecular bases of normal and abnormal hand patterns. Prerequisite: advanced placement biology.

Students undertake investigations sponsored by individual faculty members. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

Open to first year Department of Genetics and Developmental Biology students, to others with consent of instructors. Introduction to basic manipulations, both experimental and conceptual, in genetics and developmental biology.

Mechanisms that direct human development from conception to birth. Conserved molecular and cellular pathways regulate tissue and organ development; errors in these pathways result in congenital anomalies and human diseases. Topics: molecules regulating development, cell induction, developmental gene regulation, cell migration, programmed cell death, pattern formation, stem cells, cell lineage, and development of major organ systems. Emphasis on links between development and clinically significant topics including infertility, assisted reproductive technologies, contraception, prenatal diagnosis, teratogenesis, inherited birth defects, fetal therapy, adolescence, cancer, and aging.

Current areas of research in developmental biology. How organismic complexity is generated during embryonic and post-embryonic development. The roles of genetic networks, induction events, cell lineage, maternal inheritance, cell-cell communication, and hormonal control in developmental processes in well-studied organisms such as vertebrates, insects, and nematodes. Team-taught. Students meet with faculty to discuss current papers from the literature. Prerequisite: graduate standing, consent of instructor. Recommended: familiarity with basic techniques and experimental rationales of molecular biology, biochemistry, and genetics.

Provides an interdisciplinary perspective on the design, emergent behavior, and functionality of multi-cellular biological systems such as embryos, biofilms, and artificial tissues and their conceptual relationship to amorphous computers. Students discuss relevant literature and introduced to and apply pertinent mathematical and biophysical modeling approaches to various aspect multi-cellular systems, furthermore carry out real biology experiments over the web. Specific topics include: (Morphogen) gradients; reaction-diffusion systems (Turing patterns); visco-elastic aspects and forces in tissues; morphogenesis; coordinated gene expression, genetic oscillators and synchrony; genetic networks; self-organization, noise, robustness, and evolvability; game theory; emergent behavior; criticality; symmetries; scaling; fractals; agent based modeling. The course is geared towards a broadly interested graduate and advanced undergraduates audience such as from bio / applied physics, computer science, developmental and systems biology, and bio / tissue / mechanical / electrical engineering. Prerequisites: Previous knowledge in one programming language - ideally Matlab - is recommended; undergraduate students benefit from BIOE 41, BIOE 42, or equivalent.

Literature discussion in conjunction with the Frontiers in Biological Research seminar series in which investigators present current work. Students and faculty meet beforehand to discuss papers from the speaker's primary research literature. Students meet with the speaker after the seminar to discuss their research and future directions, commonly used techniques to study problems in biology, and comparison between the genetic and biochemical approaches in biological research.

Principles of genetics underlying associations between genetic variants and disease susceptibility and drug response. Topics include: genetic and environmental risk factors for complex genetic disorders; design and interpretation of genome-wide association studies; pharmacogenetics; full genome sequencing for disease gene discovery; population structure and genetic ancestry; use of personal genetic information in clinical medicine; ethical, legal, and social issues with personal genetic testing. Hands-on workshop making use of personal or publicly available genetic data. Prerequisite: GENE 202, Gene 205 or BIOS 200.

The role of stem cells in human development and potential for treating disease. Guest lectures by biologists, ethicists, and legal scholars. Prerequisites:HumBio 2A and 3A, or the equivalent in the BioCore in Biological Sciences.

Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

Provides an opportunity for student and faculty interaction, as well as academic credit and financial support, to medical students who undertake original research. Enrollment is limited to students with approved projects.

Students undertake investigations sponsored by individual faculty members. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

Introduction to computational biology through an informatic exploration of the human genome. Topics include: genome sequencing (technologies, assembly, personalized sequencing); functional landscape (genes, gene regulation, repeats, RNA genes, epigenetics); genome evolution (comparative genomics, ultraconservation, co-option). Additional topics may include population genetics, personalized genomics, and ancient DNA. Course includes primers on molecular biology, the UCSC Genome Browser, and text processing languages. Guest lectures from genomic researchers. No prerequisites. See http://cs273a.stanford.edu/.