Biochemistry 595c - CURRENT TOPICS IN BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOLOGY - Fall 2007

Course Coordinator: Roger Miesfeld, BSW 518A; 626-2343; rlm@email.arizona.edu

Credit hours: 1

Time and place: Class discussions: usually Fri 11:00-12:00 in BSW 257.

Overview of the class: We will meet formerly as a class a total of five times during the Fall 2007 semester. This includes once for the initial meeting to decide on seminars (August 31), and then four times during the semester to discuss the research of upcoming seminar speakers. In addition, we will be attending the four seminars, as well as, the students will have an informal meeting with the seminar speaker before or after the seminar.

We will focus on MCB and Biochem seminars, but can also choose Plant Sciences, Genetics, Anatomy/Cell Biology, Cancer Biology, or other series if they are of interest. Note that each of these seminar series meet at different times. The MCB and Biochem seminars are on Thursday and Friday, 12:30 and 4 PM, respectively, and the MCB seminar is on the AHSC campus in the MRB building. Other series meet on different days.

Course objective: This course is meant to introduce students to a range of current research in Biochemistry and Molecular and Cellular Biology through directed reading of the primary literature and attending departmental seminars. It also encourages students to actively participate in seminars by formulating questions and interacting with scientists from outside the university.

Websites for seminar schedules:

Biochemistry
Plant Sciences
MCB
Medicinal & Natural Products Chemistry
Genetics
Cell Biology and Anatomy
Cancer Biology

Course Requirements:
1) Read all assigned papers, and come to class ready to discuss the material, ask questions etc. You must speak up in class to get credit!

2) Attend all assigned seminars and the meeting with the speaker.

3) "Host" one of the speakers. The Host will be responsible for contacting the seminar speaker by email and obtaining two references that can be discussed in class. Generally, this will be one primary research paper and one review or "big picture" paper describing the seminar speaker's work or area of expertise (the review does not have to be authored by the seminar speaker). Dr. Miesfeld will post the papers to be read on the class website. The host is also responsible for arranging the informal discussion with the seminar speaker (either before or after their seminar), and then making sure the speaker gets to their next appointment. This requires working with the departmental seminar staff to coordinate the schedule.

4) Write up and hand in (or email) one question that you ASKED THE SPEAKER and include their answer (one for each speaker). You should try to hand this in the week after the seminar, but it will be accepted up until the next class period (which may or may not be the week after!). This should take no more than about one page of writing. Explain your question and the answer in context of the field or the experiments - i.e. why you wanted the answer to this question.

Fall 2007 Course Seminar Schedule

This page maintained by Roger Miesfeld. Last update: 8/31/07.