GCB/CAMB 752 Seminar in Genomics

Course Director GCB/CAMB 752: Course Director CAMB 534:

Sharon J. Diskin, PhD Tom Jongens, PhD

3026 Colket Translational Research Building (CTRB) STRC 10-134

Spring 2015

Monday 3 PM to 6 PM

Location: BRB 252

Prerequisite: GCB 531/534 Intro to Genomics or equivalent, or permission of instructor.

Class Size limited to 10.

Class Format:

The class will meet once a week for a 3 hr period. Each 3-hr session will include two student presentations, each centered on a current paper. The “presenting” student will give a 10-15 min introduction to the topic and paper and will show Powerpoint slides of the data in the paper. All students are expected to have read and to be prepared to discuss the papers presented. For example, following the introduction, non-presenting students will be called upon to explain a particular table or figure, or to discuss a point raised in the paper. The course will be divided into two major segments:

Segment 1: Core Genomics (weeks 1-8)

Segment 2: Genomics and Genetic Models of Complex Diseases (weeks 10-16)

During the first half of the course, recent papers from the primary genomics literature will form the core material for the course. During the second half, we will be joined by students enrolled in CAMB 534 “Seminar on Current Genetic Research: Modeling Human Disease in Diverse Genetic Systems”. Together, we will review current literature pertaining to genomics and disease models for three complex human diseases: Alzheimer’s, Cancer, and Diabetes. Each disease will be discussed for two classes. At the beginning of the first class, one student will present an overview of the disease (e.g. symptoms, incidence rate, diagnosis, prognosis, and known/unknown aspects of what causes the disease), this will be followed by presentations of two recent genomics papers in the disease area. The second class will include discussion of two papers focused on genetic disease models and model organisms.

Midterm Writing Assignment:

There will be one major writing assignment that will be considered the midterm, but no final exam. Near the middle of the course, students will propose a topic and set of recent papers on a particular area of genomics, and asked to write a review article (similar to Nature News and Views) synthesizing the key ideas in the papers and explaining their significance. Proposed topics will be reviewed and approved by the course Director and members of the GCB Prelim Committee.

Grading:

Midterm Writing Assignment: 50%

Paper Presentations: 25%

Class Participation: 25%

Date / Instructor / Topic/Papers
January 12 / Sharon Diskin, PhD / Introduction; brief organizational meeting.
January 19 / NO CLASS / MLK Day
January 26 / Sharon Diskin, PhD
Roberto Bonasio, PhD / Large Genomics Projects:
1000 Genomics, ENCODE
February 2 / Roberto Bonasio, PhD / Epigenomics
February 9 / Sharon Diskin, PhD / GWAS and Rare Variants
February 16 / Nancy Zhang, PhD / DNA Copy Number/Structural
Variation
February 23 / Yoseph Barash, PhD / RNA-seq
March 2 / Rick Bushman, PhD / Microbiome (Midterm topic due)
March 9 / NO CLASS / SPRING BREAK
March 16 / Gerald Schellenberg,PhD / Alzheimer’s Disease Genomics
March 23 / Tom Jongens, PhD / Alzheimer’s Disease Models
March 30 / Yael Mosse, MD / Cancer Genomics
April 6 / Yael Mosse, MD / Cancer (News and Views due)
April 13 / Struan Grant, PhD / Diabetes genomics
April 20 / Klaus Kaestner, PhD / Diabetes models
April 27 / Sharon Diskin, PhD
Tom Jongens, PhD / Wrap up