Molecular Biology NUTR 2203

Course description:

This course designed for students to gain in-depth knowledge of nucleic acid structure, molecular genetics, and the biochemistry of transcription and protein synthesis. Working from this foundation, students explore mechanisms of gene regulation in prokaryotes, eukaryotes, and viruses. The roles played by gene regulation and rearrangement in diseases are also examined.

Course Aims:

This course is designed to provide students with a background in molecular biology. The two main learning objectives of this course are, the development of an understanding of gene expression and gene regulation, and the familiarization of students with the approaches used in molecular biology.

Course outcomes:

Upon successful completion of this course students will able to:
  • Explain how the structure and chemistry of nucleic acids relate to their functions, their relative stability, and their interactions with proteins.
  • Understand the regulation of protein and nucleic function by structure-function relationships and macromolecular interactions.
  • Know the complete structures of DNA/RNA components, the different forms of nucleic acids and the types of amino acids that mediate backbone and sequence-specific binding.
  • Relate DNA structure to forms of DNA damage.
  • Compare & contrast mechanisms of DNA replication, repair, recombination, transcription, gene regulation, RNA processing and translation in bacteria & eukaryotes.
  • Explain how recent genomics and functional genomics advances are altering our views of molecular biology.
  • Apply molecular knowledge to understand and hypothesize about specific complex systems such as the human disease states with underlying molecular dysfunction.