Course Philosophy, Scope and Objectives:
This is an upper level course exploring the boundary between what we consider “non-living” molecules and how they self-organize to create the fundamental unit of life: the cell. This course engages these concepts through a mix of lecture, experimentation, and primary literature. We will investigate this question through 3 fundamental features of Molecular Cell Biology:
1. Modularity and Self-Propagation: Life on this Earth has started a very few number of times (as far as we know, probably once). While we don’t know how it started, we do know how it propagates. Life possesses modularity: making common structures and sharing components. Cells make more cells and DNA makes more DNA.
2. Redundancy:In Biology, the answer is always “yes”. The diversity of life ensures a diversity in strategy to achieve common goals and processes. In other words, if a process can be achieved in a specific way, some organism is probably out there doing that! In this course, when we say “process”, we may mean a signal being transmitted, a gene turning on or off, or a subcellular structure assembling, for example. Each organism uses multiple ways to accomplish these tasks by distributing their functions. For example, gene deletion experiments using CRISPR/Cas9 often show little effect as they reveal other genes able to compensate for the deleted gene.
3. Hierarchical organization:To understand how life works, we have to investigate fromt he levels of molecules, cells, tissues, whole organisms, species, and ecosystem. Each level has its own rules (true not just for life but for the entire physical world). These rules influence and inform each other, so that knowing how molecules interact is crucial for understanding how cells work (the point of this class) and is ultimately important for how understanding how tissues and whole organisms work. The same is true in reverse.
However you come to this class, your experiences are an important perspective for investigating Molecular Cell Biology. You do not need any specific background to get something out of this course — a variety of academic and personal backgrounds enriches our learning environment and I’m excited for you to share your perspective on each topic.
My goals are to:
1. Build a climate of inclusion and accessibility where you are comfortable exploring new
and challenging concepts.
2. Introduce you to a framework for thinking about Molecular Cell Biology.
3. Provide an overview of topics and techniques in Molecular Cell Biology to inform and
support your growth as a scientist.
4. Get you comfortable with scientific inquiry and not knowing answers.
Your goals should be to:
1. Understand what cell biology is and what you can use it for.
2. Describe cellular systems at the molecular and cellular level.
3. Perform and analyze cell biology experiments, reasoning through biological questions.
4. Build skills in asking biological questions and communicating scientific results.