CBS 771: Syllabus

Course Co-Coordinators:

Jonathan M. Horowitz, PhD

Office: College of Veterinary Medicine

Research Building, Rm. 354

Office Phone: 515-4479

E-mail address:

Marcelo Rodriguez-Puebla, PhD

Office: College of Veterinary Medicine

Research Building, Rm. 292

Office Phone: 515-7409

E-mail address: @ncsu.edu

Course meeting times: Tuesday, Thursday 3:00-5:00 PM

Office hours: By appointment

Course Prerequisites: CBS 770: Cell Biology (or permission from instructor)

Required Textbook:

The Biology of Cancer

Robert A. Weinberg

2007, Garland Science

ISBN Numbers and costs:

Hardcover (0-8153-4078-8): $140

Paperback (0-8153-4076-1): $81

CANCER BIOLOGY CBS 771 Fall 2007

Course Organization:

The Comparative Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program will offer a course in Cancer Biology. This course will provide a strong foundation in Cancer Biology, using The Biology of Cancer by Robert A. Weinberg as the required text. Lectures will be supplemented with current literature in Cancer Biology, in order to provide students with an understanding of important recent advances in the field.

The course will be team taught by faculty within the Departments of Molecular Biomedical Sciences and Environmental and Molecular Toxicology. Students will be graded based on:

1) class participation (5%),

2) a paper on a selected topic in Cancer Biology (20%),

3) three exams (75%).

Four credits will be earned for this course.

Proposed Class Schedule (Fall 2007)

Lecture # / Date / Lecture Topic/Exam Number
August
L1 / 23 / Chapter 2: Cancer: The problem (Horowitz)
L2,L3 / 28, 30 / Chapters 3 and 4: Tumor viruses and proto-oncogenes (Horowitz)
September
L4,L5 / 4, 6 / Chapter 5: Growth factors/receptors (J. Ninomiya-Tsuji)
L6,L7 / 11, 18 / Chapter 6: Signal transduction (Y. Tsuji)
L8 / 20 / Chapter 7: Tumor-suppressor genes (Horowitz)
25 / Exam 1 (L1-L8)
L9 / 27 / Chapter 8: Rb and G1/S transition (Rodriguez-Puebla)
October
L10 / 2 / Chapter 8: Rb and G1/S transition (Rodriguez-Puebla)
L11,L12 / 5, 9 / Chapter 9: p53 and apoptosis (Horowitz)
L13,L14 / 16, 18 / Chapter 10: Immortalization and telomerase (Rodriguez-Puebla)
L15 / 23 / Chapter 11: Multistep tumorigenesis (Smart)
25 / Exam 2 (L9-L15)
L16 / 30 / Chapter 12: DNA damage and repair mechanisms (Smart)
November
L17 / 1 / Chapter 12: DNA damage and repair mechanisms (Smart)
L18,L19 / 6, 8 / Chapter 13: Stroma/epithelial interactions and angiogenesis (Rodriguez-Puebla)
L20,L21 / 13, 15 / Chapter 14: Invasion and metastasis (Horowitz)
L22 / 20 / Chapter 15: Tumor immunology (Horowitz)
L23,L24 / 27, 29 / Chapter 16: Cancer treatment/drug development(Y. Tsuji)
December
L25 / 4 / Course overview and wrap-up (Horowitz)
7 / Exam 3 (L16-L25)

Lecturers:

Office PhoneE-mail Address

Jonathan M. Horowitz,

Marcelo Rodriguez-Puebla, @ncsu.edu

Robert C. Smart,

Jun Ninomiya-Tsuji,

Yoshi Tsuji,

Reasonable accommodations will be made for students with verifiable disabilities. Students with disabilities are invited to schedule an appointment with the course coordinators to discuss appropriate accommodations. In order to take advantage of available accommodations, students must register with Disability Services for Students at 1900 Student Health Center, Campus Box 7509, 515-7653. Please see:

For more information on NC State's policy on working with students with disabilities, please see:

Instructor's policies on attendance, (excused and unexcused) absences, and scheduling makeup work will conform to the policies, rules and regulations as outlined here:

Students are expected to abide by the University policy on academic integrity found in the Code of Student Conduct. For more information about the Code please see:

Lecture materials will be based on concepts presented in relevant chapters in the textbook, although this will be considered as a starting point as course instructors will supplement this material with results from the recent literature.

It is expected that all students will review this material, and any assigned readings, prior to each class.

Grading:Grades will be based on the following:

Exam 1lectures 1 – 825%

Exam 2lectures 9 – 1525%

Exam 3 lectures 16 – 2525%

Research papersee below20%

Class participationsee below 5%

Exams (75%)

Format of exams will be short-answer essay, and questions will be created by each lecturer. Points for each exam will be distributed according to topics covered. Grading concerns must be addressed within one week of exam return.

Research paper (20%)

Students will submit a research paper on a subject relevant to one of the course topics. The body of the paper should be 1500-2500 words and cite current literature. The topic should be pre-approved by at least one instructor and also made known to the course co-coordinators (Drs. Horowitz and Rodriguez-Puebla). The paper will be read and graded independently by two instructors.

Class participation (5%)

Students will be graded on attendance, preparation, and participation in class discussions. Additional work and discussion questions (to be completed outside class) may be assigned by individual instructors.

Final grades will be calculated based on a 9-point scale, with a curve applied as necessary.