Courses of Study 2023-2024 
    
    Oct 04, 2024  
Courses of Study 2023-2024 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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BIOMG 6380 - RNA in Biology and Medicine


     
Fall. 3 credits. Student option grading.

Prerequisite: BIOMG 3300 , or BIOMG 3350  or BIOMG 3310 /BIOMG 3320  or permission of instructor. Co-meets with BIOMG 4380 .

A. Ke.

It is hypothesized that RNA may have been the earliest life form on earth. Nowadays RNA plays three vital roles in biology. It serves as an information carrier to guide biological processes; it adopts sophisticated 3D structures to promote recognition and catalysis; and it promotes cellular compartmentalization. Each of these properties has been exploited for therapeutics and medicine. This course explores the idea of a prehistorical “RNA World”, dives deep into interesting topics in the RNA biology, and explains their connection to modern medicine. Representative topics include the mechanisms of CRISPR-Cas and RNA interference and their wide-spread applications in research and medicine, ribosome as an antibiotic target, perturbing splicing to cure genetic diseases, connection between telomerase and cancer/aging, etc. Classical experiments as well as up-to-date research are covered in this class. A portion of each class is devoted to student presentations and discussion. After completing this class, students should:

Outcome 1: Understand the chemical structure of RNA.

Outcome 2: Understand the structure motifs in RNA.

Outcome 3: Have a good understanding of the experimental and computational methods in RNA biology research.

Outcome 4: Understand the catalytic strategies in ribozymes.

Outcome 5: Understand the ligand recognition mechanism in riboswitches.

Outcome 6: Understand the role of RNA in important RNA-protein complexes.

Outcome 7: Understand the important topics in translation.

Outcome 8: Understand the RNA splicing/processing/editing process.

Outcome 9: Understand the mechanism of RNA interference in both eukaryotes and prokaryotes.



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