Results for DBIO

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, multiparity, 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.

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.

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/.

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.

Primary and current literature in basic and clinical science aspects of assisted reproductive technologies (ART), and demonstrations of current ART techniques including in vitro fertilization and embryo culture, and micromanipulation procedures such as intracytoplasmic sperm injection and embryo biopsy and cryopreservation.Class only may be taken for 1 unit. 2 units includes papers and attendance at clinical demonstrations. 3 units includes a term paper. Recommended: DBIO 201, or consent of instructors.